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[[underline]] Chapter IX.  [[/underline]]  170.

other, this calcined earth, elsewhere scattered, coalesced into two approximately horizontal though often ill-defined beds or layers.  These, from 3 to 5 inches thick and not infrequently occurring in fairly close association with deposits of charcoal and ash, appeared in both of our trenches but at different levels in each.  Had they lain at anything approaching the same levels throughout, they might have suggested that conflagrations of some sort had swept over the still uncompleted mound on at least two separate occasions; but unfortunately for this explanation, they did not.  Moreover, the charcoal and ash just mentioned were quite as likely to be some inches [[underline]] below [[/underline]] instead of immediately [[underline]] above [[/underline]] these layers, as they should have been had the earth been calcined [[underline]] in situ. [[/underline]]
  It also occurred to us that what we were finding might be debris from a kiln---a remote predecessor of the one still in operation at the eastern end of the mound (see plan, [[strikethrough]] pl. LXXXVII); [[/strikethrough]] ^[[fig. 39);]] but this theory too failed to account for all the phenomena involved.
  On the whole it seemed most probable that part at least of the earth used in the construction of the mound had been taken from some already burnt-over area, perhaps a reedbed or thicket but containing also fair-sized bushes or even trees, to judge from the size of some of the pieces of charcoal that we found.  We shall discuss this point later (pp. 192 [[underline]] sq. [[/underline]]), in the light of evidence from various sources, including that afforded by our own excavations at the Lei Ku T'ai itself.

[[underline]] Potsherds.  [[/underline]]
Perhaps most plentiful of all the objects that we unearthed here, at every depth, were broken-off legs ([[underline]] cf. [[/underline]] pl. [[strikethrough]] LXXXIX) [[/strikethrough]] ^[[33, fig. 3)]] of the tripod called the [[underline]] li [[/underline]] [[Chinese symbol]] (see fig. [[strikethrough]] 25 [[/strikethrough]] ^[[40]] ). [[superscript]] (163) [[/superscript]] These turned up in our trenches by the score; 
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[[superscript]] (163) [[/superscript]] This type of vessel was made in north-central China well back in Neolithic times, and its manufacture seems to have continued into

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