194 ARCHEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS AT ANCIENT MERV. 
SPECIAL FINDS. 
The determination of the character of the exposed culture layers is dependent 
wholly upon two groups of finds—the pottery and the discovered coins. Both 
will here be treated more fully than the other special finds. 
(a) POTTERY. 
It has been already remarked that the pottery fragments found in the upper 
and outer diggings belong to one and the same ware, for the greater part a light, 
grayish-greenish-white pottery of very common workmanship and made on the 
wheel. With it occur red clay 
vessels with a light-yellow or 
greenish-white slip. The most 
common forms are kettles, cups, 
and pitchers, with a sharp and, 
in part, rich profiling. Frag- 
ments of handles of different 
forms are numerous. 
The decoration of this sim- 
ple pottery consists of incised 
or impressed ornamentation. 
In the larger vessels it consists 
of oblique or vertical lines, with 
contiguous parallel crescent- 
shaped lines, which are pressed 
in with a sharp instrument and 
are broader and deeper in the 
middle, running out to points 
towards the surface on the ends. 
This motif is shown also on the large pithoi of the outer digging 11 and on the 
fragments with inscriptions, although in coarser execution; and in very fine 
workmanship on smaller and more delicate vessels. Besides this, there is a band 
of wavy lines which is produced with a comb-like instrument. The following 
illustrations of separately observed vessels will give a general representation of 
this pottery: 

Fig. 426.—Water-basin found in Outer Digging I. 
G.K. 107 (plate 49, fig. 1), from outer digging 1, between 4 and 9 feet—a small jug with a broken 
margin, height ro cm. 
Plate 49, fig. 2, from the upper digging, between 9 and 10 feet—a high, slender jug with shoulder 
handle; height 23.5 cm. 
G.K. 144 (plate 40, fig. 3), from outer digging 1, between 11 feet 6 inches and 14 feet 4 inches—a small 
vase or pot without handle; height 7.4 cm. 
G.K. 164 (plate 49, fig. 4), from outer digging 1, between 14 feet 4 inches and 17 feet—an egg-shaped 
pitcher with a small foot and a shoulder handle; height 13.5 cm. 
G.K. 176 (plate 49, fig. 5), a small pitcher with a narrow throat, height 10.4 cm., from the same point 
as the one above. 
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