144 TO RÜDBÂR AND JÎRUFT [Chap. V, Sec. iii
deep-red burnished ground ( 2, 6, 36, 43, 46, 56, 58) or by their polychrome decoration in black and pink over a buff slip (1, 53, 57, 59) distinctly recall the `late prehistoric' ware. of Balûchistân and Maki-an sites. Of interest are also several pieces of plain pottery showing distinct flat ribbing ( 16) and a relief-decorated fragment (63) . Two fragments of thick earthenware stands, with holes passing through the base, probably served as crucibles for melting precious metals like the complete specimens of such objects found on the top of the Dabarkôt mound.2 The general impression I derived from the varied evidence of these finds was that the accumulation of debris layers at the mound started during late prehistoric times, but that occupation continued into the pre-Muhammadan portion of the historical period. Noteworthy indications in support of this view are afforded by the total absence of stone implements and by the prevalence of burnished pottery over painted or glazed ware.
The Tump-i-Kharg ( Fig. 48) , to which we moved camp on the morning of April 9th, is certainly by far the largest of all mounds in the Rûdbâr District. It rises close to the left bank of the Halil Rûd to a height of fully 30 feet above the canal, which passes at its foot on the west. The mound proper, as the sketch plan ( Plan 14) shows, measures some 470 yards from north to south and about 400 yards across where widest. But the debris-strewn area is much larger, extending approximately for 1,100 yards from north to south and some 800 yards across. On the north-west and close to the river-bed the main mound is adjoined by a small fort (Fig. 49) known as Qal`a-i-khwâhar. Its walls built with rough stones, set in mud below and on the top in hard plaster, still stand to a height of 13 to 15 feet and form an irregular heptagon of which the longest faces, on the east and west, measure 60 and 64 yards, respectively. Small bastions, eleven in all, project at the corners and at irregular intervals along the curtains. A gate is clearly recognizable in the middle of the east face, and another is probably marked by a gap in the west curtain. The walls serve as a kind of revetment for what obviously was a portion of the main mound separated from the rest by a wide cutting made to serve as a ditch. This makes it appear very probable that the construction of the fort belongs to a period when the debris accumulations constituting the mound had already risen to a considerable height. The interior of the fort is flush with the present top of the walls, and shows the same pottery debris as covers the main mound.
The mound and the ground around bears on its surface abundance of broken pottery, both plain and glazed, and plentiful fragments of burnt bricks. In view of the latter, the complete disappearance of structural remains from the surface is very striking. Numerous ravines descend from the top of the mound and
2 See N. Balichistân Tour, p. 60.
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