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

glaze; and more rarely with similar bold painting in underglaze blue in the
Samarra style.
5. Isolated specimens of lustred ware at Dambaguh.
6. Plain greyish white ware of Samarra type.
The Samarra pottery belongs to the ninth century and the Brahminābād pottery
cannot be later than 1020, when the city was destroyed. So that we can fairly place this
pottery in the ninth and tenth centuries. Pieces of Chinese porcelain and stoneware
found on several sites in Makrān confirm this impression. They vary from white ware
and celadon similar to that found at Samarra, to ying-ch'ing porcelain which is probably
of tenth century date.
Associated with these Samarra and Brahminābād types are certain varieties which
are probably local. There is hard red ware with black slip coating and graffito designs
under a rich purplish black glaze the colour of which is derived from manganese.
There is graffito ware with green or yellow glaze in which the designs are strongly
gouged out in wide lines instead of being scratched with a point. There are numerous
pottery covers with deeply cut trellis design, almost in openwork, covered with green or
green and yellow lead glazes; they have characteristic knob handles. And there is a red
pottery with plain mahogany-brown glaze, something like that of the well-known
Rockingham teapots, and often of great depth and brilliance. This last is certainly a
local manufacture. Wasters of it—e.g. a bowl with spiral finish inside—and triangle
spurs for supporting the wares in the kiln have been found on several sites at Tīz.
Besides this a 'spur' with mottled green and yellow glazes on it indicates the manu-
facture of mottled wares probably of the graffito class, and it may even be that some of
the Samarra-Brahminābād group found locally was made here. Indeed, if that is so,
we might hazard the suggestion that some of the pottery found at Brahminābād came
from these kilns. There are many points of similarity between the wares found in both
localities, not only in their general appearance but in some cases in a characteristic
finish of the base. One notices that very often the Makrān bowls and dishes have the
flat surface of the base channelled with a wide circular ring; and this peculiar finish is
seen also in some Brahminābād fragments of green-glazed graffito ware.
A thick turquoise blue glaze, recalling that of the late Egyptian pottery, appears on
fragments found on various sites. Sometimes the body is of the sandy white type.
A fragment of this kind found at Tīz has a design of pure Islamic character; and
this, in spite of its archaic appearance, can hardly be older than the tenth century.
Another variety has a red body with dressing of white slip under the blue glaze. This
is sometimes decorated with incised designs which disclose the red body under the
blue glaze, creating the illusion of a decoration in purple. This ware was found at
other parts of the route, e.g. Fanūch and Bampūr.
Painting in black is also used under a blue glaze, but in this case the glaze is thinner
and more transparent.
Several kinds of unglazed ware were found. They include a red pottery painted in
black which is very like the prehistoric painted pottery, and a quantity of buff or reddish-
buff wares with elaborate decoration in moulded relief. These latter are the porous
water vessels in general use in the Near East. A mould for the making of these wares
was found at Tīz and points to a local manufacture.