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

east of it. Owing to the digging operations referred to, it has been reduced to
a width varying from 60 to 120 yards. Broken bricks and rubble from com-
pletely decayed structures cover the surface throughout. The frequency of
glazed pottery and the total absence of unglazed painted ware clearly indicated
occupation within the historical period, probably down to medieval times. Of
coin finds which might have helped to determine a terminus ad quem I could
not learn.

When we set up the plane-table to fix the position of the site with reference
to the quarter-inch survey made of the neighbourhood by Muhammad Ayūb
Khān on a previous tour, and to prepare a sketch plan of the site, I was informed
by the officer in charge of the escort that under the instructions received by
him no survey work of any kind was to be allowed. This obstructive order
was manifestly contrary to the views expressed by the authorities at Tehrān
and to the attitude previously shown towards our work, both during the ex-
plorations in Balūchistān and on the Surveyor's preceding tours within the
Kermān province. Representations made to this effect proved in vain, and the
Naib, while refusing to produce the alleged instructions, insisted on being
handed the plane-table sheet showing the preceding survey of this area. This
was done under protest. No time was lost in reporting the unexpected difficulty
thus raised to the British Minister at Tehrān, as well as to the Director of
Antiquities, with the result that by the time of our arrival at Bandar Abbās
a month later the alleged instructions prohibiting survey work were disavowed
and the seized plane-table sheet returned to me. But since the representative
of the Department of Public Instruction, whose promised assistance might,
perhaps, have obviated such objections, failed to join us, our work continued
meanwhile to be hampered in this and, as it soon proved, also in another
essential direction.

On November 9th we set out for the small village of Ḥaidarābād to the south-
east, whence the site of Tal-i-Iblīs, or the 'Devil's Mound', could be con-
veniently approached. After passing for about 2 miles through land cultivated
from underground canals, the bed of the Lālehzār river was crossed. What
little water it held was said to be derived from the discharge of irrigation
channels. On the scrub-covered waste beyond, the track led past several
ruined hamlets which, with the land around, had been abandoned owing to water
failing from their qanāts. Almost equally distressing were conditions at the
small village of Ḥaidarābād, reached after a total march of 8 miles. Its under-
ground canals had ceased to carry water and the few families of cultivators still
clinging to their homes were dependent for water on a single well. The dying
trees in the large orchard where our camp was pitched vividly recalled sights