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

S.K. 311; plate 47, fig. 5). I think I can recognize an ox in the large fragment
of whitish-green clay in S.K. 83. It is shown on plate 47, fig. 4, and comes from
the upper digging. The standing figure (S.K. 356; plate 47, fig. 6) is unique
in the collection. It is a flattened form, thickened and contracted on one side
and having on the other side a small elevation. On both sides of the latter the
edge is marked with fine lines. In this, perhaps, we may see the plastic repre-
sentation of a flying bird. Two objects difficult of explanation may, perhaps,
be abbreviated representations of horned animals (S.K. 345; plate 47, fig. 7; and
S.K. 329; plate 47, fig. 8). Both are provided with a surface to stand upon and
stand erect like skittles. On the upper edge of one there are two horns directed
toward one side. The other has two points which turn to opposite sides.
In the North Kurgan also, two fragments of animal figures were found; one
(N.K. 72) comes from the surface, the other (N.K. 239)
from the north digging IV, but in the heart of the hill
they have not been observed. It must be left to the
future to determine whether such figures had a signifi-
cance in connection with the older cultures of Anau.
Children's playthings.—In both hills little balls of
clay and stone often came to light, the first sometimes
ornamented with incised markings. While only isolated
finds of this kind were made in the North Kurgan (N.K.
90, 127, 166, 184, 230), they occurred in surprisingly large
numbers in the South Kurgan, especially
in the same layers of terrace B with the
animal and human figures we have just
described. Besides these, the same layers
of the South Kurgan yielded clay wheels
of different forms. Some are flat and disk-
shaped, being but little thicker in the center
than on the edge, as in S.K. 161 (plate 47,
fig. 10) and in fig. 417; the others have a
strongly developed hub as in S.K. 134
(fig. 418 and plate 47, fig. 9). From these
clay wheels we inferred that they had also produced imitations of wagons. In
one case we were really able to identify a wagon-box made of clay (S.K. 211).
The bottom and the side view of this are given in fig. 419 and plate 47, fig. 11.
It was found in terrace C, between +21 feet 2 inches and +23 feet 2 inches.
The upper edge and one of the narrow sides are broken off. The form is elongated
with rounded-off sides. Its significance is clearly shown by the holes for axles
which traverse the thick bottom, both in front and behind. They can scarcely
have served for any other purpose than the attachment of the numerous wheels
that were found. Whether in this connection the animal and human figures are
also to be considered as children's playthings remains an open question. Nothing
stands in the way of so considering the animal figures; but in the case of the