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[[underline]] Chapter IX. [[/underline]]  180.

iron, their original shapes and nature quite unrecognizable; one, about 10 inches thick, looked as if it had once been a lump of iron slag.
  In both trenches we came upon pieces of "rotten" rose quartz; one, about 6 inches through, was broken in two and showed the characteristic crystalline fracture.  On one of our dumps I picked up a curious little earthenware implement, encrusted with fresh earth; its shape was somewhat like that of a blunt chisel, but it terminated in two rounded projections with a hollow between.  I conjectured that possibly it had been used for rubbing down arrow or perhaps spear shafts, although I could detect no signs of actual wear from use.
  As we neared the center of the mound, slightly over a foot below the surface in our northwestern trench we came upon an earthenware lamp (for the type see footnote 174, on page 187, and plate 35, fig. 1). This was a shallow circular saucer of a rather porous buff ware, 16 [[underline]] cm. [[/underline]] in diameter.  Its rim turned inward all around save at one point, where it protruded to form a lip.  Its inner surface was coated with a hard smooth glossy-black deposit which we thought might be due to absorption or drying up of the oil that had once filled it.
  Apparently associated with the lamp were numerous bricks of Han type, bearing stamped on one edge concentric diamond-shaped patterns like those on the bricks at the Wang Fên Wa (see fig. 37).  Most were of the usual dark gray color of Chinese bricks, both ancient and modern; but the exteriors of some had been reddened by fire.  Many had been broken, and seemed to be rejects thrown away by brick-hunters.  With them were two fragments of a large gray unglazed jar, without impressed markings and bearing "rope-and-rosette" ornamentation in [[underline]] appliqué. [[/underline]]
  Our two trenches had by now almost met, near the present center of the mound.  The one on the northwest we continued downward to a depth of a little over 20 feet, to undisturbed soil; but without results other