DOĀB-E MĪḴZARĪN (Doab-i Mekhe Zarin; 35°15´-35°16´ N, 67°58´-68°01´ E), a group of archeological sites with numerous pre-Islamic mud-brick ruins on either side of the Sorḵāb river, on the road from Bāmīān to Došī, opposite the entrance to the Kahmard valley.
There are remains of large fortresses on both banks of the Sorḵāb river, for example, on a natural hill commanding the passage to the Kahmard valley. Of art-historical interest are constructions from cut lime-stone carrying edifices built of large mud bricks, for example, in two-storied elliptical tunnel vaults in the style of an Iranian ayvān, thus attesting a cultural presence in this region of the Hindu Kush from late Sasanian times ( 6th-7th centuries). Finds of plain ceramics indicate the same chronological range.
Bibliography:
(For abbreviations found in this bibliography, see “Short References.”) W. Ball and J.-C. Gardin, Archaeological Gazetteer of Afghanistan, 2 vols., Paris, 1982, pp. 302-03.
M. Le Berre et al., Monuments pré-islamiques de l’Hindukush central, MDAFA XXIV, Paris, 1987, pls. 29-35.
K. Fischer, “Indo-Iranian Contacts as Revealed by Mud-Brick Architecture from Afghanistan,” Oriental Art N.S. 12/1, 1966, pp. 25-31, esp. p. 27 fig. 4.
Idem, “Preliminary Remarks on Archaeological Survey in Afghanistan,” Zentralasiatische Studien des Seminars für Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft Zentralasiens der Uni-versität Bonn 3, 1969, pp. 344-45.
(Klaus Fischer)
Originally Published: December 15, 1995
Last Updated: November 29, 2011
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