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Excavations at Ghubayrā, 1971: First Interim Report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

A. D. H. Bivar  and
G. Fehérvári
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Extract

The first season of excavations at the medieval Islamic site of Ghubayrā in Kirmān Province took place between late March and the end of May 1971. The excavations were made possible by the kind permission of the Ministry of Art and Culture, and the Iranian Archaeological and Folkloric Services. The excavators record their sincere gratitude to H.E. Mr. Mehrdad Pahlbod, Minister of Art and Culture, and to Mr. A. Pourmand, Director-General of the Iranian Archaeological and Folkloric Services; to Mr. Khurramābādī and Dr. Na‘īmī of that service; and to Mr. Enayatullah Emirloo, who came to Ghubayrā as our Representative. We render thanks too to the local office of the Department of Ferhang va Honar at Kirmān, and especially to its Director, Mr. Mehdi Zamānī. To Mr. Muḥammad Sādeq Dānesh, District Commissioner of Bardsīr, our special acknowledgements are due for his constant thoughtfulness, and his readiness to give assistance in all moments of need.

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Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 106 , Issue 2 , July 1974 , pp. 107 - 141
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1974

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References

1 A brief report has already been published in Iran, X, 1972, under “Survey of Excavations”, 168–9, and Pl. II and III. See also Bivar, A. D. H. and Fehérvári, G., “Underground chambers and an octagonal shrine: excavations at Ghubayrā in Kirmān Province in 1971 and 1972”, Proceedings of the 1st Annual Symposium of Archaeological Research in Iran, Iran Bastan Museum, November 1972, Tehran, 1973, 1–10Google Scholar.

2 Field members of the 1971 expedition were: Géza Fehérvári (Director), David H. Bivar (Deputy Director), Mrs. Yolande Crowe (in charge of the small finds), Mrs. Iren Fehérvári, who looked after the headquarters, Miss Manijeh Bayānī, Miss Charmian Martin and Mr. Jonathan Keeling (site supervisors), and Mr. Hamīd Mashīhī and Mr. Shamuel Bayt Bābā (surveyors). Our foreman was Mr. Asadollāh Garkānī Najāhat of Dāshgār village, the local representative of the Ferhensg ve Honar, who had already worked for Professor J. R. Caldwell as a foreman at Tall-i Iblīs in 1966. Our driver was Mr. Muḥammad Zangiābādī from Kirmān. To both of them we offer our thanks. Finally, we thank the enthusiasm and interest of our workers from the villages of Ghubayrā, Bahrāmjird, Daulatābād, Ḥusainābād, and Qaryat al-‘Arab.

3 The trade routes and the economic and geographical importance of Kirmān Province have been studied by Beckett, Philip, “The city of Kirmān”, in Erdkunde, XX, 2, 1966, 120–125Google Scholar; also by English, Paul Ward, City and village in Iran: Settlement and economy in the Kirman Basin, Milwaukee and London, 1966Google Scholar.

4 Cf. Abū ’l-Qāsim's treatise in Ritter-Ruska-Sarre, and Winderlich, , “Eine persische Beschreibung der Fayencetechnik von Kaschan aus dem Jahre 700/1301”, Istanbuler Mitteilungen, 3, Istanbul, 1935Google Scholar. The trade is also mentioned by Marco Polo.

5 SirStein, Aurel, “Archaeological reconnaissance in southern Persia”, GJ, LXXXIII, 2, 1934, 127Google Scholar; idem Archaeological reconnaissance in Southeastern Iran and Northwestern India, London, 1937.

6 Caldwell, J. R., ed., Investigations at Tal-i Iblis, Springfield, Illinois, 1967Google Scholar.

7 Lamberg-Karlowsky, C. C., Iran, VI, 1968, 167–168Google Scholar; VII, 1969, 184–6, Pl. IVa, b; VIII, 1970, 197–9; IX 1971, 87–95; X, 1972, 89–100; idem, Excavations at Tepe Yaḥyā, Iran, 1967–69, Cambridge, Mass., 1970.

8 Described in the paper read by Professor Ḥākimī at the Sixth International Congress of Iranian Art and Archaeology in September 1972.

9 Radomir Pleiner, “Preliminary evaluation of the 1966 metallurgical investigations in Iran”, in J. R. Caldwell, Investigations at Tal-i Iblis, 374.

10 Such as the trees discussed by Gershevitch, Ilya, “Sissoo at Susa”, BSOAS, XIX, 1957, 317–320CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 Miles, G. C., “Some new light on the history of Kirmān in the first century of the Hijrah”, The world of Islam: Studies in honour of Philip K. Hitti, London and New York, 1959, 90Google Scholar.

12 J. Unvala in NC, Sixth Series, XVII, 1957, 150, No. 12.

13 Kitāb al-masālik wa-’l-mamālik, ed. de Goeje, , Leyden, 1889, 49Google Scholar.

14 Abū Kālijār, the last great Buwayhid Amīr of Fārs, died at Khannāb. Cf. Bowen, H., “The last Buwayhids” JRAS, 1929, 234Google Scholar.

15 Kitāb al-masālik wa-’l-mamālik, edited by Iraj Afshār, Tehran, 1961, 140 f., and map facing p. 139.

16 Le Strange, Guy, The lands of the Eastern Caliphate, London, 1905, Map VI, facing p. 249Google Scholar; Philip Beckett ibid., 120–5, Fig. 1; Paul Ward English, op. cit., 25.

17 Le Strange, Guy, “The cities of Kirman in the time of Ḥamd Allāh Mustawfī and Marco Polo”, JRAS 1901, 281–290Google Scholar.

18 Kitāb al-aqālīm, Leyden, 1870–7, 462–3.

19 Bosworth, C. E., “The Banū Ilyās of Kirmān (320–57/932–68)”, in Bosworth, C. E. (ed.), Iran and Islam: In memory of Vladimir Minorsky, St. Andrews, 1971, 107–124Google Scholar.

20 Ḥamd Allāh Mustawfī, Tārikh-i Guzīda, 93 and 107.

21 See below p. 132.

22 The Travels of Marco Polo, trans, by Sir H. Yule, London, 1903, ch. xvi–xxi. General Houtum-Schindler investigated Marco Polo's passage about this route. He suggested that Marco Polo must have passed through the plain of Sarvizan (most likely Sarvistān), and then went up to the Deh Bakrī pass. Cf. Houtum-Schindler, , “Notes on Marco Polo's itinerary in southern Persia”, JRAS, 1881, 490–497Google Scholar. Sykes in 1895 and in 1900 also followed the possible route of the Venetian traveller. He is more specific about the first part of the possible road. After leaving Kirmān Sykes travelled due south and reached Jupār and then followed the Bahrāmjird (now known as Chārī) river as far as the village of Bahrāmjird. His next stop was at Gudar, which he places due east of Qaryat al-‘Arab. From there he went to Rāyin and reached what he called the Sarbizān pass, which may be identical to the Deh Bakrī pass. Cf. SirSykes, Percy Molesworth, Ten thousand miles in Persia, London, 1902, 267–268Google Scholar.

23 The results of these reconnaissances were reported in J. R. Caldwell, Investigations at Tal-i Iblis, ch. vi and viii.

24 Cf. Caldwell, op. cit., 102–7, Fig. 9, Pl. 11–3.

25 Cf. Daniel Evett in Caldwell, op. cit., 223, 225, Fig. 9.

26 Illustrated in Caldwell, op. cit., 102, Pl. 11.

27 The furnace has been illustrated in Iran, X, 1972, Pl. IIb, under “Survey of Excavations”.

28 This type of pottery was described by Lane, Arthur, Later Islamic pottery, London, 1957 (2nd ed., 1971), 82–84Google Scholar, Pl. 57–61, Colour Pl. D.

29 This design has been discussed by Richard Ettinghausen, who attributed it to the 14th century. Cf. “The Wade cup”, Ars Orientalis, II, 1957, 351–352Google Scholar, Figs. Q and R. Also Baer, Eva, “Fishpond ornaments on Persian and Mamluk metal vessels”, BSOAS, XXXI, 1968, 25, Fig. 13, Pl XIIGoogle Scholar.

30 David Whitehouse, Iran, VI, 1968, Pl. VIc; X, 1971, PI. Xb,

31 See below p. 135.

32 The importance of bronze hairpins topped by the figure of a bird has been discussed by Schuyler Camman in “Ancient symbols in modern Afghanistan”, Ars Orientalis, II, 1957, 15–6, and Fig. 2.

33 Sykes, Ten thousand miles, 61.

34 Similar underground chambers with vertical shafts were reported by Siroux from the Iṣfahān region. Cf. Maxime Siroux, Anciennes voies et monuments routiers de la région d'Ispahan, Le Caire, 1971, 289–91, and Fig. 98.

35 cf. Vendidād, Fargard VI, v, 44–50 (English translation in J. Darmesteter, The Zend-Avesta, (Sacred Books of the East, Vol. IV, I, Oxford, 1886), 72–3); Procopius, Be bello Persico I, 11, 35: ⋯πειρημ⋯νων τοῖς Περσ⋯ν ν⋯μοις γῇ κρ⋯πτειν ποτ⋯ τ⋯ τ⋯ν ν⋯κρων σώματα.

36 Yāqūt, Mu’jam al-buldān, s.v. Tadmūr: Bayt mujaṣṣas…fīhi sarīr ‘alayhā imra’atun mustalaqiyatun ‘aiā ẓuhrihā wa-‘alayhā sab‘īna ḥalla wa-idhā lahā saba‘ ghadā’ir mashdūda bi-khalkhālihā…fī ba‘ḍ alghadā’ir idhā ṣaḥīfatu dhahab fīhā maktūb … cf. Andras Hamori, “An allegory from the Arabian Nights: the City of Brass”, BSOAS, XXXIV, 1971, 18.

37 Sykes, Ella C., Through Persia on a side-saddle, London, 1901, 99Google Scholar. For the occurrence of a shaft-grave in the Parthian period at Edessa see Segal, J. B., Edessa, the blessed city, Oxford, 1970, 28–29, n. 4Google Scholar.