SKELETONS EXCAVATED IN SOUTH KURGAN. 493 
than the left, which was beneath it. For the only time in the burials of either 
kurgan the main axis was west and east. The left hand lay palm down in front 
of the breast just under a small clay bowl (see plate 10, fig. 2), while the fingers 
of the right hand lay around the neck of a little jar, the lip of which was tipped 
to within 0.5 inch of the teeth of the lower jaw. (See fig. 547.) 
Skeleton No. 24 (#).—North of these first burials and more in the body of the 
hill the workmen came to the ill-preserved remains of a child at +25 feet, lying 
contracted on the left side. The bones were little better than traces in the earth, 
but it was possible to determine that the main trend of the body was northwest 
by southeast, and that the right knee was drawn up so close to the ribs that the 
heel nearly touched the tip of the spine. 
Skeleton No. 25 (¢).—Slightly north and 4 feet to the east of skeleton No. 24, 
in the north wall of the terrace, there occurred evidences of the burial of a child 
in a contracted position, on the right side. More details I could not gather about 
the mode of burial, except that the main axis ran southeast to northwest. Many 
of the bones had utterly disappeared, and the whole was so decomposed as to be 
the mere ground plan of what had once been a skeleton. Below the body was 
found a layer of ashes and charcoal, slightly depressed in the middle and ranging 
from 1 to 3 inches in depth. The level of this burial was the same as the one 
before it, +25 feet. 
Skeleton No. 20 (0).—From directly over a wall, which Dr. Schmidt was later 
able to trace for some feet north and south, I took the bones of a child which had 
been buried contracted on its right side. Its level was 23 feet 7 inches. Though 
the long bones of the right leg were wanting, the foot was in such a position as 
to clearly indicate that that leg, like the left, had been drawn up at an angle 
with the trunk. The trend of the vertebra lay southwest and northeast. 
Skeleton No. 26(y4).—Four feet northeast of skeleton No. 19, at a level of + 23 
feet, were human bones more nearly of an adult size than any that had yet come 
to light in the South Kurgan. They seemed of about the proportion of an Anglo- 
Saxon boy of 15 or thereabouts. The cranial sutures were almost ossified and 
the ephiphyses of the longer bones partly joined. 
The body lay on its right side in a contracted position with the hands in front 
of the face. The main axis ran northeast to southwest. All the lower skeletal 
bones were in better condition than the cranium, which for some reason had quite 
disintegrated, all but certain portions of the front of the lower jaw. 
Skeleton No. 27 (¢).—The last remains we found in this terrace were under the 
door-stone and threshold in the west wall described by Dr. Schmidt (see report 
of Dr. Schmidt). They consisted merely in an adult skull lying on its right side 
and beyond it the left arm with the elbow bent to bring the fingers under the chin. 
At a distance of 14 inches out from the body lay the fingers of the right hand, 
but not even a trace of other bones was found. This was all the more remarkable 
in consideration of the fact that those bones which were discovered were in a 
comparatively good state of preservation. The level of these remains was + 23 
feet. Beneath the body was a horizontal layer of ashes and charcoal, below which 
in turn were found the remains of an apparently tumbled wall. 

