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

Proceeding about 800 yards to the west from the fort there is reached a drainage
bed winding from north to south. On the nearer side of it stretches of bare clay
seemed at first to suggest the position of some enceinte for the town proper, with
ditches marking the line where building materials had been removed in recent
years. But drainage channels and cultivation would not allow of such indications
being followed with any certainty.

On a conspicuous ridge rising above the southern end of the cultivated patches
(Fig. 47) I had a trial trench cut for a distance of about 80 feet. The excavation
was carried to a depth of about 5 feet and was subsequently extended to the same
depth by a shorter trench cut at right angles. It proved the top of the mound to
consist of decomposed debris from walls built with mud bricks and resting on
rough stone foundations. Mixed with the debris were found plentiful remains of
pottery, comprising a great variety of relief-decorated and glazed ware. Frag-
ments of glass vessels were also frequently met with. Of two large broken
pots unearthed, one contained only earth, the other many pieces from unglazed
water vessels bearing moulded decoration, such as were also abundantly repre-
sented among the potsherds strewing the surface over numerous patches of the
ground.

The ceramic remains brought to light from the trenches are so uniform in
their types with those collected from the surface that there is no need to dis-
tinguish between them in the following brief notes intended to supplement the
abstract account contained in Mr. Hobson's Appendix A, with special reference
to the specimens illustrated in Plates XXI–XXIII.⁴ These notes, as elsewhere,
are based upon the succinct descriptive inventory of the collection brought back
from the journey of 1931–2, prepared by Mr. F. H. Andrews.

Taking first pieces of unglazed ware with moulded decoration (Pls. XXII,
XXIII) from vessels of a slightly porous light buff clay, similar in fabric to the
pottery still widely used in Persia for holding water, we note throughout the
richness of the low relief of arabesques which almost completely covers the sur-
face. This is usually divided into geometrically figured panels by bands or
straps interlacing in a more or less complicated fashion. The panels and bands
are filled with rich scrollwork based mostly upon ingeniously stylized floral
forms. Between the luxuriant foliage well-drawn birds and other animals are
introduced (Daq. 64, 69, 73, 556, 588, 635). The foliage scrolls of annular
bands are interspersed with inscriptions in Kufic characters, which occur also
on vertical bands of arabesques (34, 44, 52, 58, 587, 606, 612, 613, 623, 626,
637). Radiating vertical fluting with petal-like flutes is frequent, especially