224 KURGANS OF THE MERV OASIS. 
were very coarse and rough, and were usually 3 inches thick, although a few were 
thinner. Later the brick-makers appear to have settled upon a standard size— 
2.5 inches thick by about 11 inches square. 
CLASS III. KURGANS OF THE HIGHLY DEVELOPED TYPE. 
The structure, contents, shape, and size of the kurgans of the third class indi- 
cate that as time went on old arts were improved and new ones were developed. 
The people learned to make their hills higher and larger, and began to orient 
them with care. Some built kurgans with the szdes running directly north and 
south, while others, carrying the idea of orientation farther, put the axes north 
and south, and even went so far as to make diamond-shaped parallelograms instead 
of squares. It was apparently no accident, this gradual turning of the mounds 
more and more to the north and south, for of the nine kurgans of the third class 
at least four have projecting towers at the most southern point, as appears in the 
diagrams of plate 60. Possibly these have a religious significance, but of this we 
have no proof. Not only did the outer form of the kurgans become more highly 
developed, but the manner of building the interior advanced equally. Baked 
bricks were used in addition to sun-dried bricks, and in one case, Kuyuli Tepe, 
z. e., the Well Hill (plate 57, Nos. 9 to 12), a round well of baked brick is built into 
the wall of the mound. In other lines, also, there was progress. Pottery was 
decorated with incised designs more frequently than ever; a new method of orna- 
mentation was developed; and glazed ware was introduced. The glazing, very 
simple at first, became so far developed that six or eight colors were employed and 
elaborate designs were produced. 
Hand in hand with the art of glazing, or at least not far behind it, came the 
sister art of glass-making, so that now the people had at their disposal many 
methods of manufacturing ornamental utensils. Still another followed when 
the craftsmen learned to put stone upon the turning lathe and produce vessels 
like those still in use in Persia. Among other things lamps were made of stone. 
One such was found at East Kishman Tepe, while in other places fragments of 
brown, slightly glazed pottery lamps were found, like those at Ghiaur Kala, the 
capital of the oasis. On the whole, the state of culture evidenced by the kurgans 
of the highly developed class must have been very much higher than that which 
prevailed when the primitive kurgans were constructed. Yet the transition from 
the earlier to the later stages is so gradual and so completely exemplified, step by 
step, that it seems highly probable that the whole series is the work of one people. 
STRUCTURE OF THE KURGANS. 
In all the kurgans of the primitive type and in most of those of the transition 
type, the slopes are so gentle and the gullies have been so far widened and graded 
that the inner structure is not disclosed. In a few of the transition kurgans, and 
in most of those of the still later type, the steepness of the sides has caused the 
cutting of sharp gullies that disclose the internal composition. Nowhere does 
one discover any layers of ashes or of burnt earth, or any bones and charcoal, 
