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

strength and good proportions, serves to illustrate the architectural skill which has survived in
Sīstān till very recent times. Two or three other residences visited farther to the south show an
interesting ground plan with a cruciform central hall, as illustrated by the sketch-plan in Pl. 58.

About 2 miles to the SSW. of the fortified mansion rises a mound, about 20 feet high and Mound
measuring about 80 yards by 30. This old Mesa is now covered with Muhammadan graves, but with pre-
the abundance of potsherds found on it conclusively proves that it had previously served through historic
successive ages as a site for habitations. The range covered by the pottery fragments from this pottery.
mound extends from 'chalcolithic' painted or plain pottery, as shown by the specimens, Machi.
01–12, Pl. CXIII, to well-made plain red ware of the type associated with Ghāgha-shahr and
Shahristān. Pieces of blue-glazed pottery were rare, and none were found with painted design under
glaze. The fragment of a stone pot, 016, such as found elsewhere with 'chalcolithic' pottery in
this area, also belongs to this earliest period of occupation. The remains of this occupation, so
abundant at other points of the southern delta, will be discussed in the next section. The List in
section iii also includes specimens of pottery and of glass fragments picked up at other points of the
site. Of these many, if not most, probably belong to modern times. But it must be remembered
that wind-erosion has probably, in places, brought to the surface also relics of earlier periods.
This was obviously the case in the southern portion of the Machī area ; for in the vicinity of the
mound just mentioned the ground showed clear marks of wind-scouring, and rudimentary tamarisk-
cones could be seen in course of formation, just as at sites but recently abandoned to the desert
along the southern edge of the Taklamakān.

It was while proceeding from Machī towards the well and post of Girdī-chāh, on the trade route Wind-
some 16 miles to the SW. from Hauzdār, that I first passed a belt of regular Yārdangs, or kalward, erosion at
as they are called in Sīstān. They were only from 4 to 5 feet in height, but duly prepared me for work.
the effects of wind-erosion as exhibited by the ruins of the southern group of Muhammadan sites.
These are scattered over an area which extends for about 9 miles to the south-east of Girdī-chāh
with a maximum width of about 3 miles. This area once received water from branching outlets
of the Rūd-i-biyābān, still clearly recognizable, which trend to the west and south-west from where
the Perso-Afghān boundary line crosses them between the pillars marked B.P. 17, 18 b on the map.
The old canals fed by these outlets can still be followed in places.

In the vicinity of Rāmrūd, the nearest of these sites and the best known, cultivation had, as Site of
already stated, been carried on as late as the beginning of the nineteenth century. But the examina- Rāmrūd.
tion of the ruined fort village to which that name is principally applied (Fig. 494), as well as of
certain other remains, soon showed me that this late occupation meant merely a partial reclamation
of land which had previously for a considerable period been abandoned to the desert. The circum-
vallation of the fort, as shown by the sketch-plan, Pl. 57, has been so badly breached—in places
on the N. and NW. it is almost completely effaced—that exposure to the eroding force of wind-
driven sand must reasonably be supposed to have extended here over more than one century.
The same impression is conveyed by the appearance of the ground around the walls, which, as the
photograph in Fig. 503 shows, has been cut up into regular Yārdang trenches and ridges. I am
hence inclined to believe that this fort, and probably also a smaller one about half a mile to the SE.,
were already ruins when water was again brought to this neighbourhood in Malik Bahrām Khān's
time. On the other hand, a group of eight or nine domed tombs, some of good size, which stand on
ground but very slightly eroded, about 1½ miles to the east of Rāmrūd fort, may perhaps date back
only to that latest occupation. A stretch of perfectly flat ground covered with a crust of hard silt, which
we passed within a mile or so of Rāmrūd fort to the SE., probably also marks land that was then
under cultivation.