54 THE SUCCESSIVE CULTURES AT ANAU. 
GAP BETWEEN THE NORTH AND SOUTH KURGANS. 
We have no means of measuring the interval that existed between the time 
when the layers still in place at the top of the North Kurgan were formed, and 
the time of the founding of the South Kurgan. During the long lapse of millen- 
niums, the northern hill has undergone a great amount of wastage on its sides, 
vastly reducing its circumference above its base. There can be no doubt that 
its height has been lowered also. Under absence of any kind of protection, the 
height would have diminished by many feet. But there is always the possibility 
that such an eminence would from time to time be protected by some kind of 
structure of which no traces remain, but which would retard its wastage. As the 
matter stands, we can only say that no evidence exists of overlap of the cultures 
of the two hills. My impression is that we have here a long period, perhaps of many 
centuries, not represented by culture-strata. I have therefore drawn the column 
without any gap, rather than insert one that would be only arbitrary. 
To convert the stratigraphic column into a chronological expression requires 
a knowledge of the rate of growth of the culture-strata. At present the only 
means available is offered by the determination of the date of introduction of 
decorated glazed ware (faience) into Anau and Merv. The lowest strata of Anau 
city are characterized by a red, hard-baked, undecorated pottery, but at 5 feet 
above the base there appeared in all my shafts a greenish pottery and decorated 
glazed ware. This same ware we found in Ghiaur Kala (Merv) down to a depth 
of 20 feet and no deeper. It was there associated with Sassanian coins of the third 
century A.D. It is not likely that it was older than these coins. Since both Merv 
and Anau were under Persian rule, it seems probable that such a sudden cultural 
acquisition is referable to some important phase in the varying fortunes of the 
Persian monarchy in the early centuries of our era. The Mullahs of Anau told 
me that Anau was fortified by Anu-Shirvan (Chosroes I), the greatest of the 
Sassanian monarchs (531-579). Chosroes made his expedition in 559 against 
the white Huns in Trans-Oxiana, and fortified his northeastern and northern 
frontiers against the incursions of the nomads. This monarch extended his 
empire over Mesopotamia, the home of faience; and it is known that the Persians 
made this ware before the Arab conquest of Iran. This would point to the possi- 
bility, if not probability, of a contemporaneous introduction of glazed ware into 
Merv and Anau. If we take the middle of the sixth century A. p. as the date 
of introduction at Anau, the growth of the overlying 33 feet in thirteen centuries 
will give a rate of 2.54 feet per century. 
Again, a Cufic inscription on the facade of the mosque at Anau tells that it 
was built in 1444. The floor of the mosque lies 9 feet below the general level 
of the top of culture-strata which have risen above the plaza and approaches. 
A growth of 9 feet in four centuries gives a rate of 2.25 per century. ‘The 24 feet 
between the beginning of glazed ware and the floor of the mosque divided by nine 
centuries gives a rate of 2.66 feet.. We have thus three rates—2.54, 2.25, 2.66. 
If we assume that the floor of the mosque was laid one foot above the street level, 
