Research at Aktobe settlement

The expedition of the Kazakh University continued the study of the Aktobe settlement in the Chuy district of the Dzhambul region. The work was carried out in different parts of the citadel, which rises 20 meters above the mainland.

In the southern part of the citadel, three rooms with pakhsa walls were excavated, preserved to a height of 0.4-0.5 m. In one of them (4x3.08 m), there were three hearths-tandoor 1.08х0.55 m in the southern corner. A wall 1.1 m thick with a passage 1.05 m wide separated it from room 2 (3.08x0.60-0.80 m). At the northwestern wall of room 3 there was a tandoor 0.50 m in diameter with a shelf-shaped massive rim. According to the ceramic material, the premises are attributed to the 10th-12th centuries.

Behind the northeastern wall of room 1, a burial was opened in a ground pit (1) 0.95 m wide, 0.38-0.40 m deep, and about 2 m long. The buried lay stretched out on his back, with his head to the northwest. At the head of the bed stood an egg-shaped khum with a bent rim, made on a potter's wheel. Moreover, a stone bead was found in the grave.

To the southwest of room 1, a spillway structure 16 m long was traced, the middle part of which has not been preserved. It was made of ceramic pipes 0.40–0.46 m long and 0.16 m in diameter, cut lengthwise into two halves before firing, lined and covered with burnt bricks 22x21x3–4 cm in size.

Room 4H (4.38x1.90 m) was unearthed to the north of burial 1, the floor and foundation walls lined with burnt bricks (35.5x17x3 cm). There was room 5N 4.9 m long to the northwest, partially excavated in 1979. Both of these rooms adjoined a wall made of mud bricks and pakhsa, and simultaneously with their construction, to the south-east, laying of mud bricks with a format of 40x20.5x8-8.5 cm, adjacent to the same wall and traced in length to 6.3-6.6 m. After it was dismantled to a depth of 2.7 m, a passage 1.35 m wide with plastered walls and overlap. It has been cleared 1.6 m down to the brickwork (brick format 39-44x20-21x7-10 cm). The passage floor is lined with burnt bricks (24-25x11.5x5.5 cm). It led to living rooms located below rooms 1-3 of the upper horizon. To the north-east of room 4H, on an area of ​​9.6x9.1 m, laying out of baked bricks with dimensions of 35-38x16-17x3.5-5 and 37-38x37 - 38x4-5 cm was recorded.

In the western part of the citadel, for 24 m and to a height of 4 m, the front sides of the citadel walls between the two towers were cleared. Two periods of their functioning are noted, accompanied by restructuring, which are tentatively attributed to the 9th-11th and 10th-12th centuries judging by the ceramics.