É. Apor (ed.): Stein, Aurel: Old Routes of Western Iran. (Budapest Oriental Reprints, Ser. B 2.)

INTRODUCTION THE present volume is intended to furnish a record of the last and longest of four journeys which carried me during the years 1932—6 through an extensive belt of Southern and Western Iran. That belt stretches from the extreme south-east of Persian Balüchistän on the Arabian sea coast close to where the frontier of the present state of Iran meets the frontiers of Iraq and Turkey in the hills of Kurdistan far away to the north-west. The main aim of all four expeditions had been that of archaeological reconnaissance surveys of whatever remains of antiquity could be traced along the routes which historical and geographical interests induced me to follow. As on all my preceding travels through Central Asia and along the far-flung north-western borders of India I was guided by regard for these twofold interests. On the one hand archaeology in its essential aspects is meant to serve history, and nowhere is its service of more value than where written records fail us, as is the case for the earliest periods of civilization within particular regions. Hence the remains to be searched for in prehistoric mounds by trial excavations were bound to claim special attention. On the other hand observation of geographical features necessarily imposed itself as supplementing the archaeological task, seeing how closely all historical development has been influenced by them. The latter aspect of the proposed vii