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

found at various chalcolithic sites (Kulli, Mehī, &c.); a hone; also a human
skull, very brittle and crushed, together with other bones apparently of small
animals. Around lay ashes and charred fragments, but the bones were not
burnt. Layers of ashes and burnt earth were laid bare at varying levels from
about 12 to 16 feet. Among the miscellaneous finds in the trench were also
numerous fragments of alabaster cups like Hus. 39, 106, and marble, Hus. 56,
74; a few slinging stones; shaped fragments of shell; also fragments of a fine-
grained soft stone worked apparently into flat plates. Hus. 101 (Pl. XIX) is a
stone slab bearing a curious resemblance to a human sole. What deserves special
mention is the association observed throughout of well-painted good pottery
with coarse handmade ware and worked stones.
Two smaller trenches were also opened, one, B, about 100 yards to the north-
east on a low level, and the other, C, to the south-east on a level of about 15 feet.
At both places burnt earth and plentiful fragments of good plain ware on the
surface suggested use of the ground for kilns. But these indications extended
only for a foot or two from the surface. In B there were found, among many
pieces of well-painted ware, the large bowl 508 (Pl. XIX) and several fragments
large enough to permit of reconstructing the vessels of which they had formed
part (see, e.g., 472, Pl. XIX). The trench C yielded among miscellaneous
finds numerous flint blades; a small bronze fragment; pieces of alabaster and
sandstone cups; several stone pestles and a stone mortar, 539 (Pl. XIX); a
stone quern and roller; and from a level of 13 feet the fragment of a glass bangle,
Hus. 553 (Pl. X) with coloured inlay closely resembling that found in A. A
few small fragments of copper also turned up.
Subsequently, before our departure on March 20th, I had a small mound, D,
in the detached debris area across the dune ridge to the east probed by excava-
tion in two places. Little of painted pottery was found here apart from the com-
plete tumbler, 585 (Pl. XIX), showing a herring-bone pattern painted in black
over a red slip below the rim. There was found here also a large vessel of coarse
hand-made pottery, 19 inches wide at its mouth and 17 inches deep to its flat
bottom, filled partly with small stones and charred fragments.
Before turning to the subject of the painted pottery, which is of special in-
terest at this site, I must mention a curious observation bearing on its physical
aspect. I found the surface around the mound, where clear of drift sand, uniformly
strewn with an abundance of small pieces of black stone which suggested debris
of lava or some other eruptive material. Its presence on the gravel ground can
well be accounted for, as the extinct volcano of the Kōh-i-Bazmān rises some 56
miles to the north of Chāh Ḥusainī. We could sight its snow-capped summit,
11,470 feet above the sea, on the morning of our departure. The gravel glacis
s