Research in Dzhetyasar tract

The Khorezm expedition of the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences continued its work in the North-Eastern Aral region, in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya. Excavations were carried out on the central high platform at the ancient settlement Dzhetyasar 12. An additional investigation of the eastern tower and fortifications of the northern section was carried out, where a picture of numerous alterations and major reconstructions was revealed. A total of 22 dwellings were excavated on various building horizons. Two construction horizons of the lower layout of the fortress are revealed, which are sharply different from the residential development of the six upper construction periods. The central platform, oval in plan, originally had fortress walls erected on the mainland, to which towers on the plinth were later attached. Two western towers flanked the new entrance to the fortress. Subsequently, other towers were erected, and vaulted shooting galleries were successively built between them on high platforms. The bulk of the living quarters of the first two building horizons was located on a 2.5-3-meter platform. Narrow corridors, a courtyard with sheds, and large rooms with an open hearth in the center adjoined the first shooting corridor, divided into blind compartments. Life in them ceased after a fire, and after a significant break, the fortress was again inhabited, but the internal residential layout was already different. The entire interior space of the leading site was divided into two halves by a meridional corridor with corridors extending from it, connected with one or more residential sections. The latter consisted of two or three functionally different rooms. Within the main walls of the section, the premises were repeatedly rebuilt, but the interior of the main residence of the building (with low wide sufa, a central open hearth) was stable and typical of all the upper building horizons. On each side of the meridional corridor, one of the residential sections with a low sufa (circular or sub-square), a round hearth in the center, was probably used as a public or religious building of the quarter.

At the same time, excavations were carried out in the necropolis surrounding the settlement, where 10 burial mounds and two underground crypts were excavated. The mounds of the mounds have been completely washed away, and their dimensions are determined only along the ring ditches, usually 8-14 m. All burials had niches in the eastern wall of the grave pit, where some of the vessels and animal bones were located. The buried lay on reed mats, stretched out on their backs, with their heads to the north, covered from above with a thick layer of intertwined reeds. All graves have been robbed. Among the surviving inventory, in addition to ceramic vessels, we note numerous metal plaques, partially sewn onto fabric, bone bow linings, glass, amber and stone beads, iron knives, bronze mirrors. In one of the burials of barrow 25, under the remnants of reed bedding, near the belt, two amber beads, and two large chalcedony seals were found with images of a lion and a zebu-shaped bull, characteristic of Sasanian Iran. In another kurgan (32), also under a reed mat, a bronze mirror was found with fabric remnants and a handle with horse protomes on the back. Nearby lay pieces of large river shells and chalk. In one of the robbed underground crypts, under the bricks of the fallen vault, a female burial was preserved with the remains of clothes and a headdress, rich decorations, which can be preliminarily dated to the end of the 4th - beginning of the 5th century.