ANAU, site of an abandoned settlement tom. E.S.E. from Ashkhabad in the Turkmenistan S.S.R. There are indications of four different cultures, the two earlier from a kurgan (mound) about a mile west of the ruins and z mile south of the Trans caspian railway and the two later from a kurgan about I mile further south. The earliest inhabitants were grain cultivators and had handmade pottery geometrically decorated. Pumpelly, calculating from loess deposits, dated the cultures 8,000-6,000 B.C., but 3,900-3,300 B.C. seems more probable.
See R. Pumpelly, Explorations in Turkestan, 1908; H. Frankfort, Studies in Early Pottery of the Near East, pt. i. 1924, pt. ii. 1927; Peake and Fleure, Corridors of Time, 1I1. "Peasants and Potters," 1927.