NO. 13 SOVIET ANTHROPOLOGY — FIELD III 



Excavations started in 1941 by an expedition sponsored jointly by 

 tlie State Museum uf History, tbc Institute of tlie History of Material 

 Culture (IIMK), and the Khakass Language and Literature Re- 

 search Institute, were interrupted by the war. Resumed during 1945 

 under the supervision of Lydia Evliukhova, with Sergei Kiselev, 

 Barbara Levasheva, archeologist of the Minusinsk Museum, and other 

 scientists participating, the excavations have yielded some interesting 

 results. Tarts of the adobe walls of the building up to 2.0 m. high are 

 still intact. Under the floor run the Hues of a central hot-air heating 

 system in the form of channels lined and covered with stone slabs. 

 Although the central heating system serviced the entire building, it 

 was evidently not always adequate in the rigorous Siberian winter 

 conditions, for traces of braziers are still visible on the adobe floors of 

 several of the rooms. 



The building was roofed with thick rectangular tiles alternating 

 v.ith narrow curved strips covering the gaps between, giving an un- 

 dulating efTect. 



The strips jutted out beyond the eaves, terminating in circular 

 ends bearing inscriptions in Chinese. Translated by Academician 

 Alckseev from stamped impressions made on moist clay, these in- 

 scriptions read: "To the son of heaven (i.e., the Emperor) 10,000 

 years of peace, and to her (i.e., the Empress) whom we wish 1,000 

 autumns of unclouded happiness." 



On the outside the walls of the buildings were faced with square 

 bricks decorated with a fir-tree design. 



After 2 years of excavations it has at last been possible to recon- 

 -uuct the plan of this interesting building. In the center was a large 

 hall with a floor space of 140 sq. m. from which smaller rooms, 28 to 

 30 sq. m. in size, opened. On the northern and southern sides the 

 rooms were laid out in two rows, and on the eastern and western sides, 

 in one row. Before the building is completely excavated it is hard 

 to say exactly how many of these rooms there were, but in all jirob- 

 ability there were about 20 of them. 



The plan of the house and the character of the ancient Chinese 

 architecture make it possible to establish that the building was covered 

 by a triple roof with an extra tier over the tallest part of the building, 

 above the central hall. 



Hollows are still visible within the walls in each room where 

 columns stood that supported the heavy tile roof. 



In the course of excavation, frames from the doors between the 

 rooms were discovered. Beside three doors inside the central hall 

 were found massive bronze handles in the shape of fantastic horned 



