IsMEO ACTIVITIES The archaeologicalexcavations and restorations of IsMEO in Asia, oi which a brief SUl'veyis g1ven below, were carried out thanks to the cooperation oi and a grant from the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR). * * * In the months oi September, October, November and December 1968~ the Archaeological Mission in Iran has continued work at Shahr-i Sokhta, the large Bronze age uroan settlement in Iranian 8istan. Tbe direction has been again entrusted to Dr M. Tosi, aidedby Mrs F. Bonardi, in charge of photography, Mr G. Graziani, assistant on the main excavation, Mr T. Tamagnini, topographer-draftsman, Mr R. Biscione, assistant on the staff and the collaboration of Mr L Yaghmai of the Museum Iran Ba'8tan of Tehran. A lal'ge amount of work has been done in order to prepare a detailed typology of the huge number of pots and sherds. A careful survey has been undertaken, and in the majority of cases it has been possible to i1!olate the features useful for the layout of the generaI typology. Neverthe!ess, the maLn effort has been put In the enlargement of the excavations. During the campaign of 1967 (see EW, XWI, pp. 344 fI.) salt sedimentation had permitted recognition of an extensi'Ve network oi walls Iying beneath ground level, without excavation. This network extends across the flat top of' a large clay mesa for over two thousand sq. km., overlooking a dry portion of tlÌe Hamun-i Hilmand, the swampy delta of the rwer Hilmand. The salt sedimentation has also sealed' the dèposit against any contact with air and moisture, contJ)i:buting in thi'.> way to tl1e wonderful preservation oi the finds and the sundried bricks. Excavations ,have been conducted in a flat area (1.800 sq. 1111.) at the centre of the mouna. A group oi rectartgul~r buiIdings was discovered~ four af thein concentrated in ah insula isolated on the four sides by winding alleyways, averagitig' 3 m. in width. The buiIdirigs have slx to ten rooms div'i'ded' by minor walls. , ' The uncovered walIs project to a height of over' 3 m. Doors, windows, fireplaces, staircases, furnaces, doorsockets, door-lintels and other aochitectural features are fine!y preserved. The very dry climate of Sistan has maintained in good condition also most of the wood remains: burnt roo£ bearns, str~w mats and tools.
In a deep trerich excavated down to the naturai soiI, some 200 m. south of the main excavation, three ovedying periods have been distinguished. The fi!rst one' from the bottom is lying cfuectly over a series of supedmposed layers of clay, sand and gravel 1.50 m. thick, showing the consequences of frequent and violent floods followed by quiet phases. Under these layers there is a very deep deposit of prysmatic reddish clay, probahly £ormed in a period wheti the wa1:ers of the lake were permanently lying at that leve!. We are probably facing here a: hydrological situation very similar to that of early southérn Mesopotamia~ namely the formation of sand gravel dunes slowly emerging from the drying swamps of a delta. The three building periods now uncovered are showiI1!g a continuous occupation of the site by the same people. The pottery presents no striking d1fferences: certain patterns and shapes seem to oocur more or less frequently in a period rather than in another. In generaI, we can onIy affirm that in the earliest period, red paint for the designs was preferred to the black-tobrown one, widely used in the later two. On the other hand, it does not seem that any considerable change had occurred in the techniques involved by the manufacture of the pottery and the other finds. This, on the strength of further study and fieldwork, wiIl confirm the existence of the long life of a people who settled at Shahr-i Sokhta, aIready possessed of a well-developed culture. All the buiIdings, uncovered at the main excavation, belong to the second and third periods. Unfortunately, the erosion has preserved very Iittle of the latest periodo Anyway, we can affirm that very Iittle change took pIace in the layout of rooms and buildings. The buiIdings of the intermediate period are directly overlying those of the earliest one, with some difference in the direction of the walls. The complete excavation of a single dweIling house of the second and third period has shown that the well-preserved walls were not constructed at one rime. PeriodicaIly, perhaps as a conseque11lCeof the Hilmand river fIoods, the leve! of this buiIdìng was raised, causing its rooms to be filIed with a very large riumber of vessels, pot~ shetds and bricks.Wallsind, .fireplaces were raised directly' onthose of the pii:iceding phase, earlier doors and windows were closed' by means of bri~ork and plaster: So far, four different phases o£. the second period can now be distinguished. In the' last one, most of the rooms were su:bdi'Vided and there is some evidence of an extensive destruction by fire. In the second phase, the plan of the house was enIarged to the south and the east, with two adjoined wings. Two main
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gical documents from Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Ti:bet. If the dating which was put forth in the «First Preliminary Report» (EW, XVIII, 1968, pp. 109-24) proves valid - as seems the case -, some of the many moot points which stiIl punctuate CentraI Asian chronology may perhaps find the way to an easy solution. A few spot-tests of different sizes were also made to probe some cmcial points in the Upper Terrace; indeed, they have shown that the area underwent changes deeper than we were formerly inclined to admit. Particular1y worth of mention is the trench round stùpa 21. We were also lucky enough to collect useful information about a site in the environs of Gazni, known as Giidul-i Ahangaran, where several clay sealings (like tbe Tibetan ts'a ts'a) with inscriptions were found: a number of ts'a ts'a £rom the same site are in the shape 01 mc'od rten quite similar to the actual cJay stiiplaS of Tapa Sardar and contain the smaller sealings with inscriptions. An undoubted link between the type of the stiipas and palaeographical evidence is therefore available. Some more fragments of manuscripts on birch bark (?) have also been recovered from the new excavation at Tapa Sardar.
staircases were connecting the ground level fIoO! to an upper storey, probaibly just a terrace. The pottery found in tbese overlying filIings i5 closely related in shape, technique and patterns to that found in the Bampur Valley at the site of Mundigak (periods nI and IV) near Kandahar, and in Northern Baluchistan (Quetta, Lorelai and Fort Sandeman). There is ampIe evidence that Shahr-i Sokhta was a production centre for alahaster vessels/ and generally the hard stone manufacturing with special regard for imported stones like lapis lazuli, cornelian and turquoise. Excavations have also contr1buted to £inding a 'very large amount of baked and unbaked clay figurines, stamp seals, stone vessels and flint tools. A group of the Members has also spent a week in carrying out a detailed survey of southern Sistan, with special regard to the Rud Byaban, the ancient delta of the Hilmand river, where over 40 di£ferent mounds have been identified. * * * The works at Tapa Sardar (Gazni) have been resumed by the Italian Archaeological Mission to Afghanistan in tbe month of September, 1968, and continued up to the beginning of November. The Campaign was directed by Dr M. Taddei, aided by Mrs F. Bonardi, in charge of photography, Mr M. Valentini and Mr A. D'Amico, assistants, Mr N. Labianca, draftsman, and Mr E. Crisanti, restorer. Excavation was restricted within the limits of a much reduced area to the east of the Buddha base no. 18 (see EW, XVIII, 1968, 1-2, plan fadng p. 112), where it has revealed but a small part of the very intricate plan of the sanctuary. We were forced not to overstep such a smalI-scale excavation programme, on account of the great difficulties involved by the conditions in which the mudbrick structures are found in the sloping portions of tbe hilIook, as well, or rather chiefly, because of tbe tremendous problems connected witb the presetlVation of the finds. These have led us to deal first with the objects and monuments d]scovered during the previous campaigns, that stilI needed to undergo a suitable treatment, after wruch tbey would be ready for a more thorough examination. The task of the archaeologist was therefore one of carefully cleaning and surveying the minor details of the small stiipas and thrones to the east of the Main Stiipa (excavated in 1959-60). We have thus acquired a better knowledge of the very strucrure of the monuments, which will afford a series of useful comparisons with other archaeolo-
* * * The Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan, in its fourteenth season of excavation, under the direction of Dr D. Faccenna, has pursued work in several branches of research, from the month of May to tbe month of December, 1968, with the participation of Mrs F. Bonardi, in charge of photography, Arch. G. Zander, Dr G. Stacul, and Mr L. Mariani, draftsman. The resumption of excavation, in Swat, at the rock shelter near Ghaligai, carried out in the months of May and Septem'ber (Dr G. Stacul) has allowed to gather a vast amount of artifacts dat11lg to dHferent periods, ranging between the second half of the 3rd millennium Re. and Islamic times (EW, XVII, 1967, pp. 185 fI.). Some protohistoric phases attested for the first time at Ghaligai, have been further clarified thanks to some trial trenches made in the course' of the said campaign, in other sites of the Swat Valley. At Loebanr III a large holIow has been brought to light (a storage-pit?) cut out in the clayey soil: the filIing stratum has yielded abundant remains of artifacts, chiefIy burnished vases, black, greyblack and buff-coloured. The same cultural horlzons occur near Barikot, where the very same materials were associated with masonry strucrures, made up by large pebbles. In the course of surveys, carried out between 444
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- Nos. 3 -4 (September-December1968)