Excavations of a residential quarter at the settlement of Otrar

A detachment of the South Kazakhstan Expedition of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR researched the northeastern part of the Otrar settlement (excavation site X). The subrectangular excavation is elongated from east to west. Remains of residential buildings were unearthed throughout the territory. The houses of the quarter, facing the entrances to the south, faced the street leading to the city's northern gates. The houses closely adjoined the fortress wall from the north, which had already lost its significance. Basically, the houses consisted of two rooms and were elongated from north to south. A well-preserved house consisted of a dwelling measuring 5.5x3.5 m. A sufa was attached to the western wall - with two simultaneous but different tandoors. The diameter of the rim of one tandoor is 0.35, the other is 0.65 m. The fireboxes are subrectangular in shape (20х27 cm). Tandoor rims are decorated with a wave-like ornament.

The chimney channels are made of raw brick placed on edge. The length of the canals is 1.5 m. A tashnau area 3.25x1.5 m in size adjoins the sufa. The floor of the platform is paved with burnt bricks 27x25x5 cm in size. The mouth of the tashnau was closed with burnt brick with drain grooves. There is a round hole 1.5 cm in diameter in the center of the brick. Two niches 57x35x28 cm in size were arranged next to the tandoors in the southern wall. Along the eastern wall there was a sufa (3.5x2.5x0.45 m), on which pieces of cloth fabrics and remnants of a reed mat. There was a passage 0.76 m wide leading to an adjacent room in the southern wall. In the room near the eastern wall, there was a sufa measuring 3.7x2.2x0.45 m, the southern part of the room was occupied by a sufa measuring 1.55 x 0.4 x 0.3 m, with steps on edge. Another sufa was built along the western wall. Between the sufs there was a tashnau platform 0.9x0.6 m in size, paved with burnt bricks. It is established that the house burned twice and died from a fire. At 0.15 m below the surface of the sufa there is a 2.5 cm thick layer of fire. The old coating is strongly calcined. The house was rebuilt and continued to function until a second fire destroyed it. Traces of a strong fire are observed throughout the quarter. Glazed and non-glazed ceramics mainly represents the finds. Painting of glazed ceramics of two types - blue and manganese from light to black. There are fragments of jugs, pots, hums of unglazed ceramics.

The complex of buildings dates back to the second half of the 16th-17th centuries.