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

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-Zangīān to the north of the
fort proved to be a steep natural hillock without any traces of occupation.

During our three days' stay at Īrān-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 Dāmīn 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 Dāmīn.
This decided me to pay a visit to the alleged place of the find. The march of
about 18 miles which brought us to Dāmīn led first up the westernmost channel
of the Bampūr river, lined in places by narrow stretches of cultivation, to where
the river issues from a long winding defile below Dāmīn. On a low spur of the
right bank near its mouth and opposite to the cultivated patch of Mūrtān 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 Dōst Muḥammad Khān, Ghulām Muḥammad, 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 'Alī Khān, the aged local headman of Dāmīn. 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. Ghulām Muḥammad
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 Balūchistān and Makrān.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