Page 223 - Records of Bahrain (2)(ii)_Neat

Topography and archaeology, 1878-1879 549

stono, a largo mass that boro signs of shaping. Ono squnro cut hole, as if
for tho jamb of a largo door, was obvious, as also two channels square cut on
• I giro hero a verj rough diagram tllO SaiUO faCC. I regret tlmt I took at tllO timo
from memory. BCMlt noticc 0£ this," it is Only deductively, after
seeing other mounds and going over half tho island,
that I linvo been led to attach importanco to theso
particular mounds, and from tho fact, firstly, of
their aizo, and, secondly, of their position in lino
facing tho see, and from tho further fact also that
tlicro aro no mounds of lesser proportions near
them.
03. Loaving theso, howover, and retracing our steps to tho Bilad-i-Kadim,
I would start again from thcnco.
04. Again, wo pass through date groves, and find ourselves almost imme­
diately on a broad road entirely dovoid of a 6inglo blado of grass, and appearing
to bo raised an inch or two ahovo tho surrounding soil, which bears a fow scattered
shrubs. This, I am 6uro, for part of its .’ength was at ono timo a mndo road,
whether paved or not, probably not. It seems to have been laid down with
sumo sort of clay, as it becomes as hard as stone in the dry, and like ico in tho
wot weather. It has a pink tinge in places, and of course may be only earth
impregnated with saltpetre which has gained its present apparent character
of a onco made road, by tho constant passago of traffic; there is not, however,
onough of this latter at the present day bctwcon “ Ali ” and Manameh to beat
out a sheep track.
05. This villago of “ Ali,” where tie road lands us in a small turablcd-down
villago, inhabited by Shiahs, is built of and over old habitations, and immediately
outsido of it there is a most singular group of mounds, to which I would draw
attention. Of these I append a rough chalk sketch. They number about 25 to
30, somo larger, somo smaller, but all boing of a sizo to onauro noticc. I had
no means of measuring them, but roughly tho biggest aro from 40 to 50 feet
|
high, and from 40 to 50 yards through their broadest baso; they aro somewhat
furrowed by tho weather, not much so, retaining a strong family likeness to
i ono another, particularly in the squareness of their tops, which aro often
! indonted ; arc baro and closo together, which facts (in spite of the enormous
blocks of shaped sandstono cropping outwear and on the top of some and the
gallery in ono of thorn, also near tho summit) mndo mo doubt tho correctness
of my first conjccturo that they must be temples, and which would have urged
their classification as tombs. Still as they were tho only distinctly shaped
mounds of their sizo that I had examined (at closo quarters), whilst from
immediately behind them stretched chain upon chain, and group upon group
of lesser tumuli, which can bo nothing hut graves, I clung to tho hope that
this largo group might bo something more. I had written somo wcoks ago in
regard to theso. ** This large series of mounds packed together, and of regular
rounded shapes, canuot bo the ruins of houses, as asserted by tho Arabs, tombs
simply - they must be, and this is rendered the moro probablo, I think, from
the fact of their diminution in sizo, in tho mcasuro of thoir distanco from tho
parent group at Ali. Moreover, I never saw moro than a fow blocks of stono
on any siuglo ono of these series of lesser heaps, such blocks being of a size
to prccludo tho possibility of any houso built of liko material, having found
space under tho small earthen domo ovor which they individually broodod.”
GO. Sinco writing tho abovo, I liavo ascertained tho truth of this solf-
ovidont surmiso.
07. Ono only puzzlo remains. If thoso milosupon miles of crowded heaps
aro tombs, whero did tho inhabitants livo ?
08. Tho first answer that comos to hand is, that thoy must havo followod tho
lio of tho coast lino, as at proscut, and lmvo built thoir houso of th.c branches
of tho palm treo, as do tho pooror classes to tho prosont day.
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