II. RECENT WORK IN ANTHROPOLOGY » 

 A. ANCIENT PEOPLES AND THEIR ORIGIN 



Tlie discovery of the fossil skeleton of a child in Teshik-Tash cave 

 in the mountains of Central Asia represents one of the most important 

 anthropological finds of recent years. 



Southern Bukhara lies in the Hissar Mountains. Teshik-Tash 

 grotto is located in the Zautolos-Sai Canyon of the Heissen-Tad 

 Mountains, belonging to tiie Ilissar Range. This grotto (7 x 20 x 

 7 m.) stands at an altitude of 1,600 m. above sea level. The central 

 area of the grotto represents a fossil-bearing layer containing animal 

 bones, worked stone, and carbonized materials superimposed on a 

 porous layer of clay. Underneath the clay lies another fossiliferous 

 stratum. Altogether there are five strata with a total thickness of 

 about 1.5 m., of which 40 cm. contain fossils. 



In 1938 A. P. Okladnikov discovered the remains of a human 

 skeleton - at the base of the first layer at a depth of 25.0 cm. The 

 skull lay in a depression in the non-fossil-bearing layer. The horns 

 of mountain goats arranged in pairs were found in the immediate 

 vicinity. Heaps of charcoal and the remains of fires were found in 

 several places in the fossiliferous stratum. Okladnikov concludes 

 that ritual burials took place here. The alternation of fossiliferous and 

 sterile strata indicates beyond doubt that Teshik-Tash was not per- 

 manently inhabited. However, it is evident from the thickness of the 

 non-fossil-bcaring strata that the intervals between the use of the 

 grotto were very long. 



The geological study of the canyon and grotto yields little for the 

 letermination of the epoch to which the fossil-bearing strata of Teshik- 

 Tash belong, but in any case there is nothing to preclude the supposi- 

 tion that they belong to the Pleistocene period. 



» This chapter, by V. V. Biinak, of the Research Institute for .Anthropology, 

 University of Moscow, has been edited to conform to our style. Some passaRcs 

 have been condensed; some footnotes have been added. This article appeared in 

 VOKS Bulletin. Moscow. Nos. 9-10, pp. 22-29, 1945. See also Franz Weiden- 

 reich, The Paleolithic cl^ild from the Teshik-Tash cave in southern Uzbekistan 

 (Central Asia), Amor. Journ. Phys. Anthrop., n.s., vol. 3. No. 2. pp. 151-163, 

 1945. and Henry Field, Anthropology in the Soviet Union, 1945, .Amer. .\nthrop., 

 vol. 48, No. 3, pp. 375-30<^. July-Septcmbcr. 1946. 



- For illustrations of the Teshik-Tash skulls and reconstructions by M. M. 

 Gcrasimov, see .Amcr. Journ. Pliys. .\nthrop., n.s., vol. 4, No. i. pp. 121-123, 1946. 



