Research in southern Kazakhstan

The South Kazakhstan expedition of the Institute of History, Archeology, and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR began exploring the Altyntobe settlement, located 9 km northwest of Otrar, at the confluence of the Arys River with the Syr Darya. The settlement typology is defined as “tobe with a platform”. The citadel (70x70 m) oriented to the cardinal points rises 17 m above the surrounding area. From the south, it is adjoined by a platform of fortified shakhristan (170x140 m). Excavation I (1800 sq. m.) was laid out in the eastern half of the citadel; excavation II (625 sq. m) - in the central part of shakhristan; excavation III - a section of the southern fortress wall of shakhristan. The upper building horizon is almost completely destroyed due to erosion processes. In some places, the foundations of the walls and fillings of garbage pits have been preserved from it, the materials give reason to date the horizon of the 9th-10th centuries.

In the main building horizon of excavations 1 and 2, dense housing developments separated by narrow streets were revealed. In the southeastern and northeastern corners of the citadel, a continuous backfilling of rather large areas was found (as the pits showed, to a depth of up to 3.5 m). In the interiors of residential premises, sufas of different heights along the perimeter of the walls, floor adobe rectangular hearths with sides, wall hearths-fireplaces, altar niches, and podiums in the corners of the premises were noted. In one of the altar niches, a female terracotta figurine was found imprinted in a mould, embedded in plaster. Items made of ceramics, bone, bronze, and gold have been found. Based on stratigraphy and materials (including three Türgesh coins), the horizon is dated to the 8th-early 9th centuries.

Excavation III partially uncovered the fortress wall of shakhristan. It was built of raw bricks and placed on a base of pakhsa blocks. The surviving height is up to 3 m, the thickness is 6 m. From the outside, the wall's surface was divided by protruding rectangular pylons 7 m wide, from the inside, the walls of the main building horizon adjoined it.

Research continued on the territory of the central mound of the Otrartobe settlement. The excavations of the Otrar Cathedral Mosque have been completed. The building of fired square bricks occupies an area of ​​60x22 m. The composition of the building is frontal, a rectangular plan includes galleries formed by 30 square pillars placed in three rows. The span between the floor supports is 3.7 m. The entrance portal has two cylindrical minarets at the corners. There were two halls on the axis of the entrance. The ceilings of the halls rested on pillars of complex sections. Judging by the finds in the rubble, glazed tiles and bricks and polychrome majolica played an important role in the architectural decoration of the building. Fragments of ceramic bars on the windows were found. The mosque's foundation is a continuous pit filled with band pakhsa, to which coals are added as insulators from soil salts. The Otrar Cathedral Mosque belongs to the monuments of the pillar-domed type, well known in the medieval architecture of Central Asia. The date of its construction is the end of the 14th century. The mosque functioned, apparently, not for long. After a city-wide fire, the building was used as a shelter for temporary residents (bonfires, humus on the floor), and then was rebuilt into housing (burnt brick partitions between the pillars). In the 16th century or earlier, the mosque was completely buried under the mud-brick buildings of the Otrar residential area.

The irrigation detachment began to study the kyarizes (sewer) around the medieval settlement of Sauran (7th-17th centuries), located in the foothill zone of Karatau, 40 km northwest of Turkestan. About ten kyarizes were discovered, supplying the city of Sauran and its environs with water. One of the kyarizes has been examined. Its source was located 3 km east of the central ruins of Sauran. Pebble dumps, formed from digging wells, have been preserved on the surface. The diameter of the dumps along the outer base is 8-10 at height - 0.7-1 m. The diameter of the funnel is 1.5-2 m. The wells were 10 m apart, forming chains 7 km long. Ten wells were opened, located in different parts of the kyariz. According to the device, they are of the same type. The diameter of the trunk is 1.7-1.9 m. Mouths wells were fixed with two ceramic rings placed one on top of the other. The diameter of the rings is 1.9-2 m, the height is 0.20–0.25 m. The rings are handmade. The excavations have been brought to a depth of 4-5 m. The bottom of the wells has not been found. The infill consists of loess with an admixture of pulverized sand with noticeable layering. It contained ceramic fragments of water-bearing jugs and other vessels dating back to the 13th-14th centuries.