Suchergebnisse

The article is dedicated to the results of 2019 season excavations of Derbent settlement which existed before construction of the Derbent defensive complex at the end of 560-s. This settlement was gradually left after the construction of a new city given the new name Derbent (Darband). The cultural layers and the construction remains (rooms No. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11) of the 5-th – 6-th centuries AD, the medieval Muslim burials (No. 31-37) which have been dug in the layer of the settlement were open in the southern sector of the excavation area XXV.
The revealed complex of inhabited and economic constructions including 11 rooms is dated the 5th century AD on the basis of chronological indicators (bronze belt buckles, fibula) and other archeological finds (including, Sasanian pottery). Authors consider that this complex has stopped existence during the military-political events of the middle of the 5th century or of the beginning of the 6th century, namely in the period of an anti-Sasanian revolt of 450-451 or Iran-Savir war of 503-508 AD.
The materials obtained during excavations shed new light on issues of historical topography and layout, stratigraphy and chronology, architecture and construction, economic activity, culture and life of the inhabitants of the Derbent settlement which is identified with the city-fortress of Chor/Chol known for ancient Armenian, Georgian, Syrian, Early Byzantine and Arab authors and which was the important administrative, military and religious center of East Caucasus. The received materials characterize culture.

As a result of archaeological observations in Derbent, carried out in 2020, a Muslim burial ground was discovered, representing a section of the medieval northern city necropolis, located behind the northern city defensive wall. More than 80 sarcophagus-like gravestones were discovered, made of a single stone monolith and consisting of an upper part - a body and a protruding rectangular plinth. They are of three main types: 1 - with a semicircular cross-section of the body (semi-cylindrical), 2 - with a lancet cross-section, 3 - with a rectangular cross-section of the body. There are sarcophagi nos. 1-3, two of which (sarcophagi nos. 1, 2) have figured images on the top of the case - this is an eight-pointed star or a simplified octogram - the famous Muslim symbol rubʿ al-Hizb or najmat al-Quds, associated with one of the main Muslim shrines - the Dome of the Rock (Masjid Qubbat as-Sahra) mosque in Jerusalem, but also known in the literature as the "Selçuklu Yıldızı" (Tur. Selçuklu Yıldızı), which became widespread in the Seljuk Empire in architectural decor and decorative and applied arts art ceramics, metal) in various variations. The length of the body of the identified sarcophagi ranges from 52 to 266 cm with a width of 19 to 68 cm and a height of 13 to 56 cm; the length of the plinth ranges from 68 cm to 288 cm with a width of 40-95 cm and a thickness of 5-10 cm. Obviously, the size of the sarcophagi reflects three age categories of the buried: children, adolescents, and adults. Sarcophagus No. 40 has an epitaph in Arabic in the Kufi script of the 11th-12th centuries.All in situ sarcophagi are oriented to the west and indicate the location of burials beneath them, apparently having the same orientation and made in elongated rectangular stone boxes (cysts).The revealed sarcophagi dating back to the last third of the 11th - 12th centuries. and their appearance in Derbent and Dagestan is associated with the Seljuk military-political and ethnocultural expansion in the Eastern Caucasus.

The article is dedicated to the results of 2017 season excavations of Derbent settlement which existed before construction of the Derbent defensive complex at the end of 560-s. This settlement was gradually left after the construction of a new city given the new name Derbent (Darband). The cultural layers and the construction remains (rooms 6, 7, 8, 9) of the 5-th – 6-th centuries AD, the medieval Muslim burials which have been dug in the layer of the settlement were open in the southern sector of the excavation area XXV.
The revealed complex of inhabited and economic constructions including 9 rooms is dated the 5th century AD on the basis of chronological indicators (bronze belt buckles, fibula) and other archeological finds (including, Sasanian pottery). Authors consider that this complex has stopped existence during the military-political events of the middle of the 5th century or of the beginning of the 6th century, namely in the period of an anti-Sasanian revolt of 450-451 or Iran-Savir war of 503-508 AD.
The materials obtained during excavations shed new light on issues of historical topography and layout, stratigraphy and chronology, architecture and construction, economic activity, culture and life of the inhabitants of the Derbent settlement which is identified with the city-fortress of Chor/Chol known for ancient Armenian, Georgian, Syrian, Early Byzantine and Arab authors and which was the important administrative, military and religious center of East Caucasus. The received materials characterize culture.

The article is devoted to the results of preserving archaeological research of the Matlas settlement, located on the western tip of the Khunzakh plateau, in the Khunzakh region, in the Midland Dagestan. The total area of the study was 406 square meters. As a result of the work, the foundations of the walls of stone buildings, probably residential and economic structures, were fixed. In addition, a piece of land, used for farming, was fixed. The cultural layer of the settlement contains fragments of various metal products, fragments of glass bracelets, stone products, ceramics, including fragments of glazed vessels, and numerous animal bones. An open complex of buildings dates from the XI-XII centuries, basing on chronological indicators (glazed ceramics and glass bracelets).Matlas settlement was a stationary settlement. This is indicated by the presence in the cultural layer of a large number of fragments of ceramic dishes, bones of domestic animals, individual finds related to human everyday activities (stone tools, millstone details, fragments of glass jewellery, and rare finds of metal objects). The presence of pig bones in the archeozoological material is an additional indicator of the settled life. Findings of millstone fragments indicate the cultivation of grain by its inhabitants. The prevalence of cattle bones in the layers of the settlement suggests the presence of cattle breeding, most likely distant one.Archaeological material, obtained during the excavations of the Matlas settlement, is significant for characterizing the culture, life and economic activities of the population of the mountainous area of medieval Dagestan.

The article is devoted to the results of the Derbent archaeological expedition, conducted in the season of 2016 within the framework of the scientific project under the Russian Humanitarian Scientific Foundation. The settlement preceded the erection of the Derbent defensive complex in the late 560's and was gradually abandoned after the construction of a new city, renamed Derbent (Darband). The works were carried out in the southern sector of the excavation XXV, where the cultural layers, construction (rooms 6, 7, 8) and economic remains dating from the 4th-6th centuries, medieval Muslim burials, dug into the cultural layer of the settlement, were opened. The open complex of residential structures and outbuildings, including 8 rooms, dates from the first half - the middle of the 5th century AD on the basis of chronological indicators (bronze belt buckles) and other archaeological finds (including Sasanian pottery). The authors believe that this complex ceased to exist during the turbulent military-political events of the mid-450s, namely the anti-Sasanian insurrection of the 450 - 451 years. The authors tend to associate the fact of the termination of the complex with the capture of the Derbent fortifications by rebels in 450 AD, or rather, the Huns, who, after the defeat of the insurrection in 451, committed a ruinous invasion to Albania through the Derbent passage. The obtained material (fragments of pottery, ceramics, bone, bronze, iron, stone) characterize the culture and life of the population of the Derbent settlement, identified with the city-fortress Chor/Chol, known to ancient Armenian, Georgian, Syrian, early Byzantine and Arab authors and speakers and being an important administrative, political and religious center of the Eastern Caucasus.