1887.] J. F. Garwood— Ancient mounds in the Quetta District. 161 
Notes on the ancient mounds in the Quetta District.—By Major 
J. F. Garwood, R. E. 
(With, a Plate.) 
Now that portions of Baluchistan and Southern Afghanistan are 
rapidly becoming settled countries under British rule, doubtless men 
of science will begin to devote some attention to the mounds which are 
spread abroad throughout the district. Up till recently, what with the 
Country being unsettled and constant changes of officers taking place, 
the little information that is forthcoming regarding these mounds is 
hard to be got at. It is for the most part a personal record, and the 
persons are constantly shifting on the scene. 
I had occasion recently in my official capacity as an officer of the 
Military Works Department to make some considerable excavations in 
the Miri or citadel of Quetta, and finding the results from an archaeologi¬ 
cal point of view interesting, I have endeavoured to find out what has 
been done before by others in investigating mounds in the district, and 
purpose to put this now before your readers together with my own 
experience at Quetta. It will I hope be of advantage when the re¬ 
searches are taken up by experts, if some little information as to what 
has been noticed by those first on the spot is readily obtainable. 
These mounds are very numerous throughout the district, some 
being of very large size. They vary from small hillocks up to large 
masses of earth, like the Quetta Miri, the base of which is an oval 600 
feet long by 400 feet wide, and which rises 80 feet above the plain. 
These mounds may be, and very probably are, of different origins, and a 
few of the small ones may be even natural; but the true mound of which 
I write is manifestly artificial, and for the most part there is no sign of 
excavation in the neighbourhood. Accepting the conclusion that the 
mound is artificial, I argue that when no trace of excavation appears, we 
may be sure that the mound is of great antiquity for the dust storms of 
the country to have filled up the hollows fTom which the earth for the 
mound was taken. 
Some officers quartered at Thai Chotiali a few years since took con¬ 
siderable interest in investigating the mounds there. Col. Sturt, Bo. S. C., 
found in a hole in a mound between Dubber Khot and Thai two or three 
gold and a number of silver coins which were sent down to the Royal 
Asiatic Society at Bombay and the inscriptions deciphered by Mr. 
Rehatsek. The coins were from Baghdad and about six or seven cen¬ 
turies old. Brigadier Adam, Q. M. G. of the Bombay Army, Col. Sturt’s 
successor, informs me that he searched the mound afterwards and found 
nothing of interest, nothing except broken pottery which he believed to 
be modern. 
