Archaeology Magazine - September/October 2019 - 36

Brick pavement (above) in a looters'
hole near the minaret once covered the
courtyard of a mosque destroyed in a flood.
A pottery sherd (right) depicting a smiling
figure was one of thousands of ceramic
pieces recovered at Jam.

"Having visited the site, I assumed there
was no room for a settlement of any extent."
Previously, most scholars thought if Jam was
indeed Firuzkuh, then it functioned as a symbolic center, a capital in name only. "David's work
proved conclusively that there was a city, or at least
an urban settlement, associated with the minaret-that
it was a capital in practice as well as in name," says Ball. That
discovery led Thomas and his team to speculate about why the
Ghurid sultans chose such a rugged and remote spot for such
an important center, which would have combined permanent
structures with temporary encampments. Thomas notes that,
along the Jam River a few miles to the south, there are sections
of flat land where Ghurid nobles could have set up their tents
with much greater ease. "Maybe there was a personal reason
that had to do with the selection of the location. Or maybe they
felt safe nestled in this river valley," says Thomas. "They were
an incredibly adaptable and flexible people, and I think you see
it in their choice of this valley as their capital, even if we don't
know quite why they made that choice."
Thomas and his team excavated a series of other looters'
holes located throughout the site to get a sense of how complex
the capital was. They found one looters' hole dug into the middle
of a substantial mudbrick house. A niche in the side of the structure still had an oil lamp that had been placed there more than
800 years earlier. "We think there were people in residence at
the site year-round, despite the fact that the sultans were only
here in the summer," says Thomas. "It would not have been
very hospitable in the winter, but we think there was perhaps a
caretaker population that watched over the capital in winter."
It's possible that some of the more permanent residents
belonged to Firuzkuh's Jewish population, which left behind
a substantial cemetery filled with headstones inscribed with
Judeo-Persian text. During the medieval period, and well into
36

the twentieth century, most urban centers in Central Asia had
significant Jewish populations. Historical sources also record
a Ghurid tradition that bound the Jewish population to the
success of the Shansabanid Dynasty. In one of the dynasty's legendary origin stories, a Shansabanid prince planned a journey
to Baghdad to gain the support of the Abbasid caliphs, who
then maintained nominal control of the Islamic world. It was
said that the prince was aware that his mountain upbringing
and rough-and-ready appearance and manners might not place
him in good stead at the palace in Baghdad. On the journey he
met and sought the advice of a Jewish merchant, who advised
him on his attire and suggested ways to improve his manners.
The Shansabanid prince then made a successful appearance at
tthe Abbasid court and won support for his claim to the
Ghurid sultanate. Thereafter, it was said, Jews
w welcome in the Ghurid heartland.
were
Thomas and his team identified four
J
Jewish
headstones, which added to a coll
lection
of more than 70 that had been found
b Italian researchers in the 1960s. All but six
by
o the headstones recovered thus far memoriof
al
alize men who lived between 1150 and 1220,
th historically recorded period of occupation
the
in Firuzkuh. That there are no headstones from

A niche in a late 12th-century house at Jam that looters had
tunneled into still held an oil lamp where it had been placed
by the house's original inhabitants.
ARCHAEOLOGY * September/October 2019

Archaeology Magazine - September/October 2019

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