Excavations at Sīrāf; First Interim Report

British Institute of Persian Studies

Excavations at Sīrāf; First Interim ReportAuthor(s): David WhitehouseSource: Iran, Vol. 6 (1968), pp. 1-22Published by: British Institute of Persian StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4299597 .

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EXCAVATIONS AT SIRAF

First Interim Report

By David Whitehouse

The first season of excavations at Siraf took place between October and December 1966.1 The excavations are sponsored by the British Institute of Persian Studies with the object of recovering information about the development and commercial relations of a city which, according to medieval Arab geographers, was the most prosperous port in the Persian Gulf during the ninth and tenth centuries A.D.

We are grateful to H.E. the Minister of Culture, Mr. Mehrdad Pahlbod, for granting a permit to excavate at Siraf and to the Director-General of the Archaeological Service, Mr. A. Pourmand. The Director of Tehran Archaeological Museum, Prof. E. Negahban, gave us much advice and encourage- ment. We acknowledge also the help of the Director of Antiquities for Fdrs, Mr. Kadjuri, and the Director of the archaeological establishment at Persepolis, Mr. Ranai.

The excavation was financed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation of Lisbon, the British Academy, the British Museum and the British Institute of Persian Studies. We acknowledge their support with gratitude.

The excavation staff was as follows: David Whitehouse (Director), Ruth Whitehouse and James Allan (Site Supervisors), Lucy Robertson (Finds Assistant), Barbara Pough (Surveyor), Pamela Pratt (Conservator) and Geoffrey Sansbury (Photographer). Mr. Mahmout Khordvani was the Representa- tive of the Archaeological Service and the whole staff is grateful to him for his assistance. Mr. John Hansman visited the site and gave us valuable help. As a newcomer to Islamic archaeology, I am also personally grateful to Mr. Ralph Pinder-Wilson, Assistant Keeper, Oriental Antiquities, British Museum, who was fortunately able to join us, for his unstinting advice about the finds. For more general advice I wish to thank Prof. M. E. L. Mallowan, Mr. David Stronach and Sir Mortimer Wheeler.

During the excavation we enjoyed the generous hospitality of Shaikh Nasir Nasouri of Taheri. We also enjoyed the help and hospitality of DOPCO, a subsidiary of Shell Iran NV based at Bushire. We offer Shaikh Nasir and the Director and Staff of DOPCO our warmest thanks.

I. INTRODUCTION

The site of Siraf, modern Taheri, lies on the Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf, 220 km. south-east of Bushire and approximately 380 km. west-north-west of Bandar 'Abbis (see map, Fig. I). The existence of a ruined site at Taheri was reported by James Morier in 18122 and the site was visited subsequently by Captain Brucks, I.N., the first surveyor of the Persian Gulf, who thought that it was Portuguese.3 It was later visited by three other officers of the Indian Navy: Captain G. B. Kempthorne, who examined the site in 1835 and was the first person to identify the ruins with SirMf,4 Commodore Ethersey5 and Captain Arthur Stiffe.6 Kempthorne and Stiffe were the first writers to publish eye-witness accounts of the site and Kempthorne removed a stone grave cover which he presented to the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. In the i86os Taheri was visited by a ship involved in laying one of the submarine cables between Bushire and Jask, 225 km. south-east of Bandar 'Abbas.7 On this

1 Preliminary reports have already appeared in Iran V (1967), pp. 141-2; and Antiquity XLI, no. 162 (June 1967), p. 134.

2 James Morier, A Journey Through Persia, Armenia and Asia Minor to Constantinople in the Years 18o8 and 1809 (London 1812), p. 51.

3 Arthur W. Stiffe, " Ancient Trading Centres of the Persian Gulf. I. Sirdif", Geographical Journal VI (1895), pp. 166-73, particularly p. I66.

4 G. B. Kempthorne, " A Narrative of a Visit to the Ruins of Tahrie, the Supposed Site of the Ancient City of Siraff, also an Account of the Ancient Commerce of the Gulf of Persia, etc.", Trans. Bombay Geographical Society XIII (1856-57), pp. 125-40.

6 Stiffe, op. cit., in note 2, p. i66. 6 Ibid. 7 Idem, p. I67.

1



2 JOURNAL OF PERSIAN STUDIES

occasion a second grave cover was removed and presented to the British Museum. The site has been visited on several occasions in the twentieth century: notably by members of the French expedition to Sabz~bdd, a prehistoric site near Bushire,8 by Sir Arnold Wilson in 1911,9 Sir Aurel Stein in 1933,10 Karl Lindberg in 194011 and Prof. L. Vanden Berghe in 1960-61I.12 All these visitors produced accounts of Taheri and Stein's description contains the fullest discussion of the site hitherto published. In 1962 Dr. Alastair Lamb visited Taheri and reported on its archaeological potential.13

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Fig. I. The position of Sfraf.

The earliest reference to Siraf occurs in the writing of Ibn al-Faqih (active c. 850 A.D.), who noted that Sirdfi ships traded with India.14 About the same time Sulaiman the Merchant recorded that Middle Eastern goods bound for China were sent first from Basra to Sirtf, whence they were dispatched by way of Muscat and Quilon, an important entrep6t on the Malabar coast.'5 Fifty years later Abi Zaid (c. 877-915/6), himself a merchant of Siraf, noted that Sirdfi merchants visited Jidda in the Red Sea and the Zanzibar coast. Abti Zaid also stated that, although Chinese coins were still in circulation at Siraf, the volume of trade between the Persian Gulf and China had decreased after the massacre of foreign merchants in Canton in 878. When Mas'fidi (d. 956) visited Madagascar between 916 and 926 he found ships from Sirif and Oman and he also noted the presence of Sirdfi vessels at the head of the Persian Gulf in the ports of al-Ubulla and 'Abbaddin.16

8 Maurice P6zard, " Mission A Bender-Bouchir ", M.D.P. XV (1914), P. 36 and Site 6 on map, pl. IX. Rishahr is the site of a small Islamic settlement and a Portuguese factory.

9 Sir Arnold Wilson, South West Persia: A Political Officer's Diary 1907-1914 (London 1942), pp. 178 ff.

10 Sir Aurel Stein, Archaeological Reconnaissances in North Western India and South Eastern Iran (London 1937), Pp. 202-12.

11 Karl Lindberg, Voyage dans le Sud d'Iran (Lund 1955), P. 12 I. 1i L. Vanden Berghe, " R6centes D6couvertes de Monuments

Sassanides dans le Firs ", Iranica Antiqua I (1961), pp. 163-98, particularly 172 ff.

13 Alastair Lamb, Report on a Visit to the Site of Siraf, near Taheri in the Persian Gulf, in November 1962, duplicated and circulated privately.

14 Summaries of the documentary evidence for Siraf will be found in P. Schwarz, Iran im Mittelalter, vol. I (Leipzig, Stuttgart and Berlin I9Io), p. 61; Sir Arnold Wilson, The Persian Gulf (Oxford 1928), pp. 92-6; Cl. Huart in Encyclopaedia of Islam, (London and Leiden), s.v.; Stein, op. cit., in note Io; Jean Aubin, " La Ruine de Siraf et les routes du Golfe Persique aux XIe et XIIe siecles ", Cahiers de Civilisation Mediivale II, no. 3 (July-September 1959), Pp. 295-301; and G. le Strange, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate (Cambridge 1905), Pp. 258-9, 293 and 296.

15 Stein, op. cit., in note 10, p. 202; and Wilson, op. cit., in note 14, P-. 94-

1s G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville, The Medieval History of the Coast of Tanganyika (Berlin: Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Institut ffir Orientforschung, I962), p. 46.



EXCAVATIONS AT SIRAF 3

The next geographer to mention Sirgf, Istakhri (writing shortly before 950), provides the fullest surviving account of the city.17 In the district of Ardashir (south-west Firs), he wrote, Siraf was second in importance only to Shiraz and was almost as large as the latter. Despite its position in the hottest part of the coast and the scarcity of drinking water, fruit and vegetables, all of which were fetched from the plain ofJamm,18 Sirafwas a prosperous city with imposing buildings. The multi-storey houses were built with wood imported from East Africa and a merchant might spend as much as 30,000 dinars on building a house. Ibn Hauqal, another tenth-century writer who derived much of his account from Istakhri, added that the city possessed three places of worship.19 According to Istakhri, the merchandise which passed through Sirdf included aloes, ambergris, camphor, gemstones, bamboo, ivory, ebony, paper, sandalwood and other perfumes, drugs and spices. The city was an important market for pearls and among its own products were linen napkins and veils. Writing of the period 908-932, the twelfth- century writer Ibn al-Balkhi recorded that the value of goods handled at Sirdf amounted to no less than 2,530,000 dinars per annum.20

However, by the time Muqaddasi wrote a description of Sirdf in the late tenth century a decline had begun. The city was still an important entrep6t with remarkable houses, but a severe earthquake which lasted for seven days had damaged the city in 977 and many of the merchants had moved elsewhere.21 After the fall of the Biyid Dynasty (c. 1055) and the consequent disruption of trade routes in Fars, much of the foreign traffic was diverted from Sirdf to Qais, an offshore island some I I o km. farther south.22

Thus, when Ibn al-Balkhi wrote the Fdrs Ndma in the twelfth century, Sirdf had greatly declined. When Ydiqiit (writing in 1218) visited the site the city was in ruins and supported only a few impoverished inhabitants. The only large building still intact was a mosque with wooden columns. The place-name Sirdf had become corrupted to Shilau, a name still attached to part of the site.

We may summarize the documentary evidence for the history of Siraf as follows. By the time Sirdf was mentioned first (c. 850), it was already a flourishing port with merchants dealing with India and south-east Asia. During the next hundred years the city continued to prosper and Sirafi merchants traded with the Red Sea, East Africa and Madagascar in the West and with India, the Malay peninsula and China in the East. In the early tenth century, more than 2 - 5 million dinars' worth of goods passed through Siraf annually. In 977 the city was damaged by an earthquake and thereafter declined. After the fall of the Biyids (c. 1055) most of the trade was diverted to Qais and by 1218 Sirdf was in ruins.

The site of SirTf extends along the edge of a shallow bay, the ends of which are low sandy spits. The bay, which faces south, is 4 km. across. Immediately inland is a rugged sandstone ridge. In this part of Fars, the hinterland consists of a series of long mountainous ridges roughly parallel to the coast. These ridges, which are precipitous and reach heights of more than 1500 m. within 20 km. of the sea, are broken only occasionally by passes, making communication between the coast and the interior extremely difficult. At Sirif itself the first low ridge begins less than 500 m. from the beach, leaving only a narrow habitable strip.

The bay is divided into two unequal parts by a spur which runs from the first ridge to the sea. To the east lies the village of Taheri and on the spur itself is the shaikh's fortified mansion. To the west of the spur is the site of Siraf, which extends along the shore for more than 2 km. (Fig. 2 and P1. I). The coastal strip widens towards the west end of the bay until, on the west side of a dry wadi known as Kunarak, the plain of Bdgh-i-Shaikh is about I km. across. In the western part of the bay the first ridge is broken at two points: by the winding valley of Kundrak, through which the modern road approaches Taheri, and 1500 m. farther east by a narrow gorge known as Tang-i-Lir. Kunarak evidently served, as it does today, as the starting point of the route to the plain of Jamm. Between Kunarak and the shaikh's fort two additional spurs project from the south side of the first ridge. The larger spur, which is in fact almost parallel to the ridge, extends westwards from Tang-i-Lir for about I km. It is separated from the ridge by a valley which retains the thirteenth-century name Shilau. The

17 Stein, op. cit., in note Io, p. 202; and Wilson, op. cit., in note 14, P- 94-

18 A fertile plain 19 km. north of Sirdf, where the villagers of Taheri obtain dates and other produce today.

19 Wilson, op. cit., in note 14, p. 94.

20 Idem, p. 95. 21 Stein, op. cit., in note Io, p. 203; and Wilson, op. cit., in note

14, P. 94- 22 Aubin, op. cit., in note 14, passim.



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second, smaller spur lies between the west side of Shilau valley and a gully which enters the bed of Kunarak wadi. The first spur is surmounted by a small ruined structure which the villagers of Taheri mis-identify as a madrasa, and the second by the more extensive ruins of a mosque.

The site of Sirdf thus occupies a triangle bounded by the sea, the first ridge and Kunarak wadi, with outlying ruins to the west in the plain of Bigh-i-Shaikh. The whole of this triangle is covered with building debris. No standing ruin survives and much of the area is used for cultivation by the villagers of Taheri. The surface of the site consists of scattered footings and heaps of rubble, most of which has been removed from garden plots and piled round the edges. Seen from the air, this activity gives the erroneous impression that the plan of whole quarters of Sirdf is plainly visible; the " plan ", however, is that of the modern fields.

Nevertheless, certain features of the city are, or until recently were, immediately obvious. For example, when Stein visited Siraf he noted the remains of a massive " sea wall " extending along the beach for more than 400 m. on either side of the footings which he correctly identified as a mosque (Site B; see below, p. 9). None of this wall, which was reinforced on the seaward face with triangular and semi-circular buttresses, survives today, although two short sections (which Stein did not record) exist near Site D. In fact, the most impressive standing remains belong to the mosque, labelled masjid in Fig. 2, overlooking Kunarak valley (P1. IIb and c). The mosque belongs to the fourteenth or fifteenth century, but apparently stands on the site of an earlier structure because the vicinity is littered with fragments of tenth-, eleventh- and early twelfth-century grave covers (see below, p. 20 and P1. VIIIf). However, the most spectacular features of Sirdf are the cemeteries in Shilau valley. These cover the northern slopes of the valley and consist of numerous rock-cut graves, most of which are now empty. The largest cemetery (P1. IIa) occupies an abandoned quarry which probably supplied stone for many of the earlier buildings of Siraf. Finally, outside the medieval city, on the east spit of Taheri Bay, are mounds of debris from a group of pottery kilns with an output similar to the kilns at Site D (see below, p. I6).

II. THE EXCAVATION

One of our first objectives at Siraf was to cut an exploratory section through the accumulated deposits at the centre of the site. This would give some indication of the length of occupation, perhaps extending back into pre-Islamic times, and at the same time provide a stratified sequence of pottery. We therefore excavated a sounding in Site A, Ioo m. west of the mosque discovered by Stein. Mean- while we began to examine the Islamic city and selected three areas for excavation. The threat of road works on the site of Stein's mosque compelled us to carry out a rescue dig designed to elucidate as much of the plan as possible before the building was destroyed. Fortunately, however, the threat was later averted and we now intend to clear the site (Site B) completely. East of the mosque, in Site C, we began the excavation of a large and complex structure thought to be a house. Finally, the discovery of a group of kilns near the shore in the western sector of Siraf (Site D) led to the investigation of an industrial complex where pottery and possibly glass was produced.

I. Site A. The Sounding The sounding was situated some Ioo m. west of the Great Mosque and 75 m. from the beach. It

consisted of a trench measuring I5x5 m., excavated down to natural sand 7 m. below the surface (P1. IIIa and b). The stratigraphy was clearly defined and we recognized three major periods of occupation. The most substantial period was represented by a large building with walls of mortared rubble and paved or mortar floors. The building was in use throughout the period of Sirtf's great prosperity and its history is divisible into four phases. The floors of the latest phase were covered by rubble produced when the structure collapsed. Below the earliest floors was a series of deposits of clay and sand resting on a fossil beach and dating from before Siraf became prosperous. Above the collapsed rubble was a thick layer of agricultural soil, over which were the remains of flimsy buildings with drystone footings and floors of trampled earth. These evidently belonged to the period of impoverished occupation which followed the decline of Siraif. Above the footings was a layer of recent cultivation soil. The sequence of deposits may be summarized as follows:



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EXCAVATIONS AT SIRKF 7

Period 3 Impoverished occupation Agricultural soil

Rubble from collapse of large building

Period 2 Large building. Phase D Large building. Phase C Large building. Phase B Large building. Phase A

Period I Earliest occupation

Period I. The earliest occupation was represented by layers of trampled earth, sand and clay between i and I -4 m. thick. The lowest layers rest on undisturbed beach sand, less than I m. above the level of the highest tides today. The only structure associated with these deposits was a short length of mortared wall at the south end of the trench. Mixed with the sand and clay, however, was abundant pottery, including green-glazed sherds of " Sasanian-Islamic " type and fragments of stoneware jars imported from south-east Asia (see below, pp. 14 and 18). The occurrence of these wares, coupled with the absence of other Far Eastern pottery, suggests that Period I belongs to a phase after Sirdf had begun to handle international trade, but before it became a wealthy port.

Period 2. Throughout Period 2 the trench was occupied by a range of rooms extending approximately north-south, with a common wall in the west face of the excavation. The west wall and the trench edge were not precisely aligned, with the result that the north end of the section (Fig. 4) records deposits lying immediately outside the range of rooms. The sequence of floors in these deposits resembles the sequence in the range itself. The rooms on both sides of the west wall extended beyond the north end of the trench and it is clear that the building was extensive.

The building was reconstructed several times and the sequence of events is relatively clear. Each reconstruction was associated with new paved or mortar floors laid on a bed of make-up between 20 and 6o cm. thick. Where necessary, old walls were demolished down to floor level and new walls were built directly on the floors without foundations (P1. IIId). Because of this method of construction, we possess a series of stratified deposits separated by mortar floors. Although each layer of make-up may contain many residual finds, the chance of contamination with later material is minimal.

The sequence of building in Period 2 is divisible into four phases. In Phase A, which in fact comprises walls of two different ages, three rooms existed in the trench. During the phase the west wall and one of the partitions were strengthened, perhaps to support a second storey. After this had taken place, a mortar platform only 5 cm. high was made in a corner of the north room. A similar platform was discovered in Site C and we presume that they were stands for furniture or household utensils. In the second phase the range was extended at the north end and five rooms now appeared in the trench (P1. IIIc). The width of the rooms was increased to a minimum of 2 - 8 m. The south room had an earth floor and contained a mortared structure of unknown use, which consisted of a circular hollow with no outlet flanked by semi-circular blocks of rubble. During this phase the adjoining room was enlarged by demolishing the east wall down to floor level. The range was again enlarged in Phase C. The partitions were retained, but the rooms were now apparently almost 5 m. wide. At least four doorways were cut in the west wall giving access to the rooms beyond. In Phase D some of the partitions were replaced. The south room was evidently ruined and a group of four skeletons was found in shallow graves in the rubble. The south wall of the adjoining room thus became an outside wall and was consequently thickened. The doorway in this room was enlarged, but the other doors were blocked. During this latest phase some of the floors were paved and similar floors were used on the west side of the west wall.

At the end of Period 2D the large building collapsed. Everywhere the latest floors, which were covered with occupation debris in two of the rooms, were sealed by a layer of rubble up to I

"5 m. thick.

At no point did the walls survive more than I .4

m. above the latest floors. The levels which overlay this rubble suggested an impoverished occupation and it is tempting to interpret the deposit as a product




of the earthquake of 977: however, the evidence is inconclusive. One would expect that the earthquake fractured walls and floors and produced large sections of tumbled masonry. None of these symptoms was found; the floors were intact and the rubble was mostly small. Indeed, the overall impression was of gradual decay rather than violent destruction.

Period 3. The rubble was overlain by up to I m. of loam containing small rubble and patches of sand, ash and shell. The texture of this deposit suggests that it was agricultural soil and the dumps of sand, ash and shells show that occupation existed in the vicinity. Cut into the deposit at the north-east end of the trench were two shallow graves. The graves were sealed by the trampled earth and rubble floors associated with fragmentary drystone footings; evidently the settlement which existed nearby while the agricultural soil accumulated had encroached on the former area of cultivation. During the early part of Period 3 a new type of pottery, unglazed painted ware (see below, p. 15), came into use. At a later date a few pieces of green-glazed Chekiang celadon were introduced. However, blue and white porcelain, which occurs in small quantities in the superficial deposits at Sirif, was entirely lacking. Thus a date between the late eleventh and the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries appears probable and the type of occupation suggested by the deposits accords well with the poverty recorded by Yqiit in 1218.

Chronology. The chronology of the deposits in Site A is particularly important because at present they provide our fullest sequence of stratified finds. According to the documentary evidence, Sirif was already trading with India and the Far East in c. 850o and it is reasonable to suppose that the period of prosperity began about this date, or slightly earlier, and continued at least until the earthquake of 977. This supposition leads to the conclusion that the large building of Period 2 was in use for a considerable time within a period beginning before 850o and ending after 977. If it is correct to interpret the relatively poor Period I as immediately preceding Period 2A, then the beginning of 2A should be placed as early

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as possible within this bracket, perhaps c. 825-50. Such a date would agree with the sudden introduction of glazed wares of types discovered at Samarra, which was founded in 833, at the beginning of Period 2A.

The date of the end of Period 2 is more difficult to determine. Period 2 was followed by a phase of decay and it is reasonable to assume that the large building went out of use late in the history of Sirdf. Since the ruin of Period 2D cannot be attributed automatically to the earthquake of 977, it may have occurred as late as c. 1055 when Siraf was eclipsed by the rise of Qais. I suggest, therefore, the following provisional chronology for the sequence of deposits in Site A:

Period 3 Later eleventh century onwards. Period 2 c. 825-50 to c. 977-1055 Period I Before c. 825-50, perhaps beginning c. 8oo.

2. Site B. The Great Mosque The remains of a large building, consisting of pier bases and tumbled walls, were found by Stein

near the shore, some 8oo m. west of the shaikh's fort (P1. IVa). Although the plan was obscure, Stein wondered whether the ruins were those of the mosque described by Ydqift (see above, p. 3). During our excavation, work began on a local stretch of the new road connecting Bushire and Bandar 'Abbas. Entering Taheri Bay through Kunirak valley, the road crosses the site of Siraf and was originally planned to skirt the beach, threatening the building discovered by Stein. We therefore carried out a rescue excavation designed to identify the date and function of the structure and to recover sufficient of the plan to permit reconstruction. As a result the building was revealed as a mosque of the classic " Congregational " type. It was particularly fortunate, therefore, that with the help of Mr. Khordvani we were able to arrange for the road to be diverted; the mosque was preserved and excavation will continue in 1968 with the object of revealing the entire structure. We have named it the " Great Mosque ", partly because this probably reflects its status in Sirif and partly to distinguish it from the later mosque overlooking Kunarak valley (see above, p. 5).

In its completed form the Great Mosque consisted of a rectangular enclosure, 57 m. long and 44 m. wide, surrounding a courtyard 27 m. across (Fig. 5). The courtyard was bordered on three sides by double arcades, or riwdqs, with an entrance in the east wall and a possible second entrance to the north. Beside the east entrance is a solid foundation, 3 - 8 m. square, which may be the remains of a minaret. On the fourth, or qibla, side of the courtyard the arcade was five bays deep, forming a prayer hall, measuring 21 m. from the courtyard to the qibla wall. An additional arcade, four or more bays wide and at least ten bays long, projected from the south side of the enclosure.

The foundations of the Great Mosque consist of walls of mortared rubble between o . 9 and 1 - 2 m.

thick. Sections cut on either side of the qibla wall and in the north-east angle of the enclosure showed without doubt that at least some of the walls were built without foundation trenches, a practice recalling the construction of the large building in Site A. Spaces between the foundations were filled with earth and rubble up to the level of the floors. Above floor level, the outer walls of the mosque were solid, while the arcades consisted of rows of piers, each row apparently resting on a continuous foundation. The pier bases were originally square (P1. IVd). They were between

o.9 and

I. I m. across and consisted of a single dressed boulder encased in plaster. No base survives more than 70 cm. above floor level and consequently the form of the piers is uncertain. However, the use of large boulders with a flat surface suggests that the bases supported wooden columns, a type of construction mentioned by Yaqiit as a feature of the principal mosque at Siraf. Many of the piers, including P1. IVd, were later reinforced with semi-circular buttresses.

The remains of the Great Mosque belong to at least two periods of building. Marine erosion, which is encroaching on the south-west angle of the mosque, has revealed that the foundations of the western- most bay of the prayer hall abut on to those of the first four bays, which have a rounded buttress at the south-west angle (P1. IVc). Furthermore, the foundations of the arcade which project from the main enclosure on the south side also abut on to the foundations of the original prayer hall. We may assume, therefore, that neither the fifth bay of the prayer hall nor the additional arcade existed in the original plan. Thus the Great Mosque probably consisted primarily of a rectangular enclosure measuring




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GREAT MOSQUE.EARLY S FOUNDATIONS ABOVE GROUND

DO. LATER

, FOUNDATIONS FOUNDATIONS &

RECENT MOSQUE ABOVE GROUND

II ABOVE GROUND Fig. 5. Site B. The Great Mosque. Plan.




52 m. long by 44 m. wide, with a prayer hall four bays deep. It is not yet clear whether the so-called " minaret " belongs to this initial construction, nor whether the additions were made on one or more occasions.

In the absence of a dedicatory inscription, we must rely on archaeological evidence to date the Great

Mosque. The most important evidence is a group of silver coins from the filling between the foundations of the original and the additional qibla walls; these await identification. Further evidence is provided by fragments of decorated stucco found in make-up under the floor of a recent structure built on the site of the prayer hall (see below). The fragments (see below, p. 20 and P1. VIIIa) are closely paralleled by the ninth-century stucco in the Masjid-i Jum'a at NM'in and they presumably formed part of the decoration of the Great Mosque. Finally, the pottery found in deposits associated with the construction of the original mosque resembles the pottery from the earlier part of Period 2 in Site A. The first phase of the Great Mosque is therefore provisionally dated to the mid or later ninth century.

Some time after the Great Mosque had fallen into decay a tiny structure was built in the ruins of the prayer hall (Pl. IVb). It consisted of a mosque three bays wide and two bays deep, measuring only I I

"7 x 63 m. internally. The position of the mihrdb in this " Recent Mosque " corresponds exactly

with that of the mihrdb in the completed Great Mosque. On the south side of the Recent Mosque was a

courtyard partly enclosed by a low plaster wall. The north side of the courtyard consisted of a mortared rubble staircase leading to the roof of the mosque. A rectangular cistern inserted in the courtyard of the Great Mosque is probably contemporary with the Recent Mosque.

The date of the Recent Mosque is uncertain. If the Great Mosque is indeed the building described by Yaqilt, then it was still standing in the early thirteenth century and the Recent Mosque must be

appreciably later. Furthermore, the plan closely resembles that of mosques used today in the villages of the region, including Taheri, and a courtyard with a low plaster wall occurs outside the mosque at Nakhl-i-Taqi, 34 km. to the south-east. None of these mosques is thought to be earlier than the nineteenth century. However, the villagers of Taheri know nothing of the Recent Mosque and among the pottery associated with its use were fragmentary bowls decorated in black under a turquoise glaze (e.g. P1. VId), which do not appear to be modern. As a working hypothesis, I suggest that the structure dates from shortly before the nineteenth century and is an early example of the type of mosque still in use today.

3. Site C. The House The excavations in Site C, some i5o m. east of the Great Mosque, consisted of three exploratory

trenches which revealed a large stone building, thought to be a house. The building had a complex history and considerable work will be required before its plan and development can be fully elucidated. However, it is clear already that the building was constructed in Period 2 and remained in use at least until the early part of Period 3. Below the earliest floors of the house were substantial deposits datable to Period I.

As in Site A, the earliest traces of occupation rested on the irregular surface of fossil dunes, less than I m. above the level of the highest tides today. They consisted of trampled deposits of earth and rubble, about I m. thick, associated with dumps of ash and iron slag (P1. Vb). Stake-holes suggest the presence of temporary structures and the area was evidently occupied by a blacksmith's workshop. Crossing the site from north to south and emptying into the sea were two stone-lined drains, which imply that a more permanent building lay farther north. Among the finds from the early deposits was a fragmentary clay tuyBre and several bun-shaped nodules of slag (see below, p. 1 9). Most of the pottery was coarse and the only glazed varieties were " Sasanian-Islamic " ware and fragments of large stoneware jars.

The building constructed in Period 2 occupied an area measuring at least 20 m. by 30 m. On the south side, it has been eroded by the sea and its original extent in this direction cannot be determined (P1. Va). It is probable, however, that the building ran up to the " sea wall " described by Stein (see above, p. 5) and it may have been one of the multi-storey houses described by Istakhri. Like the large building in Site A, it had walls of mortared rubble and floors of stone or mortar. It was altered at least twice and in the latest surviving phase the plan apparently included a courtyard with rooms on two or more sides. Among the internal features of the house was a low platform, similar to the platform dated




to Period 2A in the sounding, and two bread ovens identical to the ovens used in Taheri today. All three features belonged to the first or second phase of occupation. The pottery found below the floors of the first two phases indicates that the house was built at an early date in Period 2.

The latest phase of occupation found in the house is of particular interest because it is contemporary with Period 3 in Site A and belongs to a time when, according to Yaqilt, Sirif was in ruins. Among the finds resting on the latest floors was a large group of pottery which includes fragments of several lustre ware bowls. The bowls, which were manufactured c. 1200, were imported from Syria or northern Persia. Thus, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, SirSf was still receiving small quantities of fine pottery and one of the palatial houses of Period 2 was still in use. I suggest, therefore, that although Sirdf undoubtedly declined catastrophically between c. 977 and 1055, the degree of poverty in the

period which followed was exaggerated by Yaqit.

4. Site D. The Kilns The kilns are situated near the western edge of Siraf, in a quarter constructed when the city reached

its greatest extent, probably in the tenth century. They form an industrial complex at least 50 m. across, one side of which bordered the beach. The factory was thus conveniently placed for loading ships and we may assume that pottery was exported by sea to the settlements of the Gulf coast and possibly farther afield (see below, p. 16).

The factory was discovered because marine erosion has encroached on the site, revealing walls, pottery kilns and rubbish pits in the face of a low cliff (P1. Vc). We decided to carry out a limited investigation to record the features revealed by erosion before they were completely destroyed and to assess the problems which total excavation would involve. The programme consisted of cleaning and recording a section of the cliff face and excavating a kiln exposed in a nearby gully. The section was 12 m. long and the excavation measured some 5 x 7 m.

The features found in the section and the excavation all belong to the same unit, a yard enclosed by walls of mortared rubble and measuring at least 2oX 7 m. The yard contained both kilns and rubbish

pits filled with wasters. Surface finds show that other working areas existed to the north and west. The cliff face provided a longitudinal section through the greater part of the yard (Fig. 6). The

section was aligned approximately east-west, with east on the right. It contained the following features, from east to west: a series of trampled clay surfaces, a small pit, a kiln, a second kiln with the pillar and

part of the floor surviving (P1. Vd) and a large rubbish pit cut immediately inside the yard wall. It is clear that the features were not all contemporary and the yard was evidently used for a considerable time. All the features had been back-filled and the filling contained abundant coarse pottery wasters. The small pit and the second kiln also yielded large quantities of glass slag, drops and trails of glass and many fragmentary vessels.

Ash 11 Clay 3 METRES

Sandy loam I Rubble Fig. 6. Site D. Section along the cliffface, showing features revealed by marine erosion.




The excavated area was situated in the north-east angle of the yard (Fig. 7). It contained one kiln and four rubbish pits, one of which overlay the stoke hole of the kiln and is not shown in the plan. The kiln had been constructed on the site of an earlier kiln-like feature, the surviving part of which was an oval clay-lined pit I 5 m. long and 1 2 m. wide. It was filled with wasters and kiln accessories. Like the kilns in the cliff face, the later kiln consisted of a pit which contained the fire, surmounted by a

temporary chamber for the pots. The pit was roughly circular, about 2 "5

m. across and I 25 m. deep. It was clay-lined and had a central pillar of clay and stone, which originally supported the floor of the

upper chamber. Access to the pit was provided by a circular stoke hole 40 cm. across, fed from a hollow at the side of the kiln. These features were well preserved in the excavated kiln and the " step " in the side of the east kiln in the cliff face is probably the remains of a stoking hollow. Nothing survives of the floor of the excavated kiln, but the fragmentary floor of the west kiln in the cliff was made of clay pierced at intervals to allow heat to enter the upper chamber. We know nothing about the upper chamber, although the absence of heavy rubble from the vicinity suggests that construction was light. Indeed, it is possible that the upper chamber was dismantled after firing and re-erected round the next batch of unbaked pots.

Nearly all the pottery from Site D is unglazed and we did not find a single undoubted glazed waster. Nevertheless, the discovery of unglazed bowls with ribs imitating the ribs found on Chinese white ware

0 hole

Gully

Pit Pit 4 Pit 3

metres Fig. 7. Site D. Plan of pottery kiln.




vessels (see below, p. 17) suggests that glazed pottery was made on the site; elsewhere in the excavation all the Islamic ribbed bowls are glazed. Furthermore, the occurrence of glass waste, all of which belongs to the types of glass most common at Sirif (see below, p. 18), suggests that glass, too, was manufactured here. Clearly, therefore, the area merits investigation on a large scale before the excavations close. Many of the wasters were paralleled by pottery from Period 2 in the sounding, particularly during Phases C and D. Thus not only the position of Site D near the edge of the city, but also the pottery it produced shows that the kilns were in use during the latter part of the period of great prosperity and a date in the tenth century appears probable.

III. THE FINDS

Although much of the material from Sirif, including the coins, still awaits final conservation and study, all the pottery and glass and several other classes of finds have been examined. In view of the scarcity elsewhere of securely-stratified ninth- and tenth-century material, the clear stratigraphy found Site A and the relevance of the finds from Sirdf to areas as far apart as East Africa and China, I offer here a preliminary account of the various types of material, particularly the pottery, and the evidence for their chronology.

I. Islamic Pottery Much of the Islamic pottery found in Periods I and 2 in the sounding and in contemporary deposits

elsewhere in the excavation closely resembles pottery from sites in the Mesopotamia area, notably Susa23 and Samarra.24 Indeed, many of the glazed fragments from Sirif were probably imported from Mesopotamia in ships trading with Basra and al-Ubulla. However, several types of pottery well known at Susa and Samarra are conspicuously scarce at Siraf. These include all forms of lustre ware and fine lead-glazed or lustred vessels with moulded decoration.25 Among the unglazed pottery they include wares with stamped and moulded ornaments."6 The following are some of the wares which do occur at Sirif, particularly during Periods I and 2.

(a) " Sasanian-Islamic " pottery. The so-called " Sasanian-Islamic " ware, which has a blue-green alkaline glaze and often bears applied, incised and stamped ornament, is the commonest type of glazed pottery at Sirif. It has a soft, sandy buff fabric and is thickly covered with a glaze which varies in colour from blue to pale green and is usually darker on the outside of the pot than on the interior. At Sirdf the glaze is often corroded and the original colour cannot be seen; many sherds simply have a matt greyish surface. The decoration may be applied, incised, " chip-carved " or stamped and all four techniques may appear on a single pot. However, most of the ornament is applied. Sasanian-Islamic pottery was widely used in Mesopotamia and the coastal regions of Fars and Makrin.27 Vessels of Mesopotamian or Persian origin were exported from the entrep6ts of the Persian Gulf and sherds have been recorded at Manda28 and Unguja Ukuu29 in Tanzania and at Bambhore in West Pakistan;30 examples even reached south-east Asia.31 At Sirif pottery with a blue-green glaze was already present in Period I and it occurs throughout the later deposits. The complete storage jar (P1. VIc), which has parallels at Susa32 and Samarra,33 belongs to Period 2B.

23 Raymond Koechlin, " Les Ceramiques Musulmanes de Suse au Mus6e du Louvre ", M.D.P. XIX (1928).

24 F. Sarre, Die Ausgrabungen von Samarra. Vol. II: Die Keramik von Samarra (Berlin 1925).

25 Idem, pp. 32-43. 28 Idem, pp. 9-22. 27 Stein, op. cit., in note Io, pp. 98-9 (Chihil Dukhtardn), i97

(Leshtin), I99 (Shiu) and 217 (Kashkuk and Asir). 28 Reported by Mr. Neville Chittick in a lecture to the British

Institute of History and Archaeology in East Africa in London in 1967. Mr. Chittick has very kindly discussed his finds with me.

29 Neville Chittick, " Unguja Ukuu; The Earliest Imported Pottery, and an Abbasid Dinar ", Azania I (1967), pp. 161-3.

30 Anon., " Excavations at Bambhore ", Pakistan Archaeology I (1964), PP. 49-55, particularly pp. 53-4. These excavations were directed by the Director-General, Dr. F. A. Khan. Mr. Leslie Alcock, who carried out trial excavations at Bambhore in 1951, generously allowed me to read his unpublished report and notes on the pottery.

31 Alastair Lamb, " Research at Pengkalan Bujang: A Prelimi- nary Report ", Federation Museums Journal N.S. VI (Kuala Lumpur 1961), pp. 21-37-

32 Koechlin, op. cit., in note 23, Pp. 37-53 and pl. VI-IX. Note particularly cat. no. 67, pl. VIII.

33 Sarre, op. cit., in note 24, PP. 28-9 and pl. VI. Note: cat. no. i

xI was not found during the excavation but was purchased in

Baghdad.




(b) Tin-glazed pottery. Pottery with a white tin glaze imitating Chinese white ware is well known from finds at Samarri, Susa and elsewhere. As at these sites, the pottery from Sirdf has a soft buff or creamy fabric. The glaze is poorly preserved and usually survives as a matt chalky layer, covered with cracks, which barely adheres to the body of the pot. Vessels may be decorated in cobalt blue, turquoise or brown, the last two colours sometimes occurring together. Most of the blue decoration consists of devolved epigraphic and floral motifs of the types found at Samarri, while turquoise and brown are

applied in spots, splashes or stripes. Nearly all the sherds belong to dishes, bowls and cups, with a few lamps, jars and ewers. The bowls include close copies of Chinese forms, complete with ribs and notches on the rim.

In Area A the earliest tin-glazed pottery occurs in Period 2A and consists of plain wares and fragments painted in blue. The first fragments with turquoise or brown decoration do not appear until Period 2C. Fragments bearing a combination of turquoise and brown occur in Period 2D only. A similar sequence was found in Area B, where plain wares occur in deposits associated with the earliest construction of the Great Mosque, and turquoise, the only colour found in this area, does not appear until relatively late.

(c) Early sgraffiato ware. Although sgraffiato wares were considerably less popular than tin-glazed pottery, fragments occur in most of the larger ninth- and tenth-century deposits. They belong to a single type with a smooth pale pink fabric. All the sherds from Siraf belong to plates and dishes, often with a broad flange rim, decorated on the inside with lightly-incised floral and abstract motifs. The vessels were finished with a slightly yellowish glaze enlivened with large streaks and splashes of green and yellowish brown, which often overlap. Unfortunately, the soil conditions at Siraf have caused the glaze to decay and most fragments retain little more than an iridescent film which, unless handled with care, flakes away from the fabric. It is clear, however, that the pottery closely resembles the sgraffiato ware from Sdmarri and, as the characteristic pink fabric does not occur at the kilns in Area D, we presume that it was imported from Mesopotamia.

This early type of sgrafiato ware occurs throughout Period 2 in the sounding and sherds also occur in Period 3. However, the unusually abraded condition of many of the fragments dated to Period 3 suggests that they are in fact residual and that the ware went out of use at the end of Period 2.

(d) Later sgraffiato ware. Sgraffiato ware of the type found at Samarra was succeeded at Sirdf by incised pottery with a fine red fabric and a cream slip. The commonest forms are bowls slipped on the inside and decorated with Kiific and pseudo-K-ific texts, leaves and geometric motifs, arranged in concentric zones. The background to the motifs is often hatched. The inside of the bowl is typically covered with a transparent yellowish glaze enlivened with splashes of green, purple and yellow. Pottery of this type is widely distributed, not only in the Persian Gulf but also along the shores of the Indian Ocean. On the Iranian side of the Gulf sherds occur at Bushire 2,34 Bibi KhatiIn,35 Leshtdn36 and Qal'at-i Sarawdn.37 In Makran, Stein collected examples from the kiln site at Tiz38 and from Chihil Dukhtardn39 and Qal'at-iJamshid.40 In West Pakistan, the ware occurs at Bambhore41 and in Tanzania it has been found at Kilwa.42 At Bambhore, Mr. Alcock tells me that this later sgrafiato ware was introduced towards the end of the ninth century, a date considerably earlier than the Pakistan report suggests.43 At Kilwa, it belongs to Period IB, which at present is dated c. Iooo-i ioo. At Sirdf rare sherds occur in Site A in deposits associated with the latest occupation of the large building and additional fragments occur in the overlying rubble. However, the majority of the sherds came from Period 3. According to our provisional chronology, Period 2D came to an end not earlier than 977 and almost certainly no later than c. Io55.

(e) Unglazed painted pottery. The most distinctive type of pottery which came into use after the decline of Siraf was an unglazed hand-made ware with painted decoration. It has a soft gritty fabric

31 A small Islamic site 15 km. south-east of Bushire, discovered in 1966.

35 A large coastal site roughly contemporary with Sirtf, 55 km. north-west of Taheri. The site is mentioned by Stein, op. cit., in note o, p. 233 and it was examined by Lamb in 1962.

36 Stein, op. cit., in note io, p. I97. 37 Idem, p. 184.

38 Idem, p. 90. 39 Idem, pp. 98-9. 40 Idem, pp. 85-6. 41 Anon., op. cit., in note 30, p. 5I and pl. XXIII. 42 Neville Chittick, " Kilwa: A Preliminary Report ", Azania

(1966), pp. 1-36, particularly p. io and pl. Ib and IIb. 43 Information kindly supplied by Mr. Alcock; see note 30.




which may be either brick-red or cream. The red variety has a cream slip on the outside and both types have geometric decoration in red or purple slip. Vessels with a red fabric are decorated with broad stripes and the cream pots have zones containing triangular panels filled with cross-hatching or small hook-like motifs. Identical pottery occurs at Bahrain, where the commonest form is an ablution jug with a piriform body and a bridged tubular spout.44 The ware was evidently widely used in the Persian Gulf and sherds have been found at Rishahr45 and Leshtdn.46 Apart from a single sherd found in the rubble overlying the Period 2D floors in Area A, all the painted pottery from Siraf is of Period 3 or later. Mr. Neville Chittick informs me that similar jugs with a red fabric and striped ornament occur in fifteenth- or sixteenth-century deposits at Kilwa.

(f) Coarse pottery. The excavation yielded a vast quantity of unglazed coarse pottery, much of which was made at Sirdf. The kilns and rubbish pits in Site D contained fragmentary dishes, bowls (e.g. P1. VIe), cooking pots, jugs, jars and water pipes. Among the surface finds from the kiln on the eastern arm of Taheri Bay (see above, p. 5) are bowls, jugs and jars.

The most distinctive types of coarse pottery found at Sirif include " Egg Shell Ware ", torches and jars with incised and applied ornament. Egg Shell Ware has a smooth cream fabric and is so named because the vessels were thinly potted with walls rarely more than 3 mm. thick. The principal forms are small jugs and jars. These were manufactured in Site D and in Site A the earliest examples belong to Period 2A, although they were commonest in Periods 2C and D.

The torches, which were apparently between 30 and 50 cm. high and had an inverted conical body, were evidently placed either singly in metal holders projecting from the wall or grouped in hoops suspended from the ceiling.47 The inside of the torch retains a thick bituminous deposit. Large globular jars with a similar deposit on the inside were probably used for storing fuel. Both the torches and the jars have a coarse buff or sandy-brown fabric, neither of which was found in Site D. In the sounding both forms were already present in Period I.

Most common, however, are jars with a thick brick-like fabric which varies in colour from grey-pink through red to black, the predominant colour being red. These were undoubtedly made at Siraf, both in Site D and in the kiln on the east spit. Two forms occur: a tall slender vessel with a carrot-shaped body and a narrow cylinder neck (P1. VIf) and a broader vessel with a piriform body and a short vertical rim. The latter has a zone of four or more vertical handles between the shoulder and the rim. The slender jars are plain, but the broader vessels have applied and incised ornament. The lower part of the body is rilled (the rills being the " ribs " recorded by Stein on much of the coarse pottery he found in Fdrs and Makran), while the upper part carries zones of incised ornament and applied bosses. The rim is deeply grooved.

Jars of these two types were the characteristic unglazed storage vessels at Siraf; they were widely used in the Persian Gulf and examples were evidently exported to East Africa.47 Stein recorded rilled and incised sherds all along the coast between Siraf and Leshtan, 85 km. east of Qais, and among the find-spots were two groups of kilns south-east of Shirinu.48 We visited the kilns in 1966 and found that they consist of rubble footings associated with large heaps of wasters. The wasters include both types of jar, large flange rim bowls and water pipes. All belong to large vessels and none of them is glazed. The first group, comprising two potteries 6oo m. apart, is immediately outside the hamlet of Shirinu and the second is a further 2 5 km. down the coast. Like the kilns at Sirif, both groups are situated on the shore. Clearly it was more convenient to transport pottery, particularly large vessels, by sea than by pack animals over land.

2. Far Eastern Pottery As a result of its importance as an entrep6t for trade with south-east Asia, Siraf received a large

quantity of fine pottery from China. Indeed, in the ninth and tenth centuries many of the Chinese wares bound for markets in Mesopotamia probably passed through Sirif. Therefore, before the excava-

4 T. G. Bibby, " Bahrains Oldtidshovedstat Gennem 4000 Ar ", Kuml (1957), pp. 128-52 with English summary pp. 152-63. See particularly p. 161 and fig. 16 (right) on p. 145 .

4' Collected in 1966.

46 Stein, op. cit., in note o10, p. I97 and pl. XXVI; Lesh. I I, 13, 14 and 15.

47 Sherds of this type have been found at Manda; see note 28. 48 Stein, op. cit., in note Io, p. 201.



Pl. Ia. General view, looking west from the modern fort.

PI. Ib. General view, looking east from Site A with the modern fort and village in the distance.



P1. Ila. Shilau Valley. The largest cemetery.

P1. HIb. The late mosque from the north-east.

Pl. IIc. The late mosque, a closer viewfrom the north-east.



P1. IIIa. Site A. The large building in Period 2, Phase B. Pl. IIIb. Site A. The completed sounding from the north.

Pl. IIIc. Site A. The completed sounding from the north-east. Pl. IIId. Site A. Detail of the north face, showing the nature of the

stratigraphy of Period 2.



Pl. IVa. Site B. General view from the north, showing the prayer hall of the Great Pl. IVb. Site B. General view from the north, showing, in the foreground, remains Mosque overlain by the recent mosque. of the recent mosque.

Pl. IVc. Site B. Foundations of the south wall of the prayer hall revealed by marine Pl. IVd. Site B. Square pier base containing single large stone with, left, semi- erosion, showing, in the centre, the unbondedjoint. circular abutment.



Pl. Va. Site C. General view from the north, showing the latest floors overlying P. Vb. Site C. The earliest occupation, consisting of stake holes associated with iron demolished walls of an earlier phase. working debris.

Pl. Vc. Site D. The cliff section after cleaning, showing kilns and rubbish pits. Pl. Vd. Site D. Kiln in the clif section.



P1. VIa. Chinese stoneware with decoration in relief. The fragment is 6- 4 cm. across.

Pl. VIb. Far Eastern stoneware with painted decoration. The fragment is 18 -3 cm. across.

P1. VIc. " Sasanian-Islamic " jar with

blue-green glaze, dia. 47 cm.

P1. VId. Bowl decorated in black under a clear turquoise glaze, from the recent mosque in Site B, dia.

I4.9 cm.

P1. VIe. Wasters from a rubbish pit in Site D. The uppermost bowl is 24-2 cm. across.

Pl. VIf. Unglazed jar from the excavated kiln in Site D, ht. 48-5 cm.



P1. VIIa. Glass goblet from Site C, ht. 9-5 cm. Pl. VIIb. Fragmentary colourless glass bottle, dia. 4"9

cm.

P1. VIIc. Anhydrite cylinders roughly prepared for turning on a lathe, dia. of cylinder in middle of lower row 5-7 cm.

Pl. VIId. Anhydrite "saucer", dia. 9 cm. P1. VIle. Anhydrite jar, dia. 8 8 cm.



PI. VIlla. Stucco fragment, length 46 cm.

P1. VIIb. Stucco from the Great Mosque. Width of largest fragment 9-5 cm.

Pl. VIIIc. Stucco fragment, length 41'5 cm.

Pl. VIIId. Stone grave cover preserved in a recent shrine in Shilau Valley.

Pl. VIlle. Fragmentary grave cover, length 32 cm. PIl. VIIIf. Detail of the grave cover shown in (d).




tion began, we hoped that Far Eastern pottery of the types known at Samarra would be found in securely-stratified contexts at Siraf. This hope was fulfilled and we excavated several hundred stratified sherds of Chinese and other Far Eastern pottery. The following are the five most prominent types.

(a) White ware. The early (i.e. ninth and tenth century) white wares fall into two categories: stoneware with a harsh opaque fabric and porcelain with a dense translucent fabric and a conchoidal fracture. The first group is considerably larger. It consists of vessels with an off-white, often creamy fabric which appears granular in fracture. The commonest form is a shallow bowl with a ring base, thick flaring sides and a slightly everted rim. The interior may have a series of radiating ribs with corresponding notches in the rim. Vessels were frequently, if not always, dipped in a white slip and were finished with transparent glaze which may appear white, greyish or cream. The rarer porcelain, on the other hand, has a fine white fabric and a clear glaze which may contain a suggestion of blue. The commonest form is again the bowl. This has a ring base, a curving side and a plain, thickened or foliate rim. Among the other forms found in stratified deposits were a flange-rim " saucer "49 and a cup. At Sirdf the white wares appear first in Period 2, the stoneware in Phase A and the true porcelain in Phase B. It is noteworthy that porcelain bowls with a thickened rim did not occur until Period 3.

(b) Pre-celadon ware. Most of the pre-celadon or " Yiieh " wares from Sirdf consist of fragmentary dishes and bowls with a grey fabric and a grey brownish glaze. The commonest form is a shallow bowl with a ring base and a plain or everted rim. Other fragments belong to bowls with a lobed mouth and a few appear to be ewers and jars. The fabric is a smooth or slightly gritty stoneware which ranges in colour from light to dark grey. The glaze is nearly always opaque and thinly applied, varying from greenish-grey through grey to brown; the commonest colour is grey. However, rare fragments have a thick, crackled translucent glaze with a suggestion of green. A number of bowls with a brownish glaze have a ring of stacking scars on the inside and corresponding scars on the bottom of the foot. Most of the sherds are plain, but a few have incised motifs, usually scratched with a point but occasionally gouged. Several bowls are carved with lotus petals on the outside.

The earliest pre-celadon sherds from Siraf belong to Period 2A, after which the ware was common until some time during Period 3, when Chekiang celadon with a grey-white fabric and a green glaze came into use. The sherds with a thick translucent glaze belong to Period 2 and most of the incised fragments date from the end of Period 2 and the earlier part of Period 3.

(c) Stoneware with applied decoration. The smallest but most distinctive group of Far Eastern pottery from Sirdf consists of fragments with applied decoration. Most of the fragments belong to ewers with three handles and a tubular spout, examples of which are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London,50 the Princessjof Museum, Leeuwarden51 and the Jakarta Museum.52 They are usually dated to the T'ang Dynasty. The vessels have a harsh red or greyish fabric and a cream slip. The whole of the body is covered with a clear glaze which appears cream. The ewers are decorated with three applied reliefs, one below the spout and one beneath each of the lateral handles. The reliefs bear moulded ornament comprising warriors, foliage, birds or dragons. The relief and the surrounding parts of the body are coloured brown. The examples from Siraf consist of small fragments decorated with foliage and, in one case, a dragon (P1. VIa).

Ewers and other vessels with applied decoration were imported to the Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia in the ninth and tenth centuries. The date is confirmed by the stratified sherds from Siraf, the earliest of which belong to Period 2A, and supported by the occurrence of Islamic imitations at Samarra.53 Sherds of Far Eastern origin are found also at Bibi Khaittin.

(d) Stoneware with painted decoration. No less distinctive is a group of stoneware bowls with decoration painted under a clear glaze. All the fragments found at Sirafbelong to bowls with a ring base, a curving

49 The rim, which is inclined upwards towards the lip, is not included in Thomas Dexel, Die Formen Chinesischen Keramik (Tiibingen I955). It apparently belongs to a small saucer-like vessel and not to a stand or a " spittoon ".

50 Accession nos. C570-1919 and C833-I936. Both vessels are illustrated by Nanne Ottema, Chineesche Ceramiek Handboek (Amsterdam I946), fig. 79.

51 Idem, p. 77 and fig. 78.

52 Ibid., fig. 79.

53 Sarre, op. cit., in note 24, p. 68. Note also Anon., Excavations at Samarra 1936-1939 (Baghdad: Iraq Government Department of Antiquities), part II, p. 6, pl. LIII, 4 (line drawing) and pl. LIX (photograph); a ewer closely resembling the Chinese examples described above, but described as being " blue glazed ".




side and a plain rim (P1. VIb). Most examples have a pale buff-grey fabric, but some, possibly under- fired, are pink or even red. It is clear that the reddish vessels have a cream slip on the inside and upper part of the exterior and it is likely that all the bowls were slipped, although the slip is invisible on some of the buff-grey fragments. The inside of the bowl is decorated with strokes of brown, blue or green, sometimes arranged in a rosette; the rim is usually brown. The vessel is covered with a transparent glaze which on the outside ceases just above the foot.

Pottery of this type was imported over a wide area of the Islamic world and fragments have been found elsewhere in the Persian Gulf, at Daiyir54 and Bibi Khattin,55 at Susa56 and at Brahmindbid57 and Bambhore58 in West Pakistan. At Siraf stoneware with painted decoration appears first in Period

2A, at a date which accords well with its earliest occurrence at Bambhore in the eighth or ninth century. (e) Stoneware jars and bowls. By far the most common variety of Far Eastern pottery found at Sirif

is a coarse grey stoneware with an olive green glaze. The core of the fabric varies in colour from grey to

pale pink, the grey examples being wholly vitrified and the rarer pink fragments apparently a hard

sandy earthenware. The unglazed surfaces are pink. The glaze is transparent and varies from grey- green to olive. It is finely crazed. The commonest form of coarse stoneware at Sirif is a storage jar between 30 and 50 cm. high with an ovoid or piriform body, a short tapering neck and four horizontal handles attached between the neck and the shoulder. The jar is glazed on the interior of the neck and on the outside, the glaze stopping shortly above the base. The top of the rim has a glossy chocolate finish. Prof. Tom Harrisson has named the type the " Dusun Jar " after the Dusun tribe of north

Sabah, who treasure them even today.59 Other forms found at Sirif include bowls and smaller jars with a globular body and a rolled rim. Stoneware of this type, which may have been made in the

Changsha region of south China, was used by merchants to contain perishable goods and fragments are

widely scattered over south-east Asia. In the Persian Gulf the find-spots include Bibi Khttin, Rishahr and Bushire 2 and sherds occur also at Bambhore in West Pakistan.o6 Although Ottema,61 Harrisson and others have maintained that " Dusun Jars " are of T'ang Dynasty date, their opinion is not uni-

versally accepted and the discovery of stratified fragments at Siraf provides welcome confirmation of the

early date. Fragments of Dusun Jars are the only Far Eastern pottery found in Period I and sherds are abundant throughout Period 2. There is no doubt, therefore, that the jars were already reaching the Persian Gulf in the first half of the ninth century.

3. Glass After the pottery, glass was the most abundant type of object found at Siraf. During the excavation

we recovered more than a thousand fragments of glass, including several restorable vessels. Most of this material was securely stratified and the majority belongs to the period of Sirif's greatest prosperity during the ninth and tenth centuries A.D. It falls into three main categories:

I. Local glass. 2. Glass of east Persian type. 3. Egyptian glass.

I. Local glass. By far the most common types of ninth- and tenth-century glass are vessels with a

thinly blown green or blue translucent metal. The green glass, which comprises approximately 90 per cent of this material, has a bubbly metal, sometimes with a distinct yellowish tint. The surface is

usually weathered to opaque grey-black with small white patches. The blue glass, on the other hand, is bubble-free with a uniform light cobalt tint. Weathered surfaces are blue-black with milky patches. Both types of metal were made into bowls, beakers, goblets (P1. VIIa), sprinklers, alembics, lamps and bottles. A few fragments carry cut or mould-blown decoration, but clearly ornament was unusual.

54 Stein, op. cit., in note lo, pl. XXVII, 6 and p. 233- "6 Collected in 1966. 56 Koechlin, op. cit., in note 23, cat. no. 105, p. 69 and pl. XIII.

57 R. L. Hobson, " Potsherds from Brahminabad ", Trans. Oriental Ceramic Society VIII (1928-30), pp. 21-3, particularly p. 23 and

pl. IX, 2. 5 Information kindly supplied by Mr. Alcock; see note 30.

59 Tom Harrisson, " ' Dusun' Jars: from Mayfair and Friesland through Cairo to Sabah ", Sarawak Museum Journal N.S. XII, nos. 25-6 (June-December 1965), pp. 69-74.

60 William Willetts, " Excavations at Bhambore near Karachi: Possible Site of the Merchant Seaport of Debal in Sind ", Oriental Art N.S. VI, no. I (Spring 1960), pp. 25-8, particularly fig. 8.

61 Ottema, op. cit., in note 51, p. 128.




The sheer quantity of this material implies that it was locally made and, while proof is lacking, the evidence from the kiln and rubbish pit in Site D (see above, p. 12) suggests that it was produced at Siraf itself. If glass was indeed manufactured at Siraf, it is possible that vessels were made for export to Africa and south-east Asia. Glass was already exported from the Middle East in Sasanian times62 and Dr. Alastair Lamb has reported Middle Eastern goods from Pengkalan Bujang in Malaysia, a site probably occupied between the eleventh and the fourteenth centuries.63 In 1966 Mr. Chittick discovered the neck of a blue glass bottle, closely resembling fragmentary bottles from Siraf, at Manda in Tanzania.64 If some of this glass was exported from the Persian Gulf in the ninth and tenth centuries, it may well have been dispatched from Sirif.

Green and blue glass was rare at Siraf during Period I, but both types were common throughout Period 2. The green goblet illustrated on P1. VIIa was found in Site C in a deposit contemporary with Period 2 in the sounding, where the stem of a similar vessel was dated to Period 2C.

2. Glass of east Persian type. The second group comprises fragments with a fine colourless metal, many of which have carved or cut decoration. The metal is relatively bubble-free and has opaque white or silver weathering. Most of the fragments belong to beakers, bottles and flasks. Several miniature bottles (for example, P1. VIIb) have facetted bodies produced by cutting. The ornament is simple and consists of horizontal or vertical channels, often arranged in pairs. One fragment, probably from a flask, is decorated with carved circular depressions; it belongs to Period 2D. Much of this material bears a family likeness to glass found at Nishapufr,65 and an origin in east Persia appears probable. The earliest fragment belongs to Period I and the facetted bottle illustration on P1. VIIb is of Period 2D.

3. Egyptian glass. The last major group of glass from the ninth- and tenth-century levels consists of vessels imported from Egypt, presumably via the Red Sea port of Jidda (see above, p. 2). Between ten and twenty pieces were discovered, including a molar flask of blue-green metal, weathered to grey-black with milky patches, with carved decoration. Other fragments have mould-blown ornament and carved facets or channels. The earliest glass of Egyptian type was found in Site B, associated with the first phase of building of the Great Mosque.

Two additional types of glass, found in later deposits at Sirif, also deserve mention: bangles and vessels with a bluish-green metal. Bangles, usually plain but sometimes decorated with inlaid or applied threads of blue, green, red and yellow, are found on the surface of most Islamic sites in Fars and Makran66 and similar bangles are worn by women and children today. At Siraf, if we exclude a single fragment, probably intrusive, from an early deposit in Site B, the earliest bangles belong to Period 3. The bluish-green glass also occurs in the latest levels. It closely resembles glass from a factory site at Bida Khar, 16 km. north of Siraf on the plain of Jamm, where surface finds include scraps of Ming Dynasty or later porcelain and Islamic pottery decorated in black under a clear turquoise glaze.67

4. Bronze and iron. Throughout the history of Sirif objects of bronze and iron were manufactured on the site. However, the raw materials cannot be obtained locally and the industry probably supplied only the smaller needs of the city and its shipwrights. Bronze slag is commonly found and among the evidence for iron working discovered in 1966 was a blacksmith's hearth in Site B and numerous bun- shaped nodules of slag, usually between Io and 15 cm. across. Thick deposits of iron slag and a fragmentary clay tuyere were found in Site C in deposits contemporary with Period I in Site A. Among the small and mostly fragmentary bronze objects from Siraf are kohl sticks, needles and five apothecaries' or jewellers' weights. The weights are square, between 8 and 13 mm. across and 4 mm. thick.

5. Anhydrite. An unexpected discovery at Siraf was evidence for the manufacture of anhydrite vessels. Numerous unfinished objects leave no doubt, that anhydrite was worked on the spot and among the working debris are cylinders roughly prepared for turning on a lathe (P1. VIIc). All the finished objects

82 Arthur Lane and R. B. Serjeant, "

Pottery and Glass Fragments from the Aden Littoral, with Historical Notes ", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1948), pp. 108-33, particularly pp. I 17-9.

63 Alastair Lamb, " A Note on Glass Fragments from Pengkalan Bujang, Malaya ", Journal of Glass Studies VII (1965), Pp. 35-40.

64 See note 28.

65 Walter Hauser and Charles K. Wilkinson, " The Museum's Excavations at Nishapur ", Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art XXXVII, no. 4 (April 1942), pp. 83-119, particularly pp. 105-6.

66 See, for example, Stein, op. cit., in note io, pp. 80-2 (Kumb), 85-6 (Qal'at-i Jamshid) and 197 (Leshtin).

67 Discovered during reconnaissance in I966.




are small and the majority consists of small vessels probably used for cosmetics. These include shallow straight-sided jars (P1. VIIe) and " saucers " with a flange rim (P1. VIId). Other fragments are the stems of chalice-like vessels and a group of narrow conical stoppers. The shallow jars were evidently fitted with lids with a small knop. Although the earliest anhydrite in Area A comes from Period I, most fragments belong to Period 2. Manufacture probably ceased after the decline of Sirif and no fragment was found in Period 3.

6. Steatite. Fragmentary steatite vessels occur in all but the earliest deposits at Siraf. Two forms predominate, a cooking pot and a bowl. The cooking pot is a shallow vessel with vertical sides, a flat or slightly rounded base and narrow lug handles. It varies in diameter from 15 to 30 cm. The bowl has a small cylindrical body supported by four legs of square section which project from the body and continue upwards to the rim. Decorated fragments are rare, although one example of ring-and-dot ornament occurs and the legs of the bowls are decorated with vertical grooves. Several cooking pots had been repaired with iron rivets. Steatite was widely used in the Islamic world. Fragments occur in the Islamic deposits at Bahrain68 and footed bowls similar to the bowls from Sirdf were found at Samarrdi.69 At Kilwa, steatite cooking pots came into use in Period IB (c. Iooo-IIoo)70 and at Bambhore fragmentary steatite bowls and boxes were present from the eighth century onwards.71 At Siraf the earliest fragments of steatite belong to Period 2A and both the cooking pot and the bowl were present in 2B.

7. Stucco. Although no ninth- or tenth-century stucco was discovered in situ, we found several interesting fragments both in the excavations and in the course of exploring the site. Four fragments found in Site B in make-up for a floor of the Recent Mosque evidently came from the Great Mosque (P1. VIIIb). They are decorated in high relief with vine leaves and pearled borders carried out in a style which recalls the ninth-century stucco at Na'in72 and may also be compared, though less closely, with stucco from Samarr. 73 The surface finds include part of a panel decorated with a zone of roundels, each containing a pine cone between paired half palmettes, above which is a band of floriated Kfific

bearing the Koranic text: [4J1 Jy.]•-' 4 'J1 [4• \J] (P1. VIIIc). Another fragment, perhaps

part of a cornice, is decorated with two intersecting trefoil arcades, the lower parts of which contain in each opening a leaf above paired half palmettes and the upper parts a series of pine cones or leaves (P1. VIIIa).

8. Stone grave covers. Elaborately-carved grave covers, both fragmentary and complete, are common at Sirdf, especially in the vicinity of the mosque which overlooks Kundrak wadi (see above, p. 5). They do not occur, however, in the cemeteries in Shilau valley. Despite their form, the objects are not actually coffins. They are monumental covers designed to mark the positions of graves. Each monument consists of a hollow rectangular cover resting on a narrow base (P1. VIIId). The cover, which measures up to 2 m. long, 50 cm. wide and 50 cm. high, is carved from a single block of stone. The upper surface has a median ridge at one end of which is a hole. In the most elaborate cases the upper surface of the base and all the surfaces of the cover are decorated in relief. The ornament consists of floriated Kilfic inscriptions contained in cabled borders. The most prominent decorative features of the script are the occurrence of strapwork (P1. VIIIf) and delicate tendrils (P1. VIIIe), which sometimes overlie parts of the text. Three dated grave covers have been found at Siraf: the specimen removed to the British Museum in the I86os (see above, p. 2) bears the equivalent of 991, a cover removed to the Louvre in 1913 is dated I 132 74 and a fragment found in 1966 has an incomplete date which is between I Io6 and 1202. The monument illustrated in P1. VIIId and f is one of a pair preserved in a modern shrine in Shilau valley. The fragment shown in P1. VIIIe was found near the mosque overlooking Kunarak wadi.

68 Information supplied by Miss Karen Frifeld, who has kindly discussed the Islamic material from Bahrain with me in corre- spondence.

69 Anon., op. cit., in note 54, part II, pp. 8-9 and pl. CXXIX.

70 Chittick, op. cit., in note 42, p. Io. 71 Information kindly supplied by Mr. Alcock; see note 30.

72 Arthur Upham Pope, A Survey of Persian Art, vol. II (Oxford 1939), PP. 1270-5-

73 Ernst Herzfeld, Die Ausgrabungen von Samarra. Vol. I: Der Wandschmuck der Bauten von Samarra und Seine Ornamentik (Berlin 1923), passim.

"4 Paul Ravaisse in PWzard, op. cit., in note 8, pp. 98-9.



EXCAVATIONS AT SIRTAF 21

IV. CONCLUSIONS

The first season of excavations at Siraf provided evidence for the history of the site and the nature of some of the city's buildings. In Site A we recovered a sequence of stratified finds divisible into the following three periods:

Period 3. Later eleventh century onwards. Period 2. c. 825-50 to c. 977-1055- Period I. Before c. 825-50, perhaps beginning c. 8oo.

Period I lasted a short time and represented a phase during which Sirdf was receiving foreign goods, but on a strictly limited scale. Identical deposits in the earliest levels of Site C and the absence of any deposits earlier than the tenth century in Site D suggests that if a pre-Islamic settlement existed at Sirif, it was small. Period 2 belonged to the period of Sirdf's great prosperity and most of the deposits found in Sites B, C and D were contemporary. The ephemeral structures associated with Period 3 in the sounding agree with the poverty assigned to Sirif by Ibn al-Balkhi and Yaqfit. However, the discovery of imported Syrian or north Persian lustre wares of the twelfth century in Site C suggests that the contrast between Siraf before and after its decline may have been over-emphasized. Siraf undoubtedly declined, but in c. 1200 it supported rather more than the " very poor families " mentioned by Ydqfit.

The most important stratified material from Site A was the pottery and the chronology of the principal wares may be summarized as follows, the table showing only the earliest occurrence of each particular type:

3 later celadon

used quanti-

2B true.

Chekiang 3 later porc celadon

appears

Comes 3 early ready Alreainto

use

Turquoise Appears 2D and brown in small

used quanti- together ties

Turquoise 2C or brown

splashes appear

Earliest 2B true

porcelain

Plain and Comes Earliest Yuieh Rare Comes 2A cobalt into opaque appears examples into

appears use stoneware appear use

Already Already in use in use




In addition to obtaining a stratigraphy, we began the long task of identifying and exploring the components of the early-Islamic city. In Site B we confirmed that the large building discovered by Stein was indeed a mosque, possibly the principal mosque of SirTf in the ninth and tenth centuries. In Site C we began the excavation of a domestic building which, like the fragmentary building found in Site A, may be one of the multi-storey houses described by Istakhri in the mid-tenth century. Finally, working in a suburb near the western edge of Sirif (Site D), we located and examined an industrial complex which certainly manufactured pottery and possibly manufactured glass. We hope to continue all three excavations in the remaining campaigns. A major objective of the second season will be the complete exposure of the mosque and a determined effort will be made to recover more sensitive evidence for the date of the earliest phase than was found in 1966. Work will continue at Site C and we intend to carry out an area excavation to expose at least one large domestic building. At a later date, perhaps in the third season, we hope to excavate a large part of the kiln complex in Site D. As an overall objective, we shall attempt to elucidate the development of settlement at Sirif from the earliest occupation to the present day, a sequence of expansion and decay which the second season, planned to take place between October and January 1967-68, will-we hope-bring into sharper focus.



Documents

Excavations at Sīrāf; First Interim Report