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

some ten years before by villagers of Muhammadābād from the other side of the
river. The general appearance of the site was far from promising. But when our
guide from that village took us to the spot where hollows in the ground marked
the reported previous burrowings, it was easy for me to realize from the plenti-
ful potsherds strewing the ground that we stood at a burial-ground of chalco-
lithic times, and that, though disturbed, it might yet offer a good harvest.

On the morning of March 12th work was started with the small number of
labourers it had been possible to collect on a small patch of ground (Fig. 36),
slightly raised above the surrounding bare clay which appeared to have under-
gone wind erosion. A trench first cut here from north to south and gradually
extended for some 45 feet brought to light, at a depth of only a foot or two and
in different places, two large jars, unpainted, and a couple of broken bowls. One
of the latter (Khur. A. 116, Pl. XVII) showed on the inside a painted design
unmistakably chalcolithic, and inside one of the jars a cup, A. 117 (Pl. XVII), was
found painted in a style familiar from Bampūr; so there could be no doubt about
the character of the site. Scattered fragments of human bones and more broken
pottery of the same type indicated that funeral deposits previously disturbed had
been struck here. Among this debris three fragments of plain glass bangles,
black and pale green (Khur. 033–35), were picked up. Neither here nor during
the subsequent excavation were such deposits found at a depth anywhere greater
than 2 feet from the surface. Hard clay met at one point in A, and subsequently
also in other trenches, suggested remains of walls of stamped clay or mud bricks,
and hence that burials had taken place here on ground previously occupied by
dwellings.

When subsequently, on arrival of more labourers, the excavation was ex-
tended by other trenches over the closely adjacent ground, it was not long
before we came upon undisturbed funerary deposits. The first, B. i, in trench B,
seen in Fig. 37, contained altogether sixteen closely packed pottery articles,
some pots stuck together in nests of two or three. There were little earthen-
ware cups with diminutive foot (B. i. 128; Pl. XVII) familiar to me from Balūchi-
stān sites;¹ several plain bowls like B. i. 127 (Pl. XVII); painted jars like B. i. 119
(Pl. XIV); a small alabaster bowl with a broad and flat rim (B. i. 129; Pl. XXXII);
and on the top of a large pot in the centre there lay the fragments of a bronze
plaque with a slightly raised rim (B. i. 130; Pl. XVIII). Among fragments of
painted vessels B. i. 122 (Pl. XVII) was of interest as it shows a row of horned
mountain sheep arranged in the principal zone, as frequent in the decoration of
Bampūr painted ware. In the same trench there was subsequently discovered
a still larger collection of sepulchral furniture, B. ii, seen in Fig. 38. It lay at