国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

Another site of the same type, known as *Burchik*, was visited about 4 miles to
the south-west of Kumbil. On the way to it also, small shallow channels reached
by tidal water were crossed. There an area measuring about 400 yards in length,
but nowhere more than some 100 yards in breadth, was found to bear wall
foundations of rough stones, many apparently tufa. Here, too, plentiful frag-
ments of burnt bricks, together with a variety of potsherds, could be picked up
from the salt-impregnated soil. Small, much corroded copper coins, were found
in abundance. The largest among them has been recognized by Mr. J. Allan as
probably Samanid of the tenth century A.D. Among the pottery there were
numerous pieces of porcelain and good stoneware, manifestly Chinese (see Bur.
11, 12, 14, 25; Pl. XXVI), also of glazed or stamped local ware (Bur. 23) closely
resembling that found at Qalāt-Sarāwān. A short distance to the east the stone
foundations of what obviously had been a mosque, could be made out. Close to
the west runs a *khūr*, or creek, formed by a terminal channel of the Mīnāb river,
which was said to be navigable for small boats up to a point known as Tappa-i-
Jahūd. A few other *kharābas*, or small 'debris areas' of the same type were said
to be traceable farther to the east, on ground approached by tidal water.

The observations gathered at the sites I was able to visit and have just de-
scribed left me in no doubt about the remains still traceable having belonged
to places connected with the shipping which frequented 'Old Hormuz' when its
port served the trade of Kermān and other eastern parts of Īrān with India and
China.¹⁰ The massive stone foundations of houses, together with the abundance
of burnt bricks from their walls, suffice to show that those who occupied them
could not have been cultivators or fishing folk content to live in mat-huts or
hovels of sun-dried bricks, such as are to be found all over the Mīnāb oasis or
along the neighbouring coast. But the present condition of the ground on
which those remains are found seems to raise a very puzzling question on
the physical side.

It appears clear that no permanent settlement could have existed in places so
closely surrounded by flats liable to be flooded, unless the ground occupied by
those structures stood at the time considerably higher above sea-level than it
does at present. On the other hand, there seems to be some foundation for the
general local belief that ships in former times could approach Mīnāb town much
closer than they can nowadays. The gradual silting-up of the river-bed near
which the sites described are to be found, would explain the latter change; but
this cannot account for the lowness of the ground now occupied by them. Could