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

feet 2 inches); or different "motifs" as in plate 15, fig. 6 (from terrace B, between
+21 feet 5 inches and +23 feet 7 inches). Vessels of coarse clay are also orna-
mented with incised patterns, as in plate 15, fig. 7, with its vertical zigzag grooves;
fig. 9, with its grooved triangles; and fig. 8, with its grooved squares (all three
from terrace C, between +19 and +21 feet).

(2) PAINTING.

In the pottery of light-colored gray, painting is found on whitish-green or
greenish-yellow clay, but red clay is generally provided with a whitish-green
slip, which serves as the ground for the painting. The decorating color is black
or black-brown or violet-black, but remains always mat. The ground itself is
always dull (see plate 35, figs. 1–6).

Forms.—The forms of the painted vessels resemble those of the fine gray
ware; they are steep-walled beakers or bowls, in part with sharply bent back
margins. The patterns are geometric in so far as the fragments permit an insight
into the decoration—vertical lines and zigzag patterns being used together, i. e.,
a kind of field decoration, as in plate 35, figs. 1 and 4 (from terrace A, between +27
and +31 feet and terrace C, +29 feet); or groups of parallel lines and bands
with the crenulated pattern, as in plate 35, fig. 6 (from terrace B, between +21 feet
5 inches and +23 feet 7 inches). As isolated motifs appear trellis-triangles shown
in plate 35, fig. 7 (from terrace C, between +21 feet 2 inches and +23 feet 2
inches); or angle patterns fringed with points, as in plate 35, fig. 5 (from terrace
B, +23 feet 7 inches); or rhombs with diagonals, as in plate 35, fig. 2 (from
terrace B between +21 feet 5 inches and +23 feet 7 inches); or very peculiar
gores with vandyke edges, partly isolated, as in plate 34, fig. 6 (from terrace B,
+31 feet); or partly combined and placed in rows, as in plate 35, fig. 3 (from
the upper digging, between +29 and +32 feet).

POTTERY OF THE LOWER STRATA, CULTURE III.

The designation "lower strata" in the South Kurgan applies to those layers
which were explored only by means of shafts. The points to be considered are
shaft C in the upper digging, the top of which lies deeper than +18 feet, and
shaft A, on the southern declivity near terrace B, which begins at +11 feet. The
finds made in shaft D of the outer digging are not considered here. The strata
in question lie, therefore, below the level reached in terraces B and C. In deter-
mining the character of these strata by the pottery they contain, we find the
pottery to be intimately connected with that of the middle strata and to belong
to the same great culture epoch.

(a) POTTERY OF LIGHT-COLORED CLAY.

Fragments of the same kind of pottery were collected throughout all the
layers, down to the lowest. Taken individually, the similarities in form indicate
the closest connection with the pottery of the middle strata. There occurred
profiles of fine bowls like fig. 159 in shaft C, between −16 feet and −17 feet 5
inches; kettle-shaped vessels like fig. 147, also from shaft C between −5 and −9