NO. 13 SOVIET ANTHROPOLOGY — FIELD 101 



cultural strata. The upper stratum belonged to the later Iron Age, 

 the middle to the Neolithic, and the lowest to the Paleolithic period. 



Typical Mousterian remains have been found in the lower levels, 

 closely resembling the Tcshik-Tash implements — a hand cleaver, a 

 discoidal nucleus, a scraper, and others. Investigations begun in the 

 Teshik-Tash cave during 1938 have been finished and, like the pre- 

 ceding investigations, these brought to the surface typical Mousterian 

 remains. Of particular interest were the flint points, which resemble 

 those from the Palestine caves. To the east of Baisun in the gorge 

 which leads from the mountain river Temir-Ulde, traces have been 

 found of a Stone Age settlement where evidences of stone implement 

 making and the bones of wild animals have been established. 



Zarajslian Expedition. — This expedition engaged in reconnoitering 

 investigations and excavations to the northwest of Bukhara in the 

 Kizil-Kum Desert. The plot of land under investigation, about 500 

 sq. km. in area, abounds in the ruins of ancient settlements, castles, 

 the remains of ramparts and irrigation channels, and a large amount 

 of buried material. The ruins of settlements and castles, built of 

 unburnt brick (pakhs), at the present time give the appearance of 

 mounds (tepc) of various forms, which have been rendered shapeless 

 by the action of precipitation, wind, and the shifting sands that have 

 covered a large part of this locality. Several of these mounds (Besh- 

 Tepe, Aiak-Tepe, and others), irrigation channels, and the shapeless 

 remains of clay structures are to be found at the extreme western 

 point of the investigated area, situated in the desert about 40 km. 

 from the boundary of the oasis. Here, as in the rest of the investigated 

 territory, much material was discovered, distinguished, however, by 

 features pointing to a greater antiquity than that procured from the 

 sites located closer to the modern boundary of Bukhara Oasis. 



In the district of Besh-Tepe and Aiak-Tepe thin-walled pottery was 

 encountered, finished on a potter's wheel and made of finely powdered 

 clay, hard-fired and frequently coated with red cnrjjobe, containing 

 traces of complete or partial burnishing and sometimes with a stamped 

 ornament. In addition to such pottery, the expedition found bronze 

 triple-faceted arrowheads of Scythian type. 



The mounds situated closer to the oasis (Dingil-Tepe, Katta, 

 Khudzha-Ishan, Varakhsha, and others) yielded material relating 

 to the period from the eighth to the twelfth centuries of our era, and 

 some mounds which are directly adjacent to the oasis were attributed 

 to the sixteenth-eighteenth centuries. 



Excavations were begun on the site of Varakhsha. which was one 

 of the residences of the country's rulers, the Bukhar-Khudats, situated 



