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

Chapter I.—In Westernmost Färs

Sec. v] K

ÖTAL-I-SANGAR TO BÄSHT 47 Greek influence. But Professor Herzfeld, who had first visited this monument and has briefly referred to it in his first Schweich lecture,

4 is prepared to ascribe it for quasi-historical reasons to an early part of the Achaemenian period and hence would rule out any Greek influence. As, however, no definite evidence is available for the attribution of the Dä-ü-dukhtar tomb, as suggested by him, to one of the three predecessors of Cyrus the Great, the question as to the interpretation of that architectural element as well as to the date of the tomb may still be left undecided. It seems even more difficult to account for the position chosen for so monumental a resting-place ; for important as was the ancient route passing through Deh-i-nau, the valley itself is not likely to have ever served for a ruler's or great feudatory's seat. Our camp, placed at Küpün, the westernmost hamlet of Deh-i-nau, was gained after crossing first the wide floodbed of the Tang-i-Shir stream and then two fairly deep water-courses draining the eastern portion of the valley. From there I visited in the morning of December 5th the conspicuous high mound known as Tul-i-Sürneh, rising among irrigated fields a couple of miles to the east of Küpün. The mound, which is close on 100 feet high, measures some 400 yards in circumference on the top, * See Archaeological History of Iran

, pp. 32, 37, and the excellent photograph reproduced in Pl. V. Professor Herzfeld has rightly called attention to the survival of capitals similarly recalling Ionic style in the wooden architecture of modern rustic buildings of Iran, as illustrated I.e., p. 32, Fig. 6. But it deserves to be noted that there is a still closer relationship between those capitals and the wooden double brackets with voluted ends excavated by me in several varieties from ruined dwellings of ancient sites in Chinese Turkistän dating from the 3rd to the 8th century A.D.; see Serindia, i. 491. The Hellenistic derivation of these Central Asian specimens through Graeco-Buddhist art can scarcely be doubted.