Excavations of the settlement Tortkul

A detachment of the Taraz expedition of the Institute of History, Archeology, and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR carried out excavations on the territory of the medieval settlement of Tortkul, located on Suleimanov Street in the Dzhambul city.

Tortkul is a rectangular area 80x80 m in size, 1.5-2 m high. Excavation I was laid in the northwestern part near the wall. After removing the modern garbage layer (1.5 m), the walls of a room 4x3 m in size were discovered. It was attached to the fortress wall. Closer to the eastern wall is a tandoor-shaped hearth. Many ceramics, a cauldron, a vessel with a high neck ending in an elongated spout, and fragments of plums were found near the hearth. The vessel is decorated on the body with a floral ornament. Excavation II was laid in the eastern part of the settlement. After removing the loose upper layer, the construction of two rooms measuring 3.5x3.5 m was discovered. A horseshoe-shaped hearth was built into them near the southern wall in the sufa. The diameter of the hearth is 25 cm, the depth is 36 cm. In front of the hearth, there was an area in the floor measuring 1.2x0.7 m, located 0.08 m below the floor level. Niches 0.15 m wide were made in the eastern wall. The rest of the room was violated late garbage pits. There was a passage to an adjacent room in the northeast corner, identical to the first one. Fragments of ceramics covered with green glaze and decorated with underglaze ornaments were found at the floor level. In one of the niches, there was a pot-shaped vessel with an elongated neck, and a rim slightly bent outwards. The ancient settlement is dated tentatively from the 11th to the beginning of the 13th century.