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[[underlined]] Chapter XIX. [[/underlined]] 405.

reconnaissance of western Shansi, a region which we had not yet visited. Their mission was twofold; to look for further prehistoric sites, less in the hope of our being allowed to excavate them in the near future than to ascertain, as matter of record, the extension of the "Painted Pottery" culture; and also to learn as far as possible the motives which influenced the Neolithic occupants of the region in their choice of places fo habitation.
    The party on their return reported that they had found in the hills of west-central Shansi numerous sites which yielded only shards of the familiar coarse gray-brown pottery with incised, impressed, or [[underlined]] appliqué [[underlined]] decoration; but that the farther they worked down the lateral valleys toward the Yellow River (which here flows nearly due south and forms the boundary between Shansi and the projecting northeastern corner of Shensi), the more plentiful did they find remains of painted pottery. These observations confirmed our earlier impression---that the diffusion of that particular type of ware had pretty closely followed the main routes of prehistoric travel and migration, especially along the principal watercourses (see also on this pp. 265 and 386).
     The explorations carried out by our field-party also seemed to show quite clearly that in the[[strikethrough]] ir [[/strikethrough]] selection of sites for their villages the Neolithic inhabitants of the region had depended less on considerations of defensibility than on proximity to supplies of water---usually springs, most often located along the bases of outcroppings of rock protruding above the loess like [[underlined]] nunataks [[/underlined]]---and to arable land. It also appeared that they avoided river-bottoms, in spite of their richer soil; perhaps because these were then densely overgrown with trees and brush and hence to^[[o]]^[[|]]difficult to clear with no tools better than stone hatchets or adzes; or perhaps because they were too marshy and subject to floods.