Excavations of a pottery workshop on Otrar Rabad

A detachment of the South Kazakhstan Expedition of the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR studied the "Potters' Quarter" of the end of the 13th-14th centuries on the Otrar rabad. The excavation was laid 350 m east of the southeastern corner of the settlement on gently sloping mounds, stretching in a chain along the bed of an ancient irrigation canal. In the work process, a pottery workshop was completely excavated, consisting of a furnace and two production facilities. Living rooms adjoined them. The total area of ​​the complex reached 300 square meters.

The kiln had a two-tier design, with a large fire chamber 1.6 m deep and 2 m in diameter. There were 12 air vents in the floor to supply hot air to the firing chamber, of which only the remains of the dome were preserved. The stove opened like a firebox onto a small courtyard paved with square bricks. Behind the courtyard began a room with an aivan, where in one of the corners, there was a square pit lined with bricks 0.8 m deep, and in the other there was a place for a circle. This room was connected to another, where there was a platform for drying products, a well up to 6 m deep, a place for draining water, storage boxes for clay, and a pit for defective ceramics. Tandoors with chimneys laid in sufas, tashnau in front of them, and small bins in the corners were cleared in the living quarters adjacent to the industrial premises. Living rooms, communicating with each other, had a standard exit to the utility yard, and from there to the street.

During the excavations of the workshop, rich collections of ceramics were collected, potter's tools were found - bone burnishers, a set of clay anvils, casting molds.