National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

This view was fully confirmed by investigation with the spade; and having
established the fact of the slow growth of the hill, the stage of culture development
of the builders remained to be determined chiefly through the character of the
pottery. It therefore appeared desirable to open all the layers of the hill with
the spade.

GENERAL SUMMARY.

The excavations began March 24, 1904, with the cleaning out of the Komorof
trench and the deepening of its ends, which were somewhat higher than the middle.
Starting from the bottom of the trench, two "galleries'' were driven a short
distance into each wall, opening to this extent the heart of the hill. In the eastern
half of the northern wall the east galleries, 5 and 6 feet wide, were opened and in
the western half of the southern wall the west galleries, 5 and 8 feet wide. In this
way the middle layers of the hill could be examined between +18 and +8 feet.*
At the same time the upper layers on the north half of the hill were attacked
by two trenches running nearly parallel to each other. The larger one of these
extended from the summit northward down the northern declivity of the hill
and was divided into three sections by leaving narrow partitions, portions of the
original earth, standing between them (terrace 1a, b, terrace II, and terrace III).
This division was important, both because it facilitated the excavation in hori-
zontal layers and because the observations could be sharply defined for each
terrace. These terraces have a width of 7.5 to 11 feet and are sunk in the heart of
the hill to +22, +18.1, and +15 feet, respectively. The other and much shorter
trench was dug with a width of 6 to 7.5 feet on the western declivity of the
northern half of the hill (west digging) and opened the middle layers from +25
and +20 to +8.6 feet. In this way a certain relation was established through the
west digging between the terraces and the galleries. The separate observations
made at each locality would tend to supplement and corroborate each other.
For the purpose of studying the deeper layers, two pits were dug in the bottom
of the Komorof trench, immediately adjoining the galleries, these pits having
a width of 6 feet and a length of 15 and 16 feet respectively (trench, eastern and
western pits). Work was stopped on them, however, as soon as it was discovered
that they were being sunk in the débris which General Komorof had dumped
into his trench; and instead, two shafts were sunk in the "galleries." In both
these shafts the culture-strata were opened to a depth of −21.5 feet (fig. 22 and
plate 7).
The finds which were made in the above-mentioned localities gained in
importance through the simultaneous discovery of burials (cf. special report of
Warner). On March 26, several skeletons were exposed in terrace 1a, to the south
of a wall of unburnt bricks. They were, however, destroyed by the picks of the
workmen. During the following days more skeletons came to light in all three
of the terraces. Their significance in connection with the finds that were being
made became clear after the discovery that a skeleton grave found on March 30
in terrace I was that of a child buried in contracted position (Liegender Hocker),