20 THE FORMING OF THE OASIS OF ANAU. 
culture at 20 feet below the surface of the plain. In shaft D, sunk through the 
culture-strata on the low northern extension of the kurgan, the base of culture 
was found also at 20 feet below the surface of the plain, allowance being made for 
the inclination of the plain in going north. But fragments of pottery and wash, 
derived from the lower culture-strata, found at 30 feet below the surface in shafts 
F and E, prove that this kurgan also was founded on an elevation. Shaft C 
disclosed the fact that the main mass of the South Kurgan was, like that of the 
northern one, founded on loess. 
The first important results of the underground studies came from shafts sunk 
at and near the South Kurgan, and shown on plates 2 and 3. We were fortunate in 
finding in these the data for calculating the relative rates of growth of the sediments 
in aggrading the delta on the one hand, and of the culture-strata on the other. A 
low plateau extends out from the main and high part of the kurgan. Now while 

Fig. 9.—A Persian Windlass. 
shaft C, sunk to the bottom through the heart of the high part, is wholly in culture- 
strata, shaft D in the projecting plateau, after sinking through culture-strata, 
enters natural sediments, below which it passes again through culture-strata till 
it finds the base of culture at the same level as under the main body of the kurgan 
in shaft C. As we recognize geological horizons by their characteristic fossils, so 
here we recognize the cultures to which these strata belong by their characteristic 
pottery in which they abound. We find interbedded in the natural sediments 
in shafts E and F a layer of wash, W, which contains pieces of the lower culture 
that was cut in shaft D. After the depositions of this pottery the natural sedi- 
ments grew 19 feet in height, submerging the settlement and rising to the level 
at which it is covered by culture-strata in shaft D, which is 16 feet below the 
beginning of the pure iron culture (culture IV). Now the evidence in shaft C is 
that the main body of the kurgan grew uninterruptedly from its base 52 feet, 
