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15.

The first type is the most obvious and it occurs most frequently in the thrashing ground where houses were built and torn down again sometime ago. Modern bricks, tiles, pottery coins and debris of coal ash were frequently found penetrating way beyond the surface stratum into the cultural soil. They are practically all of modern origin. It is therefore comparatively easy to dissociate them from the genuine older [[strikethrough]]stratum[[/strikethrough]] ^[[artifacts]].

The complete removal of the cultural soil usually occurs when a tomb was to be dug. In the central digging, the various T'ang graves all show such evidence. The one figured in pit SC is a perfect example of this kind; its contact shows clearly that,previous to the burial, the underground must be made of the same stratification as its immediate neighbor.

It is also possible that in the case of this kind of disturbance, the soil removed might be refilled in as a superficial layer over and above the later intrusion. So we have come across inscribed bones and other artifacts of definitely Shang origin found above the Sui-T'ang burials. A similar result is obtained in the case of filling up of an exhausted well, only it is more complicated. For, in digging a well, the soil was, in practice, completely moved away to other places. As a well usually functions quite a number of years before it gets exhausted; in refilling it , the material may be of any nature. Not infrequently, it consists of stuff turned out from a newly digging well in its neighborhood. This process evidently has been going on perrenially in the last three centuries. The farmers of this region depend upon underground water for irrigation. Well digging is therefore a vital necessity for the maintenance of village life. The harm it has done ^[[to the ancient relics]] is, [[strikethrough]]consequently[[/strikethrough]] ^[[however,]] almost inestimable.

In the case of undercut, we were usually subtly deluded at first