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

hills of Sarbāz has changed its course westwards. Abandoning its former
channels it has turned into a narrow deep-cut bed which precludes its water
being utilized for irrigation even when the river is in flood. Thus we found the
hamlet of Basōt, passed a couple of miles after entering upon the alluvial plain,
completely deserted. Marks of old cultivation long ago abandoned were to
be seen in places before the hamlet of Balūr Māch was reached after a march
of 24 miles. There a well and a small grove of date-palms accounted for
continued occupation.

Above the level plain east of the Bāhū river there rise abruptly isolated
rocky ridges resembling islands, and composed of layers of clay and calcareous
sandstone. One of the largest of them, situated about 2½ miles to the north of
Balūr Māch and known as Damba-kōh,⁶ bears the extensive burial site to which
Major Mockler had first called attention.⁷ Its southern extremity, as the
sketch plan (Plan 7) shows, rises in a series of connected hillocks to heights
from about 210 to 350 feet above the alluvial flat at its foot. The slopes and
parts of the crests, too, of the hillocks are occupied by burial cairns for a distance
of about three-quarters of a mile from north to south and for more than half a
mile across. These are all constructed with uncut slabs of stone from rock in situ,
but vary in size and shape. A rough enumeration, made by the Surveyor and
recorded in the plan, shows a total number of more than 1,700 cairns. As others
are to be found in scattered groups along the hill slope farther north, it
appears probable that the total number for the whole site cannot fall much
short of two thousand. As shown by the photograph (Fig. 24) taken from the
southernmost hill-crest, the whole picture conveys a curious impression, as if
the hill-sides had suffered from eruptions like small-pox.

A completely isolated small hillock, Dam. I, situated to the south-east in a
small valley and rising at its north-western end to a height of about 140 feet,
bears the remains of much decayed dwellings built with uncut stones. Plentiful
pottery debris covering the slopes and other indications left no doubt from the
start about this hillock marking a site occupied by the living. The same was
the case at a spot about a quarter of a mile off to the south, and measuring about
90 yards in diameter, where the ground was thickly strewn with potsherds. I
shall further on discuss the remains of the hillock, Dam. I, and of this small
tati, to use the term familiar to me from desert sites of this kind in the Tārīm
basin. Past the eastern foot of the ridge there runs a depression, filled with