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

192; Pl. VIII) has its parallel among the Shāhī-tump ware, with which there are
points of contact also as regards the fabric and colouring of the designs. Mention
may be made among the finds here of several small unpainted jars and a flat
plate, 181 (Pl. XXXI), of red plain burnished ware turned upside down over
what seemed to be remains of food-stuff.⁴ᵃ The broad trumpet base, 165, may
have carried a wide bowl or patera like Khur. L. i. 279 (Pl. XV) and those
found at Mehī.⁵ Fragments of decorated glass bangles and small pieces of copper
or bronze were found also in the lowest layer reached.

On the last of the five days spent at Bampūr (February 27th–March 2nd)
heavy rain, eagerly welcomed by the cultivators, stopped further excavation.
But it also washed down on the slopes of the mounds numerous small objects
otherwise hidden from view. Thus there were recovered more glass bangles inlaid
with brilliant colours or otherwise decorated (Bam. surf. 500–4, 511); a bronze
arrow-head; two flint chisels, as well as plenty of pieces of painted pottery
corresponding in type to those excavated (see, e.g., the naturalistic mountain
sheep, Bam. surf. 440, Pl. IX). There was no reason to doubt that the whole of
the mounds to the west of the fort marked ground occupied from chalcolithic
times onwards. On the slopes of the great mound which the walls of the upper
fort occupy at a height of 95 feet, and those of the outer circumvallation at an
average elevation of 50 feet, no ancient potsherds were picked up. This may be
due partly to the masses of refuse and debris which have been thrown down there
during later times and encumber the slopes. They hide the surface of what
apparently is an outlying natural terrace of the gravel glacis farther north.
Within the fort itself, which by the courtesy of the elderly Persian commandant
we were allowed to visit, the huge refuse accumulations disclosed only pottery
of medieval or later times.

Our stay at Bampūr was also utilized to gather information about other old
sites from local dignitaries, such as Faqīr Muḥammad, son of Dōst Muḥammad
Khān's wazīr, the old 'Balūch-bāshi' from Qāsimābād, and intelligent Mullah
Ghulām Muḥammad of Īrān-shahr. Small parties of men were sent out to the
localities mentioned by these informants to bring back specimens of pottery and
the like. These were to enable me to prepare a programme as to the places
which might be visited by us with advantage within the available limits of time;
for signs of the advancing season made it clear that time would have to be hus-
banded if the search for old remains within the arid basin, drained by the Bampūr
river from the east and the Halīl river from the west, was to be brought to a close
before the heat became too great for field work.