ملاحظات أُعدت كمرجع خلال جولة كرزون في الخليج الفارسي، وأوراق أخرى عن بلاد فارس والخليج الفارسي [و‎‎١‎٩‎٠] (٦٧٨/٣٧٩)

32
Geo.—Sykes—Discussion—First Proof.
nation of the older tiles (I am afraid I have a preference for the older ones) shown
in the tea-room. Many of the specimens there date from the thirteenth and
fourteenth century. There must, in fact, be much older ones, because no an
sprung into completeness and beauty, such as these tiles of the “thirteenth and
fourteenth century, without a long period of probation. These older ones must
exist, no doubt do exist, but how are we to find them? They do not exist in
the mosques; they have probably been destroyed to make room for tbe more
modern ones. They must be looked for on the sites of the old potteries, and there
they will be found, I have no doubt, as Major Sykes has found fragments in
various places. So far with regard to the pottery, which I think will share with
the carpets, of which Major Sykes spoke in such high terms, and deservedly so,
the credit of being one of the artistic beauties of Persia. Another instance of
their artistic work is seen in the bronze arrow-heads and axe-heads which Major
Sykes described as having been found in a tomb by a friend of his, which he after
wards examined on the site. These objects are all bronze, and that leads us to
believe that they belong to what is known as the age of bronze, by which is
meant the age before iron came into use, before it was known as a metal. This
may be so, it probably is; but it must not be forgotten that when one speaks of
the age of bronze, it has only a local significance: the age of bronze in Persia may
be a very different period in chronology than the age of bronze in the Mediter
ranean. No doubt the Mediterranean, or at any rate tbe countiies not very far
from it, have a particular bearing upon some of these objects that Major Sykes has
shown here this evening. In the tea-room there is an axe which is in every way
a very curious axe; it is a kind of double-bladed axe with a great crest on one
side and a very curious blade on the other, and in the middle a design, which, I
dare say, will be a sealed book to most inexperienced eyes that look at it, but
fortunately we have an axe in the British Museum more or less analogous to it,
and which was found—and this is the important point—no nearer than Armenia,
which is a very long way off here, veiy near the Black Sea. This axe from
Armenia, which is not very far from the Mediterranean, which is the home of the
beginning of culture,—this axe of the Mediterranean has upon it, on the back of
the axe—the side away from the blade—an ordinary figure of a lion. Now, if you
bear that in mind, and look at this axe in the tea-room, I think you will see that
the lion has become reduced to a mere survival of the outlines of a lion ; that the
blade, in place of being a us ful blade, has been turned down and stands at right
angles, and has become useless as a blade, and the whole thing has become the
mere symbol of an axe. A warlike people who invent an axe for a particular
purpose are very careful to see that it shall serve the purpose for which it was
made—to cut a skull well. An axe in Armenia has all these qualities; but here
we come to what is merely the survival of an axe, the ceremonial of the thing,
which shows not only the distance through which the type has travelled, but also
the difference in age which lies between these two objects. The arrow-heads
themselves are of the common form, the ordinary leaf-shaped form, which is
certainly the most effective for an arrow-bead; but there is nothing in that which
gives us any idea of the date. What will tell us is excavation. There is nothing
to be done in a country like this except excavation. History is so entirely covered
with legend and story that it is not to be relied upon. I think even the most
ardent Greek present would admit that the Greek stories tf the early history of
Persia are very little more than legend. What we want is excavation, and I think
that if we could make excavations on certain of these selected sites, which were
great cities either in medieval times or in the times of Alexander the Great, we
should make very great discoveries; but there is a reason, I am sorry to say, why
we cannot do this. A few years ago—-I forget how many—the French Govern
ment obtained a monopoly for the excavation of antiquities in Persia, a monopoly
which forbids England or any other country from making excavations of this
kind. It seems to me that it showed considerable indifference towards tue
progress of knowledge on the part of those responsible, that in England we should
have let an opportunity like this pass without making some kind of purchase, at
any rate for a district of Persia, which might have been left for the energies of our
friend Major Sykes. What I hope to see is, when this monopoly comes to an end,
that our Major Sykes, and probably others like him—he will agree that there is
work for more than one—will be allowed to make excavations in Kerman, and
that in time by excavations we may know something of the history of early
Persia.
Sir Henry Howorth : I should like, if I might, to add two or three words to
what has just been said about my friend Major Sykes, and .two or three words
entirely from the point of view of the extreme interest of the district which he
has explored, and to which I have devoted many of the years of my life to writing
an account. I will limit myself to a very few sentences, but there are three points
which seem to me to be of particular interest. To my mind this district of the
world is the most tragical of all parts of the world in regards to its history. In a
great many other countries we have huge deserts which have always been more
or less huge deserts; here we know that almost every part of the country must
in early times have had extremely flourishing settlements. Take that district of
: they found a wonderfully thriving population; its history goes back a
long way. Then there is the country of the Sarkas, who have this remarkable
interest—that they conquered the larger part of the north-west of India, and they
founded the great state of Sarkastina, and when Sir Thomas went to India, he