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SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I926 



129 



I left them, they were very wilHng to pose for a picture (fig. 135) by 

 the side of the heap where these pottery sherds were discovered — the 

 first Yang-shao site to be found in southern Shansi. The rest of 

 the day's journey was a cheerful one. and at four in the afternoon 

 we arrived at the city of I-ch'eng Hsien. 



It was a whole day's journey from I-ch'eng to Chii-vvo which, in 

 turn, is about 60 li east of Chiang Chou — one of the most important 

 cities in southern Shansi and a center for curio-dealers. At this city, 

 the Feng River turns westward. While we were in Chii-wo, we 

 decided to pay a visit to Chiang Chou to have a look at the various 



Fig. 135. — Site at Chiao-t'ou-ho where prehistoric pottery of the Yang-shao 



type was found. 



curio shops in that city. This, I thought, might perhaps serve to help 

 us in forming a notion as to the kinds of antiquities which are un- 

 earthed in this region. But this idea proved to be a delusion. All the 

 curio-tlealers have a common secret: if one inquires about the exact 

 location of the place whence the things they exhibit come, the unani- 

 mous and invariable answer is that they do not know. In vain one 

 may tell them that the curios would increase in value if their sources 

 were known. Thus a whole day in Chiang Chou only convinced me 

 that so far as real archeological work is concerned, very little help 

 can be derived from such people. Having gone to Chiang Chou from 

 Chii-wo Ijy the northern route through Hou-ma, we returned over 

 a bypath through mountains in the south which has been gradually 

 elevated from the Feng River valley by loess deposit. A day and a half 



