Discovery of a grave
Saddle-bags, and jajims from Kliurramabad, and rugs woven
in central Luristan were stacked round the sides, and our
sleeping-quilts were laid out for us in rows round the central
hearth. I now took to these quilts without misgiving, for I
found Luristan remarkably free from insects, and the nights
were so cold that one was thankful for anything in the way of
covering.
Next morning as I sat at breakfast, shouts and breathless
messengers announced the discovery of my skull: we raced
up the hillside and found an excited cluster of tribesmen round
a grave. It was one of the earliest sort: the skeleton, nearly
complete, lay on its right side, with its head to the south and
its knees bent: there was nothing with it except a sharpened
flint and three shards of the roughest earthenware. Close
beside it, however, and in the same sort of grave, they had
found some weeks before a beautiful jar with a brown flame
pattern painted on it, exactly like the ware which was being
dug out of the mound of Gian near Nihavend. I bought the
jar, collected the skull—which broke into pieces in my hand
and required careful packing—and came away none too
pleased with the morning's result, for I had hoped for a
grave of the Bronze Age, and it was now quite useless to expect
the tribe to dig again. Their misgivings as to the permissi-
bility of carrying away people's bones had been allayed by
the fact that the skeleton had obviously not been laid in the
direction of Mecca; but they were still nervous about the
Persian law of antiquities, which has brought punishment
for illicit dealing in bronzes on to several of the tribes. The
government occasionally send spies and then get the chiefs
to pay fines, and are really making praiseworthy efforts to
save what is left of the graves in Luristan.
I knew that what I was doing went directly against this
law: but there were some extenuating circumstances. The