EXCAVATIONS AND FINDS AT THE NORTH KURGAN. 95 
Generally speaking, however, there was no change in terrace v as regards 
the pottery above the level of +32.2 feet, excepting that between +36 feet and 
+32 feet 2 inches fragments of polychrome ware occurred, painted black and 
red. These may be introduced here as group v. 
The “‘mixed’’ pottery—1. e., about equal quantities of fragments of groups 
x and y—was found only below the level of the flat stones which belong at + 32.5 
feet, the level of the floor which must have borne the older pot (f); but here also 
it was evident that the deeper we dug the more the fragments of the group x 
decreased, while those of group y gained in numerical proportion. Between 
+28 feet 5 inches and +25 feet we found group y almost exclusively represented. 
Still lower this group ruled alone; therefore it is only below pots e and 7, found 
im situ, that the real “‘mixed”’ layer begins. 
The skeletons lying in this ‘“‘mixed”’ layer are referable to the epoch in which 
the older pot (f) was in use. It is not certain whether the deeper standing walls 
were built during the use of the ceramic group y. 
For the relative age of the gray monochrome ware, the observations in ter- 
races Iv and v yield definite data. It occurs in the “‘mixed’’ layers, together 
with the red monochrome, as far as the level +28 feet 5 inches; but, like the 
red monochrome ware, it is wholly absent below the level of +25 feet. It must, 
therefore, have been contemporaneous with the red monochrome ware. Only 
the later analysis of forms and technique can show whether it went through 
the same evolution. 
Now, since the pots found im situ in terrace v agree throughout in form, 
technique, and position with those of terrace I, we may assign them both to the 
same period of house-building as the upper settlements of the hill. On the basis 
of the pottery we can assert that this building period had its beginning above 
the level of +25 feet. Its end is marked, in so far as the layers are still pre- 
served, by the thick wall A in terrace 1 and by the skeleton of terrace Iv. 
Below the level of +25 feet lie the strata of an older culture. Regarding 
these, we can say, at the present stage, only that their peculiar pottery is repre- 
sented in the group y. 
To what extent do the remaining terraces complete this picture? What 
do they teach us concerning the deeper layers of the older culture? 
Terrace IT (see fig. 31).—In the special report of Warner it will be seen that in 
terrace 11, also, several layers have grown one above the other. It is true that in 
the upper layers of this terrace bake-ovens and pots of the same kind as those found 
in terraces I Iv, and V, are lacking. On the other hand we have here, as there, simi- 
lar places with depressions, which are filled with white ashes, one at the level of 
+26 feet 5 inches, and the other immediately under the first at +25 feet—. e., 
two different superimposed layers. Considering the smallness of these depres- 
sions, it is not probable that they served the same purposes as the bake-ovens 
in terraces I and 1v. Rather must we assume that these holes served for the 
protection of the smoldering charcoal and for the collection of ashes—+. e., that 
they were open fireplaces or hearths. 
