Excavations in the shahristan of Otrar

The detachment of the South Kazakhstan Expedition of the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR continued excavations on the territory of the city quarter that had developed in the second half of the 14th century, which included a street with houses on both sides. The quarter was rebuilt more than once, but the location of the street was strictly preserved for almost 400 years. The study of an earlier layer, tentatively dated to the 11th-12th centuries, has begun. So far, about 500 sq. m and revealed the layout of more than 20 rooms belonging to different residential complexes. One of the houses of the Karakhanid period was a multi-room rectangular building with an area of ​​about 250 square meters with a central corridor, into which four or five residential sections were opened from both sides and from the end (the house has not yet been completely excavated). Residential premises up to 25 sq. m, equipped with four-sided sufas, interrupted at the entrance. The width of individual segments of sufas is different: from 0.6 to 1.9 m. In their narrow side, a tandoor is usually arranged with a blower at the base, and in the center of the room, as a rule, there is a ceramic hearth-altar brought to the floor level. The hearths are round (diameter 0.5-0.6 m) and rectangular (dimensions 1.1 * 0.6 m), 10-12 cm deep, decorated with carved ornaments and moldings. In each section, there were utility rooms (in some, the remains of large khums were preserved) and a tiny sanitary room, where there was a floor bath-like vessel (tashnau) with a spout-drain directed into the hole of a vertically placed ceramic pipe. Tashnau sizes are different: 0.7 * 0.5; 1*0.7 m, etc., depth 7-10 cm.

Several levels are distinguished in layer of the 11th-12th century, clearly fixed by floors. At the level of one of the floors in all buildings, there were fire signs. However, life in the studied territory of the city continued uninterrupted until the Mongol-Tatar invasion. This period includes traces of desolation in the form of powerful streaks from the walls, separated by sterile inflatable layers of loess. The buildings of the Karakhanid period were built of raw bricks with dimensions of 48-50*20 - 22*10 cm. Sufas and walls were carefully plastered in several layers; a dense multi-layer coating also characterizes the floors. As a rule, there are no finds on the floors, but garbage pits provide abundant material (ceramics, glass, metal products, less often coins).