278 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION 



eral Komorof found one celt of quartzite and some needles of bone, 

 but absolutely no metal. Of the bones, I sent a representative col- 

 lection to Professor Zittel in Munich, for determination. 



The whole character of the tumulus shows that it grew from the 

 plain upwards, as a slow accumulation of the debris of long occupa- 

 tion. The fact that the layers, even at the top, extend horizontally 

 to the edges proves that it was formerly flat topped and much 

 larger, for had it during occupation ever assumed a spherical sur- 

 face the growth would have been in concentric layers. The same 

 reasoning would show that it was never abandoned for a long time 

 and again occupied. Since its surface has not been gullied, it seems 

 possible that it was shaped b) r wind action, although the earth is 

 somewhat firmly cemented. A further indication of antiquity is the 

 present condition of the granite grain grinders, now rotten and 

 crumbling. 



One peculiar feature in the structure is the interruption and bend- 

 ing over of the layers at the two apparent earth walls. 



Several other kurgans that we examined, which had been 

 partially cut away for brick making, etc., and some of which were 

 much larger and higher, showed the same horizontal stratification 

 of earth, burnt earth, ashes, charcoal, and fragments of bones and 

 of pottery. In the upper part of some of these we observed traces 

 of walls of uuburned bricks. The only artifacts found in these 

 were the simplest form of flat stone for grinding grain (like those 

 found in the Annau kurgan ) and some flat stones, each with a hole 

 drilled wholly or partially through it from both sides. 



Ancient Towns. 



The absence of easily obtainable stone throughout the lowlands 

 of Turkestan determined the use, almost exclusively, of clay, both 

 unburned and burned, in construction. Unburned clay predomi- 

 nated immensely, used both as sun dried bricks and in heavy layers 

 of raw clay. In consequence of this, all ruins older than a late 

 Mussulman period are represented only by accumulations of earth 

 filled with broken pottery and fragments of burned bricks. ' These 

 accumulations are flat topped mounds, ranging up to a square mile 

 or more in area and from 15 to 20 feet upward in height, and in 

 places, as at Merv, occurring in groups covering many square miles. 

 They occur within areas in which now, or formerly, water was 

 accessible, and are found also more or less buried in sands beyond 



