The strata represented successive occupations of the site, and, as its inhabitants lived in houses built of sun-dried bricks, the hills gradually rose in height. Of the two hills, the North Kurgan was of earliest formation, its earlier strata containing the remains of a stone-age culture, and its upper culture representing an aeneolithic stage of civilization. The third culture, that of the lowest strata in the South Kurgan, dates from a copper age. The archaeological part of the work was directed by Dr. Schmidt, and to his admirable method of noting the precise spot and level of every object recovered we owe the possibility of tracing the gradual development of culture during the successive periods of settlement. Moreover, the Transcaspian railway passes little more than half a mile to the north of the northern mound, or Kurgan. Hence there was no difficulty and little risk involved in the conveyance to Europe of all the archaeological material obtained. The collection of animal bones from the North Kurgan weighed nearly half a ton, but they were despatched without difficulty to Dr. Duerst of Zurich, who contributed a report on them to the record of the second expedition.
Fig. 69. Designs on painted potsherds of the Aeneolithic period (Culture II.) from the North Kurgan at Anau.—From Pumpelly, Expl. in Turk., I., p. 133, Nos. 106-113.
The cultural progress of the three periods is, however, most clearly revealed by the pottery, which exhibits a gradual evolution in form, technique, and decoration. Although the vessels of the first two cultures are hand-made, and the wheel was not introduced until Culture III., yet the vessels of both earlier epochs are excellent ceramic productions. It has already been noted that many of the geometric designs occurring on pottery of the earlier periods from the North Kurgan bear a certain resemblance to similar pottery found by MM. Gautier and Lampre at Mussian, and by M. de Morgan at Susa. This may well point to some connection between the stone and early metal-using cultures of Transcaspia and Elam; while the baked clay figurines from the copper culture of the South Kurgan may be held to prove some early cultural contact with the Sumerians.[8]
Mr. Pumpelly himself would regard the Central Asian oases as the fountain-head of Western Asiatic culture. According to his theory, they were isolated from Europe and Africa from the Glacial period onwards, and their cultural requirements were evolved in complete independence. Changes in climatic conditions, however, took place, under which the early civilizations in these regions tended to disappear, and these gave rise to extensive migrations, which reacted in turn on the outside world. In support of his theory he would trace the early appearance of wheat and barley both in Egypt and Babylonia, and the presence of certain breeds of domestic animals, to their first establishment in the Transcaspian oases. But, in addition to differences in their ceramics, the total absence of any form of writing in the mounds at Anau tells against any theory necessitating a very close racial connection between the early inhabitants of the oases and the Sumerians of Babylonia.