192 ARCHEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS AT ANCIENT MERV. 
of pottery fragments down to the depth of 40 feet 4 inches belonging to the same 
ceramic group as regards forms and technique. Therefore we can not avoid 
referring all four periods of construction to the same culture epoch, concerning 
which the coins will give us more exact information. 
A culture-stratum of 40 feet thickness is no longer surprising, since we found 
in the kurgans at Anau numerous periods of a uniform development superimposed 
upon one another. 
LOWER DIGGING. 
The sinking of the lower digging contributed nothing to the solution of the 
problem of the upper digging (fig. 424). After a terrace 9 feetywide had been estab- 
lished at a depth of 8 feet 7 inches the work entered, at 12 feet, on the south side of 
the pit, a bed of sand which ex- 
tended with increasing depth 
more and more to the north; 
that is, it was a sandhill such as 
shai) belong to the dunes of the desert. 
On account of this, further ex- 
amination in depth was left to 
be done by shafts. 

OUTER DIGGING I. 
At a slight depth below the 
surface, at the level of 2 feet (fig. 
425), there was uncovered the 
edge of a square construction 
built of square bricks set on edge. 
Near it there was exposed, oppo 
site the longer side, a clay pipe 
standing erect and in connection 




eh NE NI ge PS with a cavity. The suspicion 
that we had here to do with a 
L well and water basin was con- 
Fig. 424.—Plan and Vertical Section of Lower Digging in Inner City. firmed on the following day. 
The well was of the most primitive construction. The shaft is a simple 
cylindrical pit, only 7 feet 8 inches deep, the walls of which are not even curbed 
with stones. The pipe which leads into this is surrounded by square bricks and 
fragments of bricks, which are stuck in edgeways and both support the pipe and 
close the well at the top (fig. 426). There is nothing to show in what manner the 
basin was connected with the pipe. The basin stands without foundation immedi- 
ately upon the earthen floor. The burnt bricks used in its construction, 8 by 8 by 
1.5 inches, are made of greenish-white clay. Both the bottom and the sides are 
formed of a single thickness of brick, set with a mortar or cement with which 
the whole interior is plastered over. ‘The whole border was originally surrounded 
with square red bricks laid flat upon the earthen floor and flush with the inner 
edge of the basin. ‘The basin has a discharge passage at the short northwest 
