102 EXPLORATIONS IN PERSIAN MAKRAN [Chap. III
counted altogether some 120 cairns, but may have overlooked a few more. The contents of the twenty-two cairns which were opened were in close agreement with those found at Damba••kôh. Practically in all the cairns there were bone fragments, mostly small, associated with pottery vessels such as shown in PL III or with potsherds. Fan. D. 25, 26 (Pl. XXXII) are specimens of large bowls found one inside the other. Of two saucers, Fan. D. 10, 11 ( Pl. XXV), with a hole at the bottom, one was filled with remains of foodstuffs, including small bones, apparently of a bird. D. 24 ( Pls. III, XXXII) is a large bowl raised on a stem with spreading base. The flat flask D. 23 (Pls. III, XXXII), with its spout on one side and four lugs pierced for the passage of a suspension cord, corresponds exactly to others of that shape first found at Jiwanri.4 Some of the pottery fragments showed red and dark brown slip. Among other objects may be mentioned the glass style D. 21 ( Pl. X) ; metal ( silver ?) ornaments of twisted wire, D. 17; portion of a folded silver plaque which might have belonged to a buckle. The use of two perforated small scoop-like objects of shell, D. 12, 13, is uncertain.
While the opening of these dambs proceeded under Dr. Fâbri's direction, I ascended the valley in the direction of the village of Rampk, to look for an `old fort' reported by our guide, an intelligent relative to the local chief. The remains found, after prolonged search for a distance of about 4 miles amidst very broken hilly country, consisted of some thirty-five scattered cairns and traces of rough walls on narrow rocky hillocks.
But our three days' halt at Fanûch was rewarded by some finds of much greater interest, affording a welcome auspice of what might be hoped for on the Bampûr side. On my return from Damban, Sultan A-gha Husain Ansari, ever interested in our work, produced to my pleasant surprise two pottery objects which had been presented to him by the local Qadi, a fine old man of some education, as having been found by villagers in the previous year when clearing a gancit or kâréz. In the tall upright beaker, Fan. 014 ( Pls. VI, XXXII) , and in a small jar, Fan. 011, painted with a hachured black pattern over a grey body, I could at a glance recognize specimens of prehistoric ware closely resembling ceramic articles recovered by me from chalcolithic sites like Shahi-tump in Makran.5 The Qadi was ready enough to guide us to the spot where these finds were said to have been made.
On reaching the ganât indicated, close to the northern edge of the cultivated area, a villager who had been present at the time at once showed the find-spot in the steep bank of the cutting close to where the canal issues into the open.
4 See Tour in Gedrosia, Ji. r. iv, Pl. V.
5 See, e.g., Tour in Gedrosia, Pl. XIII, Sh. T. iv. 1, 4.
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