1 8 EXPLORATIONS IN TURKESTAN. 
RECOMMENDATIONS. 
Since Turkestan is under the control of the Minister of War and nuich of its 
frontier is closed to travelers, it is necessan.- to ha\-e the permission and good will 
of the goveninient in order to pursue investigations. To inaugurate anj- extensive 
plan of archeological excavations will require tactful negotiation at St. Petersburg. 
I have good reasons for believing that the desired concessions can be had on a basis 
of division of objects found, and with a sufficient time allowance for the study of 
all the material. Such a plan should include both town sites and large and small 
tumuli. Of town sites I would recommend the following, as points to begin on, 
in the order stated.: 
Town sites. — Afrosiab (Samarkand), Ghiaur Kala (Old Mer\'), Paikent (west of 
Bokhara), Aksi (on the Syr Dar^-a) ; the high ruins seen several miles to the north 
of Ghiaur Kala ; a ver}- high one seen from the railroad a few miles west of the 
Amu Dar}-a. 
Tumuli. — Both tlie tumulus mentioned at Anau, near Askhabad, and another a 
short distance from it ; others west of Askhabad, north of Old ]Mer\-, and near Jizak ; 
also manj- mounds of small size which seem to have a different significance. 
As bearing on the age of the tumuli, it is important that the relation of the 
base of the mound to the surrounding earth be studied to detennine by how nuich, 
if any, the level of the plain has been built up since the first occupation of the site, 
and to see also by how nnich the mound has shrunken in size at its base, as it 
certainly has in horizontal section at the top. In connection with the question of 
age of the tumuli and in relation to the last expansion of the Aralo-Caspian seas, it 
would be very desirable to determine the lower altitude limit of distribution. I 
did not .see any below 250 feet above the Caspian. 
Similar obsei-\-ations are needed on the west coast of the Caspian, where De 
]M organ found no antiquities on the lowlands in the Lenkoran countr}-, but at a 
higher level abundant tombs of the bronze period and of the transition to iron. 
As further connected with the relation of human occupation to the fonnerly 
expanded water area, there is needed a detennination of the altitudes of the 
Manytsch divide between the Caspian and the Black Sea, and of that between the 
Aral and the Arctic Ocean. Both of these are now not far from railroad bases. 
As regards further wtjrk in physical geograjDhy, Profes.sor Davis writes : 
"The order in which I should like to see the * * * studies taken up on 
the plains, in order to define most rapidly the conditions of early human history-, is 
as follows : 
"The shorelines of the Caspian and Aral seas; first on the southwest, south, 
and southeast, then on the northeast and the associated plains. 
"The double belt of piedmont plains and bordering ranges with special work 
in certain glaciated valle)-s. 
" The deposits of loess from Samarkand to Tashkent. 
"The Issik Kul basin, by a special, independent part}-. 
"Secondarily, Block mountains and the Narin fonnation." 
