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9.

C. The First Digging.

The actual excavation for this season lasted eighteen days, from the thirteenth of October to the thirtieth; these may be again divided into three periods: (1) from the thirteenth to the sixteenth, the work was concentrated in Area I; (2) from the seventeenth to nineteenth, in Area II, and (3) from the twentieth to the thirtieth, in Area III (Map II ^[[& III]]).

On the basis of my last investigation, I got the impression that the burying place of the oracle bones was near to the sand-hill, so the plan was made to turn over the whole area adjacent to this place. This time, after my arrival at An-yang, I invited Mr. Kuo to accompany me to make further study of this region and spent fifty coppers to employ a gardener to be our guide. A new place, the cotton field west of the sand-hill, was pointed to us as the hoarding quarter. When the guide left us, we went further north to make some observation and arrived at a spot where the corn-crops had been newly harvested, the ground was no longer obscured by the greens. Here we found a number of pits recently dug,not yet refilled,about six feet deep. A village boy told us that these were 'lettered bone' digging pits; he offered us a clue by saying "Wherever charcoal is found,there is also lettered bone". When I examined the pits, I found that about three to four feet down from the surface, there were really charcoal ^[[remains]] present, but no 'lettered bones' were found. Nearby, traces of three refilled pits were found, and the refilling part showed a much darker color. On the surface the 'unlettered' bones were found in great abundance. Thus I began to realize that the center of the oracle bone producing area was here, not along the sand-hill. Further observations were made along the river