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

and, in spite of the debris which has fallen in from its domed roof, is still 17 feet
deep. Its sides show courses of cut slabs where the layer of soft sandstone needed
strengthening. At one of the cisterns still retaining their domes, channels neatly
cut into the adjacent rock surface show the care taken to collect all rain-water.
At the north-eastern corner of the plateau an isolated rocky knoll contains a
roughly cut small chamber, and at its foot on the east a row of small quarters cut
into the rock extends for a length of 40 feet. Their outer wall is formed by live
rock standing to a height of 4 feet and above this by rough masonry set in mortar.
The end room has a shelf cut into the rock and two small windows splayed inwards.
A narrow rocky ridge close to the eastern edge of the ravine bears a small
Muhammadan burial-ground. The graves, all orientated from north-north-west
to south-south-east, are cut into the rock surface after the fashion observed at the
Tīz cemeteries,³ or else they are practically superterranean, being formed by
long slabs of sandstone placed along the sides and by others rising slightly
higher at the head and foot. A second small cemetery adjoins the rocky knoll
above mentioned, and a third is found close to the south of a ruined dome, of
which the walls, 3 feet thick, still rise to a height of about 12 feet. This dome
stands above the large cistern near the gate, and has an internal diameter of
21 feet. It can scarcely have been anything but a Muhammadan tomb. I may
add that in the vicinity of the same cistern masses of shattered rock show where
the walls of a complex of small quasi-troglodyte rooms have been thrown down
in confusion, perhaps by an earthquake.
The evidence of the broken pottery plentifully found all over the plateau
and particularly near the gate agrees with that of burial-grounds in pointing to
prolonged occupation probably from early Islamic times. Besides glazed ware
in plain blue and dark green, it comprises pieces showing incised scroll pat-
terns under a mottled green glaze, such as found at Tīz and Gīti. There are
numerous fragments of a hard cream-coloured fabric showing coarsely painted
patterns in a dark reddish brown (Lesh. 11, 13–15; Pl. XXVI), or else flat rib-
bing. Fragments of fine porcelain decorated in blue are obviously Chinese.
Among the pieces of glass bangles, Lesh. 4 (Pl. XXVI), with small raised spots of
yellow and green, deserves mention as recalling fragments similarly decorated
from early sites in British Makrān.⁴ The elaborate construction of so large a
number of cisterns makes permanent occupation certain during earlier times.
But the previously noted coarse repairs of the defences point to the natural
strength of the site having caused it to serve at a later period also as a temporary
place of refuge for the inhabitants of the small hamlets scattered along the edge
of the Mihrakān marsh.