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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

ance of the potters' wheel in other culture regions—that the more the potter,
through the mastery of the wheel technique, is enabled to satisfy his feeling for
form, the less he feels the need of decorating the surface of vessels. Consequently
the practice of painting decreases more and more.

The red ware now seems to be the rarest. Unfortunately, it must remain
uncertain whether this ware is a continuation of the red monochrome ware of the
North Kurgan or whether it is to be considered a new creation of the youngest
copper epoch. If we compare the three epochs, therefore, according to their
ceramic accomplishments, then culture III must be marked as the brilliant epoch
of the copper age of Transcaspia.

This statement finds its confirmation in the other culture equipment of the
three epochs. First of all comes the objects of copper. From the absence of
certain forms in particular layers we are not justified in drawing conclusions
concerning the supply of objects of copper of the corresponding epoch. Still, we
must take into consideration the fact that considerable masses of earth were moved
in both hills, and we are justified in comparing the mass of finds from both hills
according to quantity and quality. The wealth of copper from the middle strata
of the South Kurgan could certainly not be accidental. Culture III excels both
of the older epochs very decidedly in abundance of copper objects. It is interesting
also to compare the metal forms represented in the three epochs. Without any
doubt the ornamental objects of culture I, such as spiral tubes and nozzles,
which we have found among the burial gifts, have a primitive character; while
the equal value which seems to have been placed upon copper and lead, which
were both worked into jewelry, points to a relatively high age. Pins of a similar
kind are found in all three epochs. Culture III brings a new form to these in the
pin with double scrolls at the head end. The copper ornamental disks of the third
epoch can also pass as enrichment of the ornamental equipment of the copper
age. As regards tools, similar awls and chisels occur in all the epochs; but
it may not be without significance that we find in the youngest copper epoch a
small chisel with a broad, widened cutting-edge. We certainly can not produce
much more evidence, the weapons found in the older epochs being too few in num-
ber to invite a comparison.

In general it can be further stated that in the third epoch the need of luxury
finds its expression in the use of vessels of marble and alabaster, of stamps, and
of stone seals. The ornamental beads also show a more artistic and varied use
of precious stones. To those previously in use—turquoise, lapis lazuli, and car-
nelian—there were now added alabaster and marble. Lastly, we can observe
this progress in the direction of taste in some of the implements of daily use—
in the ornamented whorls, for example. The whorls are all the more important
on account of their rarity; and we are really justified in laying stress upon the
difference between the respective groups of whorls of the two hills. Not only
can one observe a finer modeling of form in the whorls of the South Kurgan,
but the decoration also shows distinct progress in the systematic grouping of the
patterns which in the older epochs were used as separate motifs.