Sec. i] REMAINS OF GALEHDAR 221
that found at Sirâf. This together with the style of the ornamented tombstones distinctly suggests that Fâl flourished about the same period as Sirâf; but occupation of this site probably continued longer. No porcelain was picked up by us among the mounds.
Having convinced myself by this reconnaissance that the Tal-i-pir mound of Haraj offered the best chance of profitable results from trial excavation, I started work there on the morning of January 25th with three dozen men, half brought from Nauba and half collected locally. The mound is situated close to the left bank of a flood-bed receiving the drainage from the north-western head of the valley. It measures in length about 200 yards from north-west to south-east, with a maximum width of some 130 yards towards the middle, and rises to a height of approximately 19 feet above the adjoining field level. A considerable portion of the top and slopes is covered with Muhammadan graves. Regard for these obliged me to confine our two trial trenches to the south-eastern side of the mound. The one opened on the first day was carried in eight sections, i—viii, each measuring some 6 feet square on the surface, from a level about 5 feet below the top down to an average depth of 4 feet 8 inches from the surface. The bottom reached in the lowest section, viii, corresponded approximately to the surface level of the cultivated plain beyond the flood-bed. The digging here passed first through a layer of refuse marked by animal bones and ashes, then a layer of earth before reaching, lower down, painted potsherds and worked stones. On January 26th a second trial trench was started in sections ix—xii at a distance of about 12 feet to the west of the first and carried from the same level down the slope. Fig. 86 shows both trenches.
From the start worked stone implements, mostly blades and borers showing signs of use, turned up in great numbers in all sections, the blades measuring up to 5 inches in length (for specimens, marked Har., see Pl. XXX) . There were found also a grinding stone with flat handle and a large stone pestle, also a massive short club-shaped hammer (Har. 102; Pl. XVIII). Of special interest were two `button seals' of stone, Har. i. 6, 8 (Pl. XXX), from sections vi and viii, showing on their flat surface simple but neatly cut geometrical patterns and provided with pierced shanks at the back. They correspond closely in shape and design to similar objects obviously used for clay sealings, which were found by me at several chalcolithic sites of Fars on my third South-Persian journey. Such `button seals' had been recovered before by Professor Herzfeld at the prehistoric village near Persepolis, and are represented also by closely similar specimens among Mr. Mallowan's rich finds at Arpachiyah.2 The same affinity is revealed
2 See Mallowan, `Excavations at Tall Arpachiyah', Iraq, ii. p. 92, with illustrations of `Discoid Pendants', pp. 95, 15-20.
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