National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

> > > >
Color New!IIIF Color HighRes Gray HighRes PDF   Japanese English
0420 Innermost Asia : vol.2
Innermost Asia : vol.2 / Page 420 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

New!Citation Information

doi: 10.20676/00000187
Citation Format: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

OCR Text

 

902   BY THE EASTERN MARCHES OF KHORASAN [Chap. XXVII

Decoration inside and out in fine blue. A thin annular line " below rim on both sides, with traces of floral ornament outlined blue and washed in with lighter tone of same. Prob. Chinese. 11"X I8". Gr. thickness i".

Khu. 029. Fr. of wall of pottery vessel. Buff gritty body, glazed plain white inside, and fine Wedgwood blue outside, probably both over thin white slip. Surface, eggshell glaze due probably to weathering. 21"X I "X ".

Khu. 031. Fr. of rim of pottery bowl. Extremely thin ; very slightly everted lip. Painted outside in pale blue, outlined darker blue. A standing Chinese figure in long robe (?). Lower part discoloured. Chinese porcelain. Ii"x "X g" nearly, at thickest part.

Khu. 033, 034, 035, 038, 042, 043. Frs. of glazed pottery, all of same type. Body pale terra-cotta, slightly gritty, covered inside with white slip, over which black. Pattern scratched through black to white slip and sometimes through slip also. The whole glazed inside with pale greenish translucent glaze ; 042 with dark green-blue.

034 and 038 are parts of rim and wall of shallow dish (?). Glaze on these is also on outside, but edge is wiped clean to prevent sticking in firing as in Chinese ware. Sgrafitto patterns are freely drawn scrolls and tendrils, too fragmentary to reconstruct.

033 and 043 have slightly darker and coarser body, are not glazed outside, but have similar scroll patterns and broader scalloped bands. Gr. fr. (033) 21"X 2i"X g". Pl. CXVIII.

Khu. 039, 040. Frs. of pottery bowl. Buff, gritty body, finely glazed inside and out with pale blue-green over thin white slip. Both frs. are from straight rim of bowl ; decoration consists of annular line in black inside about fig " below lip and same outside. Below and touching the line, on inner surface, a row of straight-sided trefoil-tipped petals in bold black outline, and a repetition of same in thin blue-green line, the centre point of petal falling in the space between side foils of adjoining black petals. Persian (?). Glaze fine and hard, and black very fine. Gr. fr. 2" X I" X I". PI. CXVIII.

Khu. 044. Fr. of rim (?) of pottery bowl. Pale terracotta, gritty body. Glazed both sides over thin white slip, and painted with green and black. Decoration consists of a border band of brilliant blue-green lines crossing each other at right angles and so forming a series of squares. The green is translucent and has spread in the colourless glaze. A second series of squares are painted in solid black lines placed so that corners of green squares come in centre of black squares. Black band along outer and inner edges of border. Outside, traces of pattern in black line. Width, 1."x II" x (thickness)?". Pl. CXVIII.

Khu. 045, 046, 055, 054. Frs. of pottery. Pale terracotta body. Glazed greenish-blue inside, with traces of glaze outside. Pattern in black, annular lines and formal floral patterns. 051 and 054 show part of simple rim, prob. of bowls, with glaze darker than other two frs. In all

glaze adheres badly. Gr. fr. (o45)

Khu. 047. Fr. from pottery bowl, of similar type to

045 but with glaze dull grey and pattern dull cobalt blue. I In x Ii'.

Khu. 05o. Fr. of pottery, curved in both directions. Pink-buff body, gritty ; glazed outside a fine turquoise blue dulled from weathering. Traces of same glaze thinly applied inside. If X".

Khu. 053. Fr. of pottery bowl. Rim and part of wall. Pale terra-cotta, gritty body, glazed both sides with grey, uneven on outside. "x If".

Khu. 055. Fr. of pottery from wall of vessel (bowl ?). Terra-cotta, gritty body. Glazed white on inside, with

pattern in cobalt, consisting of pair of annular lines and fr. of floral (?) pattern. Traces of white glaze on outside. I g" x

Khu. 056. Fr. of pottery, terra-cotta with boldly raised band at one edge and part of palm-leaf pattern in relief on lower surface. No glaze remaining ; much weathered. i "X ii". Pl. CXv.

Khu. 057-9. Frs. of glass. Pale green ; 057 and 059 oxydized and the latter showing metallic lustre. Largest fr. (o57) ii" XI".

I1"X1~Pl. CXVIII.

Through hills from Dastgird to Duruh.

SECTION III.—INTO THE HELMAND BASIN

Two marches sufficed to bring us from Dastgird, whose subterraneous drainage flows into the same desert depression as does that of the valley of Gezik, to the oasis Duruh at the north-western extremity of the great basin receiving the terminal course of the Helmand. Instead of keeping to the usual caravan route, we followed the more direct track along the much broken top of the hill chain which divides the valley of Duruh from the wide trough sloping down towards the Afghan border. The few little patches of fields that graziers till among these rocky ridges are wholly dependent on springs. The fact that cultivation cannot be carried on here by rain and snow-fall only, though the range is close on 6,000 feet high, was a clear indication of the distinctly arid climate in the wide region we had approached.

The village of Duruh, which comprises some three hundred homesteads, is situated under a bold conical hill crowned by a small ruined fort. It forms a pleasant green oasis in the wide and other-