THE SPECIAL FINDS FROM GHIAUR KALA. EO 
Ardeschir I (226-240): Sassanide (third century) : 
G.K. 41, upper digging, 8? feet to 11.5 feet. G.K. 31, lower digging, 12 feet. 
G.K. 49, upper digging, 11.5 feet to 15 feet 5 G.K. 198, outer digging 1, 20 feet 5 inches to 23} 
inches. feet: 
G.K. 78, outer digging 1. 
Indeterminable, probably Sassanide (third century) : 
Sapor I (240-270): G.K. 18, upper digging, 24 feet to 5 feet. 
G.K. 19, lower digging, 8 feet. G.K. 68, upper digging, 11.5 feet to 15 feet 5 
G.K. 58, outer digging 1. inches. 
G.K. 70, outer digging 1, 4 to 9 feet. G.K. 130, upper digging, 17 feet 5 inches to 20.5 
G.K. 180, outer digging 1, 17 feet to 20 feet 5 feet. 
inches. G.K. 167, upper digging, 26 feet to 32 feet 7 
G.K. 186, outer digging 1, 17 feet to 20 feet 5 inches. 
inches (dump). G.K. 148, outer digging 1, 11.5 feet to 144 feet. 
G.K. 173, outer digging 1, 144 feet to 17 feet. 
To the Sassanide are to be added some Parthian coins, partly of still older age. 
Parthian (third century): G.K. 152, outer digging 1, 144 feet to 17 feet. 
Partthian (second century): G.K. 116 (compare above). 
King Sanabares (first century, A. D.): G.K. 185, outer digging 1, 17 feet to 20 feet 5 inches. 
Which of these coins shall guide us in dating the finds of Ghiaur Kala? Shall 
it be the younger, which occur in the outer digging to a depth of 11.5 feet below 
the surface? 
The great number of coins of the third century prevent this conclusion. We 
would have to assume that these coins had continued in circulation till the tenth 
and eleventh centuries, and this, according to Mr. Markof, is improbable, if not 
out of the question. On the other hand, it may be mentioned that on the acrop- 
olis, where in the upper digging the earth layers were exposed to a depth of 40 
feet below the top, the younger coins, that is, the Abbassides of the eighth century, 
were found only to a depth of 5 feet and that below this no younger coins occurred. 
We have, therefore, the right to assign to the great number of Sassanide coins 
of the third century the same significance as to the ordinary service pottery that 
showed a uniform character in all the exposed layers. In the light of these two 
groups of finds, we can determine the culture of Ghiaur Kala, 7. e., the coins of the 
third century establish the terminus post quem for the use of all the pottery. 
The culture of Ghiaur Kala was Sassanide. This makes it necessary to sepa- 
rate the younger finds, such as the younger coins and the glazed pottery, from the 
general mass of the other finds. Their appearance also in deeper layers can be 
explained through the many kinds of accidents to which the long-trodden soil of 
Ghiaur Kala was exposed, even if a settlement may have no longer existed there 
at the end of the first millennium. 
(e) INSCRIPTIONS. 
A knowledge of the inscriptions is of importance in judging the potteries 
that were discovered. This depends upon whether we have to assume that the 
inscriptions, as in the ostraka, were made only upon any fragment of pottery 
that came to hand, or whether they were written upon entire vessels in use at the 
time. In the first case they might be classed among the accidental finds of the 
