662 R. PUMPELLY EVOLUTION OF OASES AND CIVILIZATIONS 



be represented by the aggregate existing thickness of all the strata pins 

 any time-gaps between different cultures and minns any overlaps of the 

 cultures of the neighboring sites. 



In figure 2 I have arranged in one column all the cultures of the two 

 kurgans and the city. In doing this I have represented the two time-gaps 

 already mentioned by the equivalents in culture growth, obtained by 

 using the ratio of 1 sediments to 2.5 culture strata, as already mentioned. 



Having established in the column the deduced aggregate thickness of 

 the culture strata, the next step is to find means of determining the sec- 

 ular rate of growth. This would be a relatively simple matter if our 

 column represented culture sites on the Mediterranean, for in that case 

 there could not fail to be many objects scattered through it that could 

 be easily dated in the light of Western archeology. 



In remote Transcaspia it is different. The evidence must, in the first 

 line of reasoning, be internal, and in the present state of our work we 

 have few data of approximate value. 



In the shafts sunk in the city of Anau there was found glazed pottery 

 continually down to a level of 5 feet above the bottom of culture. Now 

 no authenticated finds of this ware had occurred in the kurgans, except- 

 ing in the surface debris of the uppermost strata of the south kurgan, 

 where they might owe their presence to having been left on the former 

 surface at any much later time. 



In the main part of the ruined city of Ghiaur Kala, in Old Merv, frag- 

 ments of glazed pottery were found by us down to a depth of 20% feet, 

 where they were associated with Sassanide coins of the third century 

 A. D., and below which depth they were not found. 



On the strength of this evidence, glazed pottery would seem to have 

 been introduced into Merv not earlier than the third century A. D. ; and 

 since, in so far as the evidence of the three shafts in Anau city goes, it 

 first appears there at 5 feet above the bottom of culture, we may assume 

 that its introduction into Anau, which was also under Persian rule, was 

 no earlier. 



Its appearance at Anau is accompanied by a change in the ordinary 

 pottery, slightly glazed light greenish ware partially superseding the 

 hard-baked red ware of the lower five feet. 



It would seem proper to ascribe these innovations to some important 

 historical event. Now the mullahs told me that Anau was fortified by 

 Nu-shirvan (Chosroes I), whose reign, 531-579 A. D., was the most 

 brilliant period of Sassanian rule. In 557 he made his campaign against 

 the Hephtalites (White Huns) and strengthened his outposts against the 



