104 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 10 



potter's wheel, but they were all hard-fired. Several of them, for 

 example, the jugs, were coated on the outside with red engobe. This 

 type of pottery was often met in large numbers on the Kaunchi-Tepe 

 site, in those strata which G. V. Grigorev refers to the middle of the 

 first millennium before our era. 



The remaining excavated barrows all refer to a single culture. The 

 burials were placed in catacombs, the floor of which was from 2.5 to 

 3.5 m. below the surface. The average dimensions of the catacombs 

 were: length, 2.5 m.; width, 1.5 m. ; and height, 1.5 m. 



The catacombs were rectangular with vaulted ceilings. A dromos 

 from 3.85 to 5.0 m. long, and 1.5 to 1.9 m. wide in its upper part, 

 led down from the surface to the catacombs. At a depth of approxi- 

 mately 1.5 m., two or three stepped projections from 0.4 to 0.7 m. 

 wide were found along the main and sometimes along the end walls 

 of the dromos, which correspondingly diminished in size. An open- 

 ing at the lower end of the dromos led to the catacombs. This open- 

 ing was about 0.8 m. high, i.o m. wide and about 0.5 m. deep. Some- 

 times the opening was closed with unburnt bricks. Most of the burials 

 in the catacombs contained male and female figures. The skeletons 

 lay stretched out on their backs with the heads pointing north. The 

 grave furniture included the following weapons : 



(a) Straight, double-edged iron swords, with narrow shafts at 

 the end for wooden hilts, the length of the blade being about 0.8 or 

 0.9 m., the shaft for the hilt from o.i to 0.13 m. long, and the width 

 of the sword about 4 cm. 



(b) Double-edged iron daggers, very massive, from 15 to 20 cm. 

 long and about 4 cm. wide, the remains of wooden scabbards to be 

 found on the swords and daggers. 



(c) Triple-faceted iron arrows with shafts, and bone facings of 

 bows. 



Lying alongside the female skeletons were found a bronze mirror 

 with a handle sheath at the side, the bone top of a back-comb deco- 

 rated with small carved heads, a bronze arbalest-shaped fibula ring, 

 a bronze bell, bronze wire earrings, a round bead of blue glass, and 

 other objects. 



Among the domestic articles the following may be noted: small 

 iron knives with thick butts 8 to 10 cm. in size; earthenware pottery 

 pitchers with a single handle or without handles; and saddle flasks, 

 flat on one side. The pottery had been fashioned on a potter's wheel, 

 hard-fired, and traces of purplish-red paint could be seen on the flasks. 



These tumuli were attributed to the third and fourth centuries of 

 our era. 



