National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

To the south of the fort we found some old trees surviving within what
had been a walled garden, now used for cultivation. Adjoining this were some
newly built quarters for the commandant of the small garrison, and at a short
distance beyond lay a cluster of some fifty mat-huts tenanted by Balūch culti-
vators and followers. Close by, the mud-built dwellings of two Hindu traders
represented the bāzār of this local centre. Camp was pitched in the old garden,
the shade of its few trees being very welcome; for here in the basin, at an eleva-
tion of only about 1,800 feet, the heat of the approaching spring already began
to make itself felt. Later on in the season the climate of Bampūr with its torrid
heat and malaria was said to tell severely on the health of the Persian soldiers.

A first rapid inspection made on the day of our arrival, February 26th, had
sufficed to show me that the waste ground to the west of the fort was covered
with pottery, both on the level ground and on the mounds (Fig. 35), which,
as seen in Plan 10, extend over it for a distance of some 300 yards. The
variety of the ceramic types to be picked up on the surface indicated prolonged
occupation, reaching down to comparatively late times. But some fragments of
fine greyish ware painted with animal figures clearly suggested some prehistoric
deposits lower down. In order to reach these without too great expenditure of
time, excavation was started next morning by a trial trench, A, 75 feet long and
4 feet wide, cut across the neck which connects the southernmost mound, about
23 feet high, with its neighbour. The neck in the middle rose to a height of 12
feet above the adjacent level ground. This trench was subsequently extended for
24 feet to the east (B), and from its end a cross (C) trench dug to the south.

Remains of human bodies, laid out in the orthodox fashion, were unearthed
down to a level of about 10 feet from the ground, and these, together with
graves subsequently struck in the trenches B and C, showed that the mound
had been used at one time for Muhammadan burials. Besides glazed potsherds
and some fragments of querns, there turned up in this top layer some coarse
jars of small size, and many fragments of plain pottery bearing a white slip.
On a level of 8–9 feet there appeared pieces of pottery painted with poorly
drawn patterns in black or red over a red or pink ground. The designs, con-
sisting chiefly of hachures, wave lines and lozenges, as seen in Bam. 6, 205, 206
a, b, 223 (Pls. VIII, IX), resemble those found on the 'late prehistoric' ware of
British Balūchistān. Two fragments of a glass bangle, 237, found at 8 feet
level, deserve notice.

The immediately succeeding layer, on a level of 6–7 feet, yielded a great
deal of interesting ceramic ware. Here were found several small jars with
diminutive bases (Bam. 22, 308), not unlike those found at Periāno-ghundai;¹