Excavations at the central ruins of Otrar

The detachment of the South Kazakhstan expedition of the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR continued studying the central hillock of the Otrar settlement, where the shakhristan and the citadel were located. At excavation III, a city block with an area of ​​1200 sq. m, stratigraphically numbering several building horizons, from the end of the 14th to the middle of the 18th century. The available data testify to the territorial continuity of the boundaries of the quarter as a whole, with the mobility of the layout and area of ​​individual households.

In the late 14th - early 15th century layer, 11 houses were discovered on both sides of the intra-quarter street with a length of more than 40 m and a width of 2.5 m. There are two schemes for the plan of houses: enfilade and with a central passage corridor-like room. Multi-room houses with a corridor belonged to large patriarchal families, since they had two or three living rooms. The area of ​​residential premises is 12-15 square meters. The interior is traditional for the residential architecture of the late medieval Otrar - an extensive sufa and a tandoor, equipped with a chimney-heater.

About 50 coins, mirrors, knives, beads, a large collection of ceramics, dominated by yellow glaze and polychrome murals of a plant nature, were found on the premises.