92 EXPLORATIONS IN PERSIAN MAKRAN [Chap. III
A characteristic feature of the glazed graffito pottery of Tiz, as illustrated in Pl. IV, is the great range of colouring in the glaze, varying in the same piece from pale straw and yellow to brown, green, pink, or crimson, always with a mottled and patchy appearance. Side by side with this style we find a somewhat different and bolder decoration of glazed pottery attested by pieces from Tiz III, like 186, 188 A, 196-201, 274, &c. (Pl. IV) . In this the fine incised designs are replaced by broad strokes. Another type illustrated by III. 242 shows dots and bands painted on with a light coloured slip. The relief decoration of unpainted pottery, of which Pl. V shows a specimen in Tiz surf. 136, was mostly produced from moulds and, as finds of moulds (Tiz III. surf. 142; II. vi. 84) show, done locally. The rarity of pottery distinctly indicating Chinese origin suggests that the port of Tiz had ceased to be much frequented by maritime trade before the import of Chinese porcelain into Persia was fully developed in Mongol times. Stone beads of manifold material and shape are found plentifully over the whole site. A collection of them was acquired and awaits expert examination.
However this may be, it is clear that a place situated like Tiz far away from any considerable area of agricultural or industrial resources could not have supported the fairly large population which the remains examined indicate, had it not been for the advantages which its port offered for sea intercourse between the Persian Gulf and the coast of India and the Far East. The southwest monsoon must always have interposed a very serious obstacle to that intercourse during a considerable portion of the year. Tiz lying just to the west of that stretch of the MVlakrân coast which the monsoon strikes with full force, would offer then the last safe harbour for ships seeking India from the side of the Gulf. It would provide shelter also for shipping on the opposite course when held up from approach to the mouth of the Gulf by the violent winds which at other seasons often blow from the north-west and north. Hence it may well be believed that at a certain period in early medieval times Tiz was used as a port for convenient trade exchange between the south of Persia and India. The possibility of its having served as the port for some caravan traffic passing from Sistan and Khorâsân to the sea through Bampûr should also not be ignored.
We have probably a classical mention of Tiz in TERM, a locality which Pto- jÉ
lemy's Geography places on the Gedrosian coast to the west of Kvi3a and beyond the cape of Baysia.4 Nearchos's account of the voyage of Alexander's fleet, as reproduced in Arrian's Indike, xxix. 1, also refers to the last two localities in the same order from east to west, and places the good harbour of Talmena (Tapeva) beyond Bageia. In view of the identical location in the two notices,
4 Cf. Ptolemy, Geographia, vi. viii.
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