60 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 497. 



Institute of Mining Engineers have been sub- 

 mitted to bim for many years, from the publi- 

 cation office in New York, for critical proof- 

 reading and correction. Of this extensive so- 

 ciety he is a life member, his election dating 

 from 18Y1, and he has been a co-worker with 

 its secretary, Rosater W. Raymond. He was 

 one of the original fellows of the Geological 

 Society of America ; a fellow of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science; 

 in which he was general secretary in 1887; 

 a member of the American Academy of Arts 

 and Sciences during his residence in Massa- 

 chusetts ; and a member of the American Phil- 

 osophical Society of Philadelphia. 



To his colleagues no characteristic of Mr. 

 Pettee was more impressive than his fidelity 

 to truth. Overstatement, exaggeration, dis- 

 proportionate display were impossible to him. 

 ' True of word and tried of deed ' may well be 

 inscribed to his memory as a Christian gentle- 

 man. 



Your committee beg leave to recommend 

 that the sincere and profound syxapathy of the 

 senate be extended to the bereaved family of 

 our departed friend, and that a copy of this 

 niemorial be transmitted to them. 



Albert B. Prescott, 

 Isaac N. Demmon, 



Committee. 



EXCAVATI0N8 /JV TUBKE8TAN. 



Professor Raphael Pumpelly, who is en- 

 gaged in explorations in Russian Turkestan 

 under the auspices of the Carnegie Institu- 

 tion, has written a letter to Dr. D. C. Oilman, 

 the president of. the institution, in which he 

 says: 



The streams that rise in the high mountains 

 of northern Persia emerge on to the Turko- 

 man plains forming fans, or sub-aerial 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 till 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 ex- 

 plored 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 ahove 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 oc- 

 cupying the lower 45 feet, and distinguished 

 by the technique and decoration of its wholly 

 handmade and interesting pottery. This is 

 succeeded in the upper 15 feet by a more ad- 

 vanced culture in which the finding of some 

 remnants of bronze implements and lead beads 

 (all wholly altered to salts of the metals) 

 show a beginning acquaintance with bronze, 

 while the still handmade pottery has changed 

 and become more developed. Throughout this 

 tumulus we have found nothing recognizable 

 as a weapon of offense 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 unlike some of the younger 

 products of the older tumulus. 



From its base under the plain to its sum- 

 mit this tumulus has Y4 feet of culture strata. 

 There are evident here at least two sucessive 

 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 

 oxidized 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. We do not know how 

 great this gap may be, but the presence of 



