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

Ardeschir I (226-240):   Sassanide (third century):

G.K. 41, upper digging, 81 feet to i r.5 feet.   G.K. 31, lower digging, 12 feet.

G.K. 49, upper digging, 11.5 feet to 15 feet 5   G.K. 198, outer digging r, 20 feet 5 inches to 23}

inches.   feet.
G.K. 78, outer digging II.

Indeterminable, probably Sassanide (third century)

Sapor I (24o-27o):   G.K. 18, upper digging, 2/ feet to 5 feet.

G.K. 19, lower digging, 8 feet.   G.K. 68, upper digging, 11.5 feet to 15 feet 5

G.K. 58, outer digging II.   inches.

G.K. 7o, outer digging r, 4 to 9 feet.   G.K. 130, upper digging, 17 feet 5 inches to 20.5

G.K. 18o, outer digging r, 17 feet to 20 feet 5   feet.

inches.   G.K. 167, upper digging, 26 feet to 32 feet 7

G.K. 186, outer digging 1, 17 feet to zo feet 5   inches.

inches (dump).   G.K. 148, outer digging r, 11.5 feet to 14/ feet.

G.K. 173, outer digging 1, 14/ feet to 17 feet.

To the Sassanide are to be added some Parthian coins, partly of still older age.

Parthian (third century): G.K. 152, outer digging I, 14/ feet to 17 feet. Parthian (second century) : G.K. 116 (compare above).

King Sanabares (first century, A. D.): G.K. 185, outer digging I, 17 feet to 20 feet 5 inches.

Which of these coins shall guide us in dating the finds of Ghiaur Kala? Shall it be the younger, which occur in the outer digging to a depth of 11.5 feet below the surface?

The great number of coins of the third century prevent this conclusion. We would have to assume that these coins had continued in circulation till the tenth and eleventh centuries, and this, according to Mr. Markof, is improbable, if not out of the question. On the other hand, it may be mentioned that on the acropolis, where in the upper digging the earth layers were exposed to a depth of 4o feet below the top, the younger coins, that is, the Abbassides of the eighth century, were found only to a depth of 5 feet and that below this no younger coins occurred.

We have, therefore, the right to assign to the great number of Sassanide coins of the third century the same significance as to the ordinary service pottery that showed a uniform character in all the exposed layers. In the light of these two groups of finds, we can determine the culture of Ghiaur Kala, i. e., the coins of the third century establish the terminus post quem for the use of all the pottery.

The culture of Ghiaur Kala was Sassanide. This makes it necessary to separate the younger finds, such as the younger coins and the glazed pottery, from the

general mass of the other finds. Their appearance also in deeper layers can be explained through the many kinds of accidents to which the long-trodden soil of Ghiaur Kala was exposed, even if a settlement may have no longer existed there at the end of the first millennium.

(e) INSCRIPTIONS.

A knowledge of the inscriptions is of importance in judging the potteries that were discovered. This depends upon whether we have to assume that the inscriptions, as in the ostraka, were made only upon any fragment of pottery that came to hand, or whether they were written upon entire vessels in use at the time. In the first case they might be classed among the accidental finds of the