国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

114   IN THE BAMPUR BASIN   [Chap. IV

contiguous with it on the south, and measures about 55 yards from north-east to south-west. Among the rubble and brick debris covering it only a little pottery

could be picked up, and this evidently all dating from Muhammadan times, as shown by Arabic letters and patterns. The Qal`a-i-Zangiân to the north of the fort proved to be a steep natural hillock without any traces of occupation.

During our three days' stay at Irân-shahr, the moderate resources of which had to be utilized by us for various practical purposes, there was brought to me

by an inhabitant of Damin the small well-preserved jar, Dmn. 01 (Pl. XV.) By its painted decoration of hachured triangles it unmistakably indicated prehistoric make. It was declared to have been found seven or eight years before with others of a similar kind when digging a grave near the main hamlet of Damin. This decided me to pay a visit to the alleged place of the find. The march of

about 18 miles which brought us to Dâmin led first up the westernmost channel of the Bampûr river, lined in places by narrow stretches of cultivation, to where

the river issues from a long winding defile below Dâmin. On a low spur of the right bank near its mouth and opposite to the cultivated patch of Mtlrtan a number of dambs or burial cairns were noticed. Farther up, small groves of date-palms and sheets of clear water banked up in the river-bed combined with the bare conglomerate hills on either side to present a more pleasing landscape than we were to see for a long time.

After pitching our camp near the left bank of the river below a small fort built by Döst Muhammad Khan, Ghulâm Muhammad, owner of the little jar,

readily took us to the find-spot. It lay at the detritus-covered foot of a low ridge,

overlooking the right bank of the river, some 300 yards to the south of the dilapidated fort of `Ali Khan, the aged local headman of Dâmin. There were

a number of Muhammadan graves to be seen near the path between the foot of

the ridge and a small terrace towards the river bank. Ghulâm Muhammad and other villagers pointed out without hesitation the grave from which a big

pot holding the little jar together with a large number of others had been unearthed. From their account it appeared probable that the large vessel was a cinerary jar holding human remains together with funeral deposits such as I had found at numerous sites in Balûchistan and Makrân.2

The statement as to the find-spot was confirmed when, on the following day, I had trenches cut on each side of the grave. They brought to light fragments of painted pottery of unmistakably prehistoric type (Dmn. c. 126, 127; Pl. XI) , and others were found in a trench cut across the top of the terrace close by. But as the finds were scanty and care had to be taken not to interfere with recent graves, I found it preferable to turn our attention mainly to a part of the slope of

2 See N. Balikbistân Tour, p. 36 sq.; Tour in Gedrosia, pp. 66 sq., 156 sqq.