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

78   EXPLORATIONS IN PERSIAN MAKRAN   [Chap. Ill

more small rooms were cleared on the top of the southern knoll, the scanty relics found there were of the same kind as just described.

The plentiful fragments of painted ceramic ware of which specimens are reproduced in Pl. XXVII present particular interest by their close agreement in decorative style, on the one hand with the painted pottery recovered from the cairns of Jiwanri and Zangian in British Makran, and on the other with the painted ware from sites in Dera Ismail Khan and Northern Balûchistan, which I was led tentatively to assign to late prehistoric or early historical times. As regards the former nexus it will be sufficient to compare the pieces 1. surf. 22, 23, 24, 25; E. 12, 14, 27, 29, showing `Greek' scrolls, zigzag bands, vandykes, `triglyphs', &c., with the complete vessels recovered from cairns at Jiwanri and Zangian.13 The similarity to the latter type of painted pottery is illustrated by comparing details of motifs in i. surf. 9, 18, 20, 31, 32; E. 4, 5, 9, 10, &c., with those seen in a large number of specimens shown in Plates II—IV of my report on `An Archaeological Tour in Waziristan and Northern Balûchistân'.14

It is true that some of the incomplete patterns seen on such small fragments of fine grey ware as 1. surf. 9, 14 (Pl. IX) ; 1. 4, surf. 10, 11, 29, 31; E. 3, 11, 19, recall elements to be found also on chalcolithic painted pottery. But the possibility which this resemblance might suggest of the Damba-kôh site having been occupied also at a far earlier period than that of the cairn burials is precluded by the negative fact that not a single stone blade or scraper, so plentiful at all chalcolithic sites of Makran, could be found here. On the other hand, the plentiful presence of plain `ribbed' pottery, such as 1. surf. 35; II—Iv. surf. 110 (Pl. V), is significant of occupation in historical times, and so also the presence of green-glazed ware, including a piece, 1. surf. 26, decorated in relief. It only remains to mention that the surface finds at Dam. I comprised also a terra-cotta style (i. surf. 5) , beads of glass and terra-cotta as well as fragments of bronze vessels, glass and a decorated bone object (i. surf. 4, Pl. X) .

While excavation work was proceeding at Damba-kôh between January 11th and 15th I was able to spare time for visits to three localities where Mir Ahmad Khan's information indicated old remains. The first place visited was a bare rocky ridge known as Kôh-i-Kashû, situated about 6 miles to the north-east of Damba-kôh.15 It was reached over a bare alluvial flat, broken here and there by shallow channels which water from the Baba' river appeared to have reached in a not very distant past. The extreme western portion of the ridge rises about

13 Cf. Tour in Gedrosia, pp. 80 sq., 87; Pls. VIII, IX, XI.

14 Cf. N. Balûchistân Tour, pp. 8 sqq.

'5 The Survey map 31. G applies the name Koh

i-Kashù erroneously to another island-like ridge about 4 miles away to the south-west. The positions indicated for the hamlets of Sirja and Ranjau require shifting south to the vicinity of that ridge.