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

grey slip, fragments of coarsely painted ware like Bij. 1 (Pl. XX) were extremely
rare; but pieces of fine red ware (Bij. 8) often showed burnished stripes such
as I found at early historical sites in Sīstān and elsewhere. There were some
fragments of roughly incised ware (Bij. 3) and a single one, Bij. 18, with blue
glaze. We found no worked stones, but a few fragments of alabaster cups, a
well-made bronze arrow-head (Bij. 22, Pl. X) grooved on three sides, and part
of a bronze buckle. The combined evidence of these finds seemed to suggest
that the site had seen prolonged occupation during historical times, but had
probably been abandoned before the advent of Islām.

The same conclusion suggested itself when next morning we proceeded to
visit the mound situated about a mile to the north-east of our camp at Bijnābād.
It bears on its top the modern fort of Gust-i-burjān (Fig. 46) built by Samsūn
Khān, uncle of a Kahnū chief still alive in exile. The mound, 22 feet high, rises
within a debris-strewn piece of ground, measuring approximately 340 yards
from east to west and 260 yards from north to south. To the south-east of it
there stretches a still larger mound, measuring about 500 by 450 yards, and
rising to a maximum height of 10–12 feet. The abundant pottery found consists almost
exclusively of plain ware showing slips of red, cream, buff, or greenish-grey
colour. Only very few pieces with reddish-brown patterns on buff ground (Gus.
18, Pl. XX) or of red ware with burnished stripes could be found. Two or three
fragments of glazed blue or green were picked up, but not a single worked stone.

About two miles to the north-north-west of Gust-i-burjān there rises within
partly cultivated ground of Mizhpudān village the mound of Tump-i-Namurdi.
It is 16 feet high in the centre and measures approximately 400 by 320 yards at
its base. A portion of it is occupied by graves. The abundant pottery found
here shows close agreement in type with that found at the mound of Bijnābād.
It will hence suffice to mention that fragments of glazed ware were more fre-
quently found here, and that a few fragments of red or buff slip ware show
coarse designs in black as seen on Nam. 10 (Pl. XX). The occurrence of broken
handles seems also apt to confirm the later dating.

Approximately contemporary occupation may be assumed also for two low
mounds which lie close together at a distance of half a mile to the south-west of
Tump-i-Namurdi, adjoining the small hamlet of Saulūyeh. The nearer mound
measures about 180 yards from north-east to south-west and 220 yards across,
and the other some 430 yards in diameter. Here, too, the great mass of plain
pottery bears the same character as at the mounds in the Bijnābād area already
described, a few painted fragments (Sau. 3, Pl. XX) showing coarse cross-
hatching in brown over terra-cotta ground. At all these mounds the total
absence of worked stones on the one hand and of relief-decorated ware such as