Excavations of settlements of Dzhetyasar tract
The Dzhetyasar detachment of the Khorezm expedition of the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences continued to study the sites of the Dzhetyasar tract in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya. The work was carried out at the settlements of Dzhetyasar 2 and 12.
At the settlement of Dzhetyasar 2, excavations continued on the premises of the second floor of the original fortress, distinguished by powerful walls erected directly on the mainland from pakhsa blocks and mud bricks.
10 km west of Dzhetyasar 2, there is the ancient settlement of Dzhetyasar 12. It is relatively small, but, like the vast majority of the Dzhetyasar settlements of the first stage, it has a two-member division, an upper platform oval in plan and a second, low platform enclosing it from three sides. Excavations were carried out in a continuous area on the upper platform. Its height is 10 m from the level of the modern surface. On the lower platform (height 2.5 m), an excavation was laid near the fortress wall of the upper platform and a stratigraphic trench. As a result, it is already possible to speak about the presence on the lower platform of many premises of various construction periods. The level of the ancient mainland turned out to be more than 1 m lower than the modern one.
The work on the upper platform showed that the settlement lived for a long time, during which the fortification and the internal layout changed radically more than once. About 40 rooms up to 3 m deep belonging to three construction periods have been discovered. The fortress corridor's western, eastern and northern sections have loopholes (partially), sections of the fortress walls of at least three construction periods. Although the original core of the site has only been touched upon by the work of this first excavation season, it is already clear that it was a compact, probably oval fortress with high, mighty walls. Later, vaulted towers were added, and then vaulted corridors with loopholes. At the same time, the internal layout of the fortress underwent significant changes: the inner area of the monument was built up with rooms that had high thin walls and, obviously, flat ceilings. Wooden doorframes and bone bearings are well preserved in the low passages. The premises are two-three-room sections. A narrow, meridional corridor divided the monument in half. A minor division can be traced along the corridor-like rooms extending to the west and east of the central corridor. This layout is visible in the upper building periods, but it probably existed even earlier.
The interior of the premises is very uniform. Sufas of different heights along three walls and various hearths were recorded in most rooms of all construction periods. Note the oval hearths with "horned" bricks. The rooms, located on different levels and connected by narrow stairs, functioned simultaneously. The same stairs led to the vaulted fortress corridors. The settlement was suddenly abandoned, as evidenced by the many intact vessels left on the premises. On one of the red-engobed vessels there is an image of an archer. In addition to ceramics, stone, glass, iron and bone items were found. Among the latter, we note a two-hole cheek-piece and a bullet-shaped arrowhead. Judging by the finds, the settlement ceased to exist somewhat later than Dzhetyasar 2.