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The article discusses the interpretation of a mysterious underground building, situated in the Derbent citadel Naryn-Kala. This monumental structure is a crucifix (Latin cross) in plan, oriented with a long axis along the NNW-SSE line, roofed with pointed arches and a dome. On the plans of the citadel of Derbent in the early-mid-19th century, this underground building is indicated as a cruciform structure with the caption "water reservoir". In historical, reference literature and documentation it is defined as an underground water reservoir of the 17th – 18th centuries. In 1976, A.A. Kudryavstev first suggested that this building was originally a church of the 5th – 6th centuries. After almost 40 years, his suggestion was recognized as an established fact, however, with no solid ground or any supplementary reasons. At the same time, distortion of facts and forgery were recorded. This unfounded opinion was promoted even by high-ranking government officials. In 1998, G.M. Kurbanov assumed a possible interpretation of this site as a Zoroastrian fire temple. In 2020, V.L. Myts speculated that this is a Christian martyrium. However, architectural and archeological data contradict these interpretations: the land-based, early medieval, or religious nature of the building has not been proved. Comprehensive (architectural, archeological, magnetometric, etc.) study of this site, without large-scale archeological excavations, is needed.

21 сентября 2019 г. на 92 году жизни скончался видный российский востоковед, главный научный сотрудник Института истории, археологии и этнографии Дагестанского федерального исследовательского центра РАН, доктор исторических наук, профессор Амри Рзаевич Шихсаидов.

Until recently, 32 Middle Persian inscriptions documenting the construction of the Derbent defensive complex and dating from the very end of the 560s. AD were known. Now the construction Middle Persian inscriptions of Derbent has been replenished with two more inscriptions - No. 33 and No. 34, opened by the authors in 2016 and 2021, respectively. Inscription No. 33 is located between towers 18 and 19 of the northern city defensive wall in the central part of the curtain, at a height of 1.5 m. It has poor preservation. But, nevertheless, its text is restored from the preserved fragments of letters and by analogy with other inscriptions similar in content. The inscription is three-line, vertical. Reconstructible text: [Da]r[iuš ī] Ā[durbādagān] ām[ārgar]. Inscription No. 34 is located between towers 14 and 15 of the northern wall, at a height of 2.15-2.6 m. The inscription is vertical, three-line, separate letters and parts of letters are preserved, and its text is reconstructed according to the surviving letters and analogies with other inscriptions. Its text reads: Dari[u]š ī [Ādurbādag]ān ām[ā]rgar.
Both inscriptions are composed on behalf of the āmārgar – a high official, chief financier and tax inspector of the vast Adurbadagan area, which during the reign of Shahanshah Khosrow I Anushirvan (531-579) included not only Adurbadagan proper, but all the Caucasian possessions of Sasanian Iran up to Derbent. The newly discovered inscriptions No. 33 and No. 34 belong to the subgroup b, group 1 of the Middle Persian inscriptions of Derbent, which represents the inscriptions of āmārgar Dariush. Now 19 (out of 34) inscriptions compiled on his behalf are already known, and all of them are carved on the northern wall of the city, where a total of 24 inscriptions are located.

На территории Дербентского поселения I-VI веков н.э. в средневековье возник мусульманский некрополь, на котором в 1977, 1989, 2012, 2013, 2015-2019 гг. было раскопан 71 захоронение. В статье рассматривается погребение № 24, открытое на раскопе XXV (2016 г.). Оно, как и другие мусульманские захоронения этого могильника, было совершено в простой длинной узкой яме (араб. shiqq / shaqq 'траншея') по мусульманским погребальным нормам: погребенный лежал вытянуто на спине, головой на запад, череп повернут вправо лицевыми костями на юг по направлению киблы, инвентарь отсутствовал. В могиле был погребен мужчина, 45-55 лет, среднего роста и телосложения. На черепе зафиксированы следы трех единовременных травм от ударов саблей, одно из которых квалифицируется как смертельное. Датировка этого погребения, как и других захоронений могильника, опирается на находки надмогильной стелы с эпитафией и датой (915 г. хиджры / апрель 1509 – апрель 1510 г.) и фрагмента надмогильной стелы. В эпитафиях обеих стел упоминается титул шахид, которым были посмертно наделены умершие. Указанная на стеле дата дает возможность соотнести эти погребения шахидов с военно-политическими событиями этого времени на Восточном Кавказе, когда в 915 г.х. войска шаха Исмаила I, предприняли завоевание Ширвана под флагом борьбы шиитов с суннитами, заняли Шемаху, Баку, Шабиран, а затем предприняли успешную осаду Дербента. Очевидно, что и открытое погребение № 24, в котором был захоронен мужчина со следами боевых травм, относится именно к этому времени.

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 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.