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[[underline]] Chapter II. [[/underline]]   28.

vertical pits, roughly circular in form. These were from 2 to 3 meters across, and had been sunk to a depth of rather less than 4 meters. It was later currently reported that these pits were 30 feet deep; but their actual dimensions, as we measured them on the spot, were those given above. Over them had been set up improvised shears of stout poles, from which depended baskets raised and lowered with ropes (pl. [[strikethrough]] XXII). [[/strikethrough]] ^[[9, fig 2).]]
   It was our plan to return to Chêng Chou that evening, in order to see General Chin next morning and try to gain his consent to our supervision of the rest of the excavation, thus far so wretchedly mishandled. Our time was therefore limited, and we could do no more than make as careful an examination as possible of the site and of the piles of loose earth that had been removed from the pits themselves.

[[underline]] Types of Potsherds. [[/underline]]
   The original surface of the area, we found, consisted of a layer of light ashy-gray soil averaging about 40 [[underline]] cm. [[/underline]] in thickness and quite distinct from the yellowish loess beneath it. In this topmost stratum were a few fairly evenly distributed potsherds of relatively recent date, the earliest appearing to be of the Sung Dynasty. We later learned that until about the middle of the 19th century there had stood about 100 feet northeast of the burial-site a small village. It was from this, in all probability, that these fragments of pottery had come.
   We gathered from the dumps various human, animal, and bird bones, and also considerable numbers of fragments of earthenware quite different in type from those occurring in the superficial layer of soil. These appeared to show that in the in-
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