Gold of ancient Turkistan

The text reports on an amazing discovery made during excavations of the architectural complex of the development of the oldest citadel of the city of Turkistan in the field season of 2019. in the southern part of the citadel, between the castle of the cross-shaped plan and the outer fortress wall, there were cleared spacious open yards (more than 50 m2), in the floors of which round holes were found. They are arranged in a circle of 4-5 m in diameter. These appear to be holes for installation of a wooden frame of protoyurt-type construction - a typical light dwelling of nomadic/semi-nomadic peoples. in the wall of one yard there was found an expensive donation consisting of a complex of women’s jewels – gold polychrome earrings and necklace details, various beads. Systematic work of the past years on the ancient settlement of medieval Turkestan managed to localize the ancient citadel (the first centuries AD), to identify sections of its fortress walls, to clear the architectural and semantic dominant – a two-storey cruciform castle in terms of shape. The construction stages of the genesis and architectural development of the citadel are traced, the construction materials and techniques used by the builders are studied.