POTTERY FROM CULTURE III, SOUTH KURGAN. 143 
feet 2 inches); or different ‘‘motifs’’ as in plate 15, fig. 6 (from terrace B, between 
+21 feet 5 inches and +23 feet 7 inches). Vessels of coarse clay are also orna- 
mented with incised patterns, as in plate 15, fig. 7, with its vertical zigzag grooves; 
fig. 9, with its grooved triangles; and fig. 8, with its grooved squares (all three 
from terrace C, between +19 and +21 feet). 
(2) PAINTING, 
In the pottery of light-colored gray, painting is found on whitish-green or 
greenish-yellow clay, but red clay is generally provided with a whitish-green 
slip, which serves as the ground for the painting. The decorating color is black 
or black-brown or violet-black, but remains always mat. The ground itself is 
always dull (see plate 35, figs. 1-6). 
Forms.—The forms of the painted vessels resemble those of the fine gray 
ware; they are steep-walled beakers or bowls, in part with sharply bent back 
margins. ‘The patterns are geometric in so far as the fragments permit an insight 
into the decoration—vertical lines and zigzag patterns being used together, 7. e., 
a kind of field decoration, as in plate 35, figs. 1 and 4 (from terrace A, between +27 
and +31 feet and terrace C, +29 feet); or groups of parallel lines and bands 
with the crenulated pattern, as in plate 35, fig. 6 (from terrace B, between +21 feet 
5 inches and +23 feet 7 inches). As isolated motifs appear trellis-triangles shown 
in plate 35, fig. 7 (from terrace C, between +21 feet 2 inches and +23 feet 2 
inches); or angle patterns fringed with points, as in plate 35, fig. 5 (from terrace 
B, +23 feet 7 inches); or rhombs with diagonals, as in plate 35, fig. 2 (from 
terrace B between +21 feet 5 inches and +23 feet 7 inches); or very peculiar 
gores with vandyke edges, partly isolated, as in plate 34, fig. 6 (from terrace B, 
+31 feet); or partly combined and placed in rows, as in plate 35, fig. 3 (from 
the upper digging, between +29 and +32 feet). 
POTTERY OF THE LOWER STRATA, CULTURE III. 
The designation ‘“‘lower strata’ in the South Kurgan applies to those layers 
which were explored only by means of shafts. The points to be considered are 
shaft C in the upper digging, the top of which lies deeper than +18 feet, and 
shaft A, on the southern declivity near terrace B, which begins at +11 feet. The 
finds made in shaft D of the outer digging are not considered here. The strata 
in question lie, therefore, below the level reached in terraces B and C. In deter- 
mining the character of these strata by the pottery they contain, we find the 
pottery to be intimately connected with that of the middle strata and to belong 
to the same great culture epoch. 
(a) PoTrERY OF LIGHT-COLORED CLAY. 
Fragments of the same kind of pottery were collected throughout all the 
layers, down to the lowest. Taken individually, the similarities in form indicate 
the closest connection with the pottery of the middle strata. There occurred 
profiles of fine bowls like fig. 159 in shaft C, between —16 feet and —17 feet 5 
inches; kettle-shaped vessels like fig. 147, also from shaft C between —5 and —g 
