NO. 13 SOVIET ANTHROPOLOGY — FIELD 8I 



of a bichrome vessel not clearly documented), it is only possible to 

 assign to its approximate chronological place this new type of Igdir 

 ash mound by drawing on a wider range of parallel examples on which 

 more light has been thrown stratigraphically. 



The second part of the work, whicli is devoted to this phase, falls 

 into three parts : 



1. The establishing of the presence of parallel monuments among 

 the old collections in the State Museum of Georgia. 



2. A survey of corresponding materials obtained from Kuf tin's 

 excavations. 



3. An attempt to establish the existence, prior to the third mil- 

 lennium B. C, of a singular, highly developed Encolithic phase in tiic 

 central part of the Kura-Araxes basin, as a local basis for the develop- 

 ment of the flourishing cultural focus of the Bronze Age, revealed 

 by the excavations in Trialeti.'* 



The accurately documented excavation of an ash grave carried out 

 by E. G. Pchclina during 1923 in Kiketi near Tbilisi, assigned by 

 Kuftin to this level, together with the pottery from the Igdir ash 

 mound, proved to be a key to the understanding of the Eneolithic 

 objects in the old collections in the Georgian State Museum. This 

 ash grave, with a burnt earthenware coating, yielded several groups 

 of earthenware vessels which now appear as one contemporaneous 

 culture complex. The following vessels were unearthed: (a) a large, 

 finely polished black vessel with a pink inner surface, ornamented 

 with large double spiral figures (like eyeglasses) in relief; (b) and 



(c) pinkish-brown urns with a slip and miniature handles at the base 

 of the neck, one with single birdlikc (ostrich ?) figures in flat relief 

 on the neck, the otiicr with a cut angular design on the shoulders ; 



(d) a tureen, thick-walled, roughly modeled with layers of carbon 

 in the clay but a glossy-black surface; and (e) a gray vessel painted 

 red. 



Thus, by a comparative analysis of the pottery Kuftin succeeded in 

 establishing that in the Armavir mound A. S. Uvarov touched not 

 only the Urartian stratum, unnoticed by him, but also the most ancient 

 Eneolithic level, both in the settlements and in the graves, also not 

 understood by him. In addition to the characteristic vessels, the find- 

 ing of fragments of a horseshoe-shaped stand of the above-mentioned 

 Igdir type is significant. This seems to be a leading type for the 



^* Kuftin, B. A. Prehistoric culture siqucncc in Transcaucasia, Soutliwcstcrn 

 Journ. Antlirop., vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 340-360, 1946, and pp. 1-26 on Microfilm 

 No. 2310 in American Documentation Institute. The summary in Elnglish has 

 been edited and condensed by Henry Field. 



