É. Apor (ed.): Stein, Aurel: Old Routes of Western Iran. (Budapest Oriental Reprints, Ser. B 2.)
Chapter II. —In Kohgalu Tracts
100 IN KOHGALU TRACTS [Chap. II Behbehän and to start with a fresh escort of a dozen mounted gendarmes for the mountains in the north. The sky looked still heavy with clouds, and this made it important that the considerable river of Märün which bounds the plain of Behbehän on the west should be crossed before fresh rain might make it unfordable with baggage for several days if not longer. This consideration, as well as the difficulty of having to procure labour from distant Behbehän town, would, to my regret, not allow of trial excavation at the conspicuous mound of Tal-i-görepäh sighted to the northwest about a mile from the track to the ford. It measures about 120 yards in diameter at its foot, rising steeply to 23 feet in height. Plain as well as painted potsherds were to be picked up in plenty on its slopes, the latter by their type proving chalcolithic occupation of the site. The designs of the painted patterns on the pieces collected are mainly geometrical (23, 26, Pl. I) and show distinct resemblance to those of Tal-i-Hasanach. Rows of small dots form a frequent motif (19, 20, 27, Pl. I). A zone of standing birds (14), the forelegs of an animal (27), and portions of ibex horns (19), also occur. Worked flints were found in numbers ; also some decorated pottery whorls (20) and a crescent-shaped object of uncertain use (17). A few glazed pottery fragments found on the top of the mound marked occupation down to historical times. Leaving our camp at the palm grove and solitary hut of Khäristän near the ford, I proceeded the same day 3 miles up the left bank of the Kurdistän or Märün river for a visit to the site of Arrajän. As already described by Professor Herzfeld, 1 the site of the town, famous in early 1 See Petermanrí s Mittheilungen, 1907, p. 81.
