Explorations in Turkestan, Expedition of 1904 Volume 1; Prehistoric Civilizations of Anau, Origins, Growth, and Influence of Environment - Softcover

Raphael Pumpelly

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1232166979 ISBN 13: 9781232166979

Publisher: RareBooksClub.com, 2012

Synopsis

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 Excerpt: ...The pottery enables us to distinguish older and younger epochs in the history of the development of the kurgan, and its forms and decoration permit us to form an opinion as to the artistic powers of the inhabitants of the settlements; but it does not enlighten us concerning the quality of the civilizations nor the culture character of the finds. Our information on these points is obtained from the whole culture equipment, and from all the special finds of metal, clay, and stone which were collected daily from the strata as places of settlement were opened up. These finds will be systematically treated in a later chapter. Here we can only refer to such facts as serve to indicate the kind of civilization and the relative chronology of the finds. Now, flint objects were found in all the layers of the hill, the most numerous objects being so-called knives or long scrapers. That these objects were also made on the spot is proved by the many flakes of flint and several flint-nuclei which occurred with them. Nevertheless, we must not think we have to do with the stone-age culture. Iron is indeed excluded, only modern iron being found in the debris of Komorof's trench, and the absence of iron in such large masses of earth as were removed during the excavations leads us confidently to conclude that this metal was unknown to inhabitants of the North Kurgan. However, objects and fragments of copper occurred so frequently, not only in the upper layers with the deposits of the younger culture, but also in the middle strata, that we are justified in referring the hill to the metal age. The absence of objects or fragments of metal in the lowest strata would not warrant us in concluding that the metal was unknown in the oldest period of the kurgan, for the pottery of the m...

About this edition

• Publisher: RareBooksClub.com
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1232166979
• ISBN 13: 9781232166979
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 126