REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 79 



the long-horned wild sheep, Ovis arkal Blasius, through the domesti- 

 cated contemporary long and short horned animals, of which one 

 form stands very close to the Ovis palustris of European culture- 

 strata, and with occasional hornless individuals in the upper layers 

 of the lower culture, to marked frequence of hornless sheep in the 

 upper or copper culture. 



The goat appears to have been imported already domesticated 

 from Iran, as it corresponds to the wild forms of that region and 

 the Caucasus. 



While only the wild boar, Sus scrofa fcrus Gmelin, occurs in the 

 oldest culture-strata, there comes in at about 12 feet above the bot- 

 tom a much smaller pig, corresponding to Sus palustris of the lake 

 dwellings of Europe and probably derived from the neighborhood 

 of India. 



The camel, Canielus badriamcs , does not appear till in the upper 

 or copper culture of this tumulus. 



In the great collection of bones from this tumulus there is no 

 trace of the domestic dog, the cat, the ass, or of fowls. 



Dr. Diirst's is the most important contribution made as yet in 

 connection with the relation of European culture to Asiatic migra- 

 tions, being based, as it is, on material from excavations. 



On the 1 8th of May the expedition left Anau for Merv, prac- 

 tically driven away by the vast quantity of decaying locusts in our 

 pits and on the fields. 



At Old Merv only two weeks were spent, with about 150 work- 

 men, in reconnaissance excavating to decide as to the desirability of 

 extended work and the nature of the problem. This work was con- 

 fined to the ruins of Giaour Kala, a city of several square miles area 

 and up to 50 feet thickness of culture-strata. The effects of the 

 intense heat and of enteric disorders, both on the natives and on the 

 members of the partj^ cut the work short. The results will appear 

 only after the study of the finds, now being made by Dr. Schmidt. 



In judging what has been accomplished during the past short 

 season's work, it should be remembered that Russian Central Asia 

 is an absolutely new field, archeologically speaking; there have been 

 heretofore practically no scientific excavations, the excellent inves- 

 tigations of the Russian archeologists having been confined to Russia 

 proper, Siberia, and the Caucasus. Professor Pumpelly had there- 

 fore practically no clews to follow other than those furnished by his 

 observations of 1903 over a large area and necessarily of a superficial 

 character. 

 7 



