14 
EXI'LORATIOXS I\ TURKESTAN. 
other ])eoples, and tlius \vorkin<!f afjaiiist tlie establisliinent of a stable equilihriiini of 
population. Asia is thus the field for applying all the comparative sciences that 
relate to the histor\- of man. The materials lie in cave deposits, in rock picto- 
graphs, in tumuli, dolmens, and ruined towns, in languages, customs, religions, 
design patterns, and anthropological measurements. 
Turkestan, from its geographical position, must have been the stage on which 
the drama of Asiatic life was epitomized through all these ages of fennent. Peoples 
and civilizations appeared and disappeared, leaving their records buried in ashes 
and earth ; but the fertilit%- of the soil produced wealth, and the position kept it ever 
a commercial center. 
So far as our problems of archeology- and plnsical geography are concerned, 
Turkestan is practically a virgin field. In geology- and cartography the Russians 
have done a surprising amount of excellent work ; but the modern methods of 
physico-geographic study have only begtm to be applied, and the little archeological 
work done there has been mostly in the nature of hunting for curios and treasure, 
chiefly by foreigners, and in .so destructive a manner that the Ru.ssian government 
has till now wisely prohibited e.xca\ations. 
The importance of Russian Turkestan as a field of archeological research 
])cconies evident when we consider, on the one hand, its vast number of sites of 
former occupation, and on the other the great di.stances that separate it from points 
at which such research has been conducted. To the south the whole region from 
India to Susa, on the border of Mesopotamia, is practically untouched. To the 
west we must cro.ss the Caspian, to find, in the Caucasus and around the Black Sea, 
.scientifically conducted excavations. On the east, beyond the high pas.ses of the 
Tienshan, some good work has been done b\- Stein and Gruenwedel in the buried 
•- -^ jS-^Str.*-^ 
-- *>- • ■^•.l^a' ^ 
Fig. 9. — Water Pool System in the C 
