NO. 13 SOVIET ANTIIROP):)L0GY— FIELD IO3 



pottery and other finds datinjj; approximately to tlie eve of our era, 

 resembling the material of Besh-Tepe and Aiak-Tepc. These dis- 

 coveries, including artificial irrigation structures, give reason to assert 

 that the territory investigated was a very populous area even before 

 the beginning of our era, and that on the extreme western portions 

 of the site ancient culture began to die out near the beginning of our 

 era, while the more eastern parts which lay higher in regard to the 

 irrigation systems and closer to the water supply — the Zarafshan 

 River — continued to exist up to the eighth-twelfth centuries. 



The reasons for this decline can be found in the upheavals brought 

 about by the dissolution of the slave-owning society, the new feudal 

 aspects of social relations and the resultant neglect of the important 

 irrigation system, all of which was supj^lemented by the intensive 

 advance of the sands of Kizil-Kum on the Bukhara Oasis. 



lAngi-IUl Expedition. — This expedition continued investigations 

 at Kaunchi-Tepc and also began excavations of the tumuli located 

 nearby. This group of barrows, consisting of about 1,000 burials, 

 spreads over a distance of several kilometers on the watershed between 

 the Chirchik and ]^>oz-Su Rivers. The barrows are of various sizes, 

 from 0.4 to 5.0 m. in height and 8 to 30 m. in diameter. Twelve barrows 

 were cleared, all of which, judging by the grave furniture, refer to 

 three epochs. 



A typical flexed burial was found in one of the cleared barrows, 

 about 0.5 m. in height and 8.0 m. in diameter. A child's body was 

 found at a depth of 0.8 m. in an oval-shaped pit, the head pointing 

 cast-southeast. The skeleton was lying on its right side, arms bent at 

 the elbows, the wrists placed under the head ; traces of violet-colored 

 paint were found on the soles of the feet. At the head of the skeleton 

 there was a flat-bottomed, wide-necked vessel, hand-made and very 

 slightly fired, 12 cm. high, 13.5 cm. in diameter at the neck, and 9 cm. 

 at the base. The burial ritual and the modeling and form of the vessel 

 date the barrow in the late Hronze Age. Tumuli of this type are well 

 known in the southern part of the R.S.F.S.R. and in the Ukraine, 

 but this was the first example of Uzbekistan. 



.Anotlicr type of burial was representcfl in one of the barrows, 

 where a group interment was found. The skeletons were lying a tcrgo. 

 arms extended along the body, and legs thrown widely apart. Pottery, 

 differing both in form and decoration from that found in the first 

 barrow, was found near the skeletons. Xarrow-neckcfl vessels with 

 a single handle or none at all, flat plates and jugs almost pear-shaped 

 in form, were discovered here. The jug handles were often fashioned 

 in the fonn of cowslips. None of these vessels was made on the 



