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

occupants of its hundred-odd mat-huts receive ample water from 7 or 8 qanāts.
Their discharge fills a stream which, in a narrow gorge, breaks through rugged
low hills and farther down joins the Gulāshgird river, which passes through the
same hills about 3 miles to the west of Darra-shōr.

Intelligent guidance secured at Darra-shōr made it easy to visit from there,
on November 24th, several ruined sites at short distances to the north. Together
with those large series of burial cairns they clearly proved that this tract with its
potentially fertile soil must have held a much larger settled population during
historical times. After inspecting a number of dambs at the hill foot west of our
camp above Darra-shōr, we were led across the scrubby plain to the north-west.
After covering about 2 miles over ground where several pottery-strewn patches
marked former occupation, we reached a conspicuous mound rising some 24 feet
above the flat alluvial plain. It measures about 270 yards from north-north-west
to south-south-east and some 230 yards across at its widest. It is known by
the name of Ḥiṣār. Apart from the plentiful plain potsherds of coarse red or
yellowish ware there were found on the surface fragments of glazed blue,
green, and yellow pottery; also some of superior burnished red ware, thin and
painted with simple lines or hachures in black (D. shor. 15, 20; Pl. XXV). A few
pieces of similar terra-cotta-like fabric show burnishing; others are incised with
comb-drawn scrolls or are neatly ribbed (D. shor. 9, 19; Pl. XXVI). Pieces of
green glass of varying thickness could be picked up in numbers. There was
found also the fragment of what seems to have been a bronze vessel. The general
impression I received was that the site marked by the mound had been occupied
from early historical times and for a prolonged period. The absence of any
worked flints and of alabaster fragments militates against the assumption of
occupation having started at the site from chalcolithic times.

Going about 1½ miles to the north-east from Hissār, past clumps of large
tamarisks and abandoned qanāts, there was reached an extensive debris area
close to the east of the domed Ziārat-i-Dāniāl. It stretches for some 420 yards
from north-east to south-west and about 380 yards across. At the north-eastern
end low mounds of earth, about 88 yards square, mark the position of a ruined
fort. Medieval occupation of the site, probably in early Muhammadan times,
was proved by an abundance of pottery fragments strewing the ground. Among
these were numerous remains of relief-decorated ware produced from moulds
and closely resembling in style that found at the ruined town near Behkird in
Jīruft.⁴ Local production is indicated by pieces of moulds. Glazed potsherds
showing relief or painted decoration are also of the type represented at the Jīruft
site. Import from the Far East is attested by a number of fragments of porcelain