POTTERY FROM CULTURES III AND IV, SOUTH KURGAN. 145 
Whether these forms may be considered as prototypes of the more highly 
developed gray pottery can not be determined at the present stage of the investi- 
gation. In any event, the gray pottery of the lower layers must be connected 
with the gray ware described above, fragments of which were first found, in sur- 
prising quantities, at about +40 feet in the upper digging. 
The classification of the red pottery is more difficult. We have thus far not 
encountered it in the lower strata of the South Kurgan, except that on April 20, 
1904, in shaft A, good red pottery with a slip covering was found at —14 feet 
5 inches, together with gray pottery and ware of light-colored clay. Since it 
was wholly lacking in shaft C of the upper digging, however, it is desirable to leave 
open the question of its really belonging in the lower strata. On the other hand, 
very interesting specimens of painted pottery were also found in the lower strata. 
(c) PAINTED VESSELS. 
Here belongs a find from —14 feet 5 inches in shaft A, made on April 20, 1904. 
This consisted of numerous fragments of several (certainly two) painted vessels 
of fine brown clay, not very hard burnt, but quite characteristic. One part 
belongs to a thick-walled dish with high, sharply bent back lip (fig. 199). This 
form was found in similar technique in terrace C, between +19 feet 5 inches and 
+21 feet 2 inches, and also in terrace A, between +27 and +31 feet. The orna- 
mentation, in broad vertical strokes, is placed upon the border as in plate 34, 
fig. 2. Other fragments of this find belong to the shoulder of a large pitcher- 
shaped vessel with a narrow mouth. The decoration has a peculiar naturalistic 
motif, a tree or branch pattern alternating with groups of vertical lines—a kind of 
metope decoration (see plate 34, fig. 1). Other specimens of this painted pottery 
(plate 34, figs. 3-5) came from shaft C, between — 16 feet and —17 feet 5 inches. 
(d) INCISED ORNAMENTATION. 
Gray ware with incised ornaments has already been mentioned as found in 
deep layers. Here I would call attention to a tendency to spiral ornamentation. 
There are indications of this on both sides of a fragment in fine brown clay from 
shaft A, between +2 feet 2 inches and +11 feet (plate 16, figs. 3-5) from mixed 
layers. Thus the painted as well as the incised ornamentation of the lower strata 
resembles, both in technique and form, the pottery of the middle strata. This 
close similarity increases the significance of the large walls, which were exposed in 
terrace B at +20 feet. They point to an important establishment of which the 
floor-level is to be sought, as it probably lies still deeper than the level which we 
there reached. 
POTTERY OF THE UPPER STRATA, CULTURE IV. 
In the light of the investigation and its results, the upper strata of the South 
Kurgan extend downwards to a horizontal plane lying between +37 feet 7 inches 
and +40 feet, and parallel to this development runs that of the plateau forming 
the northern extension of the kurgan. The pottery here is distinguished both 
