CHAPTER II.—THE FORMING OF THE OASIS OF ANAU. 
KURGANS. 
Near the middle of the oasis of Anau two hills with rounded contours rise, one 
40, the other 50 feet above the plain; they stand one north of the other and half 
a mile apart. A mile tothe east and nearly equidistant from the two hills stand 
the ruins of the walled city of Anau. These hills are not natural elevations; they 
are the time-wasted, wind- and water-carved remnants of long-forgotten cities. 
Together with the neighboring ruined citadel, they represent an almost continuous 
series of successive cultures whose local beginnings seem to antedate the pre- 
dynastic remains of Egypt. 
The structure of the North Kurgan was well exposed in a trench that had been 
made in it 20 years or more ago by General Komorof. When I saw it during a 
brief visit on the journey of reconnaissance in 1903, its stratified character had been 
clearly brought to light by the action of the winds on the sides of the trench. The 
horizontal stratification was especially marked by thin layers of ash and charcoal 
and burnt earth. Bones of animals and potsherds of hand-made plain and painted 
ware were visible in all parts of the sides of the trench. There was no doubt in 
my mind that we had before us the slowly built-up accumulation of the débris of 
many generations of population. It was this that decided me to begin on this hill 
the work of excavation in 1904. Our excavations exposed the same stratified 
structure throughout the South Kurgan. 
These hills are town-sites. The inhabitants lived in houses built of air-dried 
bricks, and the hills are made up of the débris of mud-houses continually wasting 
under wind and rain, and continually repairing, largely with material brought from 
without. Remnants of house-walls are present throughout the mass, but being of 
the same material as the earth-layers they are generally very indistinct, though 
after a few days’ exposure by the spade the outlines of the bricks often become 
clearly defined. In the trench in the North Kurgan, a continuous layer of red- 
burnt earth, apparently marking a conflagration, extends almost entirely through 
the hill, while still higher a well-defined horizon is marked by continuous ash-layers 
and by a change in the density of the earth from more compact below to a 
somewhat looser and honeycombed structure above. ‘This horizon marks also 
a change in culture. On the accompanying sketches (plate 1) by R. W. Pumpelly 
only some of the more clearly defined ash-layers and walls are accurately platted, 
the bases and dimensions of the walls having been carefully measured. 
In our excavations the structure described above was everywhere evident. 
Under Dr. Schmidt’s plan and direction the work was done by sinking wide pits. 
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