232 



NATURE 



[July 7, 1904 



begins to show itself prominently early in the third year, 

 and mechanical technology and electrotechnics are more or 

 less taken up in the mechanical and electrical engineering 

 courses. In the fourth year a crowd of engineering subjects 

 is frequently introduced. An important part of the work 

 of the fourth year is the preparation of a graduation thesis. 

 The original intention, we find, of including such work in 

 the time-table was undoubtedly to stimulate each student 

 to produce, before he left the institution, a piece of original 

 work which should be of some value in the development of 

 science or of industry. In actual practice, however, the 

 amount of original work produced is not very great, and 

 it can be said fairly that only the best students do work 

 which may be correctly dignified by the name of research. 

 In most of the colleges post-graduate courses are organised, 

 and in these the best work of the college is done. 



But in no respect are American conditions more different 

 from those at home than in the attitude of the employers 

 of labour towards higher education. Just as the engineer- 

 ing experts on the Mosely Commission were unanimous in 

 praising the interest shown by American manufacturers 

 in the work of the colleges, so Dr. Walmsley testifies to the 

 same fact. " Without exception the officials interviewed 

 asserted that, far from having any difficulty in placing the 

 graduates turned out year by year from the engineering 

 courses, for the last few years the graduate class has hati 

 every one of its individual members engaged for remuner- 

 ative work before the completion of the course at college." 

 Later it is stated, " many of the large employers have 

 made it a sine qu& tion for entrance to any position which 

 may lead eventually to a place on the scientific staff, that 

 th? candidate should have passed satisfactorily through the 

 full four years' course at an approved technical institution." 

 More than this, no premium is demanded, and living wages 

 are given from the beginning, and these are raised as soon 

 as the young beginner shows himself to be worth more. 



Dr. Walmsley concludes his valuable paper with a 

 summary of the respects in which this country is behind 

 the United States so far as the education of its engineers 

 is concerned. He enumerates the following deficiencies : — 

 First, the comparative lack of support and encouragement 

 of the work of the colleges by our leading manufacturers ; 

 secondly, that even were our employers ready to adopt the 

 American plan of securing the services of students from 

 the engineering schools, our present schools are neither 

 equipped nor staffed to produce in sufficiently large numbers 

 the trained men who would be wanted ; and thirdly, that 

 parents and guardians in this country have not yet been 

 educated to understand how essential, in view of recent 

 developments, a college training is to the success in the 

 future of a candidate for the engineering profession. 



As Mr. Buckmaster remarked during the course of the 

 resumed discussion on Dr. Walmsley 's paper, it " will be 

 for a long time to come a sort of mine into which each of 

 us will dig." This report together with the others to which 

 reference has been made are more than sufficient to show 

 educational authorities the direction in which our systems 

 of instruction can be improved, and it is earnestly to be 

 hoped that these and similar warnings will not have been 

 uttered in vain. A. T. S. 



ARCH.EOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS IN 

 RUSSIAN TURKESTAN. 

 "T) R. D. C. OILMAN, president of the Carnegie Institu- 

 tion of Washington, has received a letter in which 

 Prof. R. Pumpelly describes some interesting results of 

 his investigations upon ancient sites, at Anau, near Ascha- 

 bad, in Russian Turkestan. The following extract from 

 this communication will be welcomed by all who are 

 interested in prehistoric and archceological researches : — 



We have explored more than 136 feet of successive culture 

 stiata, containing at least four almost uninterrupted culture 

 stages, extending apparently for thousands of years through 

 the Neolithic and Bronze into the beginning of the Iron 

 stage, and we have correlated the stages of culture with 

 important events in the physiographic history and with the 

 introduction of irrigation. 



The streams that rise in the high mountains of northern 

 Persia emerge on to the Turkoman plains forming fans, or 



NO. 1 8 10, VOL. 70] 



subaerial deltas, covering many square miles, and each 

 making an oasis. The water is all used in irrigating these 

 fertile spots. Beyond them is the desert. Anau, where we 

 have excavated, is on one of these fans. 



Here at Anau, about seven miles east of Aschabad, there 

 are two great tumuli, and the ruins of a city — Anau — 

 surrounded by moat and wall, and occupied until within 

 the last century. The two tumuli, nearly half a mile apart, 

 are nearly equidistant from the city at a distance of less 

 than a mile. We have explored both of these tumuli, and 

 I have done some work in the city. 



The northern and older tumulus rises 40 feet above the 

 plain ; the southern and younger tumulus rises 52 feet above 

 the plain. Both of these start with their lowest culture 

 strata on slight elevations in the same original plain-surface 

 — more than 20 feet below the present surface of the 

 surrounding plain. That is to say, the plain has grown up 

 more than 20 feet since the settlements began. I will 

 show, further on, the different phases of this growth. 



In the older tumulus, we find a culture occupying the 

 lower 45 feet, and distinguished by the technique and decor- 

 ation of its wholly hand-made and interesting pottery. This 

 is succeeded in the upper 15 feet by a more advanced 

 culture in which some remnants of bronze imple- 

 ments and lead beads (all wholly altered to salts of the 

 metals) show a beginning acquaintance with bronze, while 

 the still hand-made pottery has changed and become more 

 developed. Throughout this tumulus we have found nothing 

 recognisable as a weapon of offence in either stone or metal, 

 though flint knives abound. 



The southern, younger tumulus, starts with a developed 

 wheel-made pottery, unpainted, and of a technique wholly 

 different from that of the older tumulus — though some hand- 

 made pottery occurs not wholly unlike some of the younger 

 products of the older tumulus. 



From its base under the plain to its summit this tumulus 

 has 74 feet of culture strata. There are evident here at 

 least two successive cultures. Of these, that of the lower 

 62 feet is wholly in the bronze stage (but with survival of 

 flint implements), while the upper 14 feet are marked by 

 decided changes and by the introduction of iron, of which 

 the wholly oxidised remnants of some implements were 

 found. 



We have thus at least four distinct cultures occupying 

 136 feet, with a break in the column between the end of 

 the old and the beginning of the new tumulus. \\'e do not 

 know how great this gap may be. 



Through all the cultures e.xcept the last — that of the iron 

 stage — there ran a remarkable and characteristic burial 

 custom. The children — at least certain children — and 

 seemingly only children, were buried in the houses, under 

 the floor, on a layer of fire-hardened earth. 



In addition to the work on the two tumuli, I have sunk 

 four shafts to the culture strata (30 to 40 feet thick) of 

 the city of Anau, to try to determine its age relative to 

 that of the youngest culture of the tumuli, and to get facts 

 for use in deciding as to when irrigation was introduced. 

 The results prove that Anau was wholly in the iron stage, 

 while its wheel-made pottery is wholly different from any 

 in the tumuli ; but, in addition to this, fine-glazed faience 

 was found plentifully in the upper three-quarters of all 

 three shafts. These were not found at all in the tumuli, 

 excepting in the case of two or three isolated and very 

 doubtful pieces. 



The history of the whole series of culture strata is sharply 

 characterised by the following four periods in the history 

 of the plain or subaerial delta : — 



(i) The north tumulus when founded stood on a hill at 

 Irast 7 feet, and probably more, above the plain surface, 

 it.; culture spreading down the slopes. The plain was 

 aggrading, and continued to grow until it had buried the 

 base of the tumulus to a depth of 2 feet. By that time, or 

 soon after, the north tumulus was abandoned, and the south 

 tumulus culture founded, on an elevation about 2 feet above 

 the plain. The plain continued to grow until it had buried 

 the base of the south tumulus to a depth of 14 feet. 



(2) Then followed a change of conditions. The plain was 

 cut down at least 19 feet. 



(3) This was followed by another change which caused 

 the refilling of the cutting to the amount of S feet, 7 feet 

 of this last growth having occurred after the deposition in 



