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

to the modest hamlets collectively known as Bar-Rūdkhāneh-i-duzdī, did I learn
of any old remains. But while encamped at one of them called Qal'a-saidī, from
the crumbling stone walls of a small modern fort, I was told by the brother of
the village headman who had met us in the spring while at the Tump-i-Kharg
below Jīruft, of mounds to be seen at three places, Khazāna, Gilkand, and Qalātu
or Dō-chāhī, in valleys eastwards. The chance of visiting them was not to be
afforded to us. By the evening the officer in charge of the escort had our would-
be guide arrested on some charge known only to himself. Thereupon all know-
ledge of such places was denied in the morning both by the unfortunate man
himself and the rest of the villagers, who saw him marched off by the soldiers—
to be released only two days later.

I had already decided to make my way to Mīnāb at the mouth of the Gulf in
order to examine what remains might be traced there of Old Hormuz. There I
hoped also to get into touch with the Consulate at Bandar Abbās, and through
it with the Persian authorities outside the Kermān province, who might be
expected to ensure the facilities needed for my work. In order to reach Mīnāb
the route through the Rūdān tract, though not the shortest, perhaps, or the
easiest, recommended itself by the chance of looking for traces of early occupation
in its central and more open portion, watered by the 'Robbers' river-bed'. As
the river passes lower down through a narrow gorge considered quite impass-
able for baggage animals, it was necessary on the march of November 26th to
follow the track which is used also by those making for Nivargudār and Shamīl.
This route took us first across the Rūdkhāneh-i-duzdī a short distance above
its junction with the Rūd-i-Gulāshgird or Rūd-i-shīrīn, and then across a wide
stony plateau to Rāhdār with some wells and date-palm groves. On the follow-
ing day we continued our ascent over the much-broken plateau to the Chakchak
pass (2,140 feet). After crossing it, we made our way down through wildly
fissured ravines (Fig. 57) difficult for laden transport to the tiny oasis of Pariāb
(1,050 feet). It was a pleasant surprise to find there a well-laid-out orchard,
watered by a qanāt, with mango-trees, bananas, and other sub-tropical growth.

Next day a march of only 6 miles brought us over a broad gravel fan down
to the edge of the wide valley plain which holds most of the cultivated area of
Rūdān. Fields and date-palm plantations stretch for some 5 miles along the left
bank of the river and for about 7 on the other side beyond its wide rubble-filled
bed. Passing Deh-bāriz, the chief place of Rūdān, and another walled village, we
first visited Sang-i-Rustam, a palm-girt hamlet farther north, to which I was
attracted by its name. But the 'Stone of Rustam' proved only a great natural
boulder embedded in the alluvial soil, without any marks of the hand of man. A
small mound subsequently visited in the centre of Deh-bāriz village, measuring