Стратиграфические исследования Саркела–Белой Вежи (по материалам работ в цитадели)

Abstract

The left-hand bank of Tsimlianskoe hill-fort, known since the 19th century represented the ruins of Khazar Sarkel fortress and the old Russian town of Belaya Vezha. Their identity was proved by M.I.Artamonov more than 60 years ago. He began excavations of this hill-fort in 1934- 1936 and went back to this monument in 1949-1951. He managed to obtain extremely interesting materials which became a significant contribution to the golden fund of our archaeology. The main part of this material was processed in the 1950s (MIA № 62, 75, 109). But no one studied the stratigraphy of a powerful cultural layer of this hill- fort. We made an attempt to fill in this gap. The layer is divided into 7 different periods of construction ( 2 - Sarkel ones, and 5 - Belaya Vezha ones), their dating is based on differences in pottery and things complexes and is proved by finds of rare Byzantine coins. Each period is characterized by more ruins of brick buildings, emerging new trades, innovations in building housing apartments and planning settlement which became "row", perhaps, "street”. So, due to stratigraphic research of the layer we could turn some heavy ground pages of this unique monument.