Research in Turkestan
The Institute of History, Archeology, and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR, together with the Institute "Kazproekt Restoration" of the Ministry of Culture of the Kazakh SSR, researched the settlement of medieval Turkestan, located on the eastern outskirts of the city of the same name in the South Kazakhstan region.
A stratigraphic excavation was completed (an area of 70 sq. m) on a two-tiered knoll in the profile Kultobe, 9 m high, with about 1.5 hectares, located on the eastern outskirts of the settlement, 300 m from the mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi. Seven building horizons have been identified (1st-12th tiers), of which I-V belong to the early medieval period. The walls of the premises of these horizons are made of large-format raw material (50-52x24-26x9-10 cm); rectangular floor hearths with sides (0.7-0.75x0.6 m) and with them tandoors let in under the floor level without chimneys and furnace openings were recorded in the premises. In the horizon I (stages 12-10), a conical whorl, fragments of a ceramic table with legs, fragments of boat-shaped grain graters, and, secondly, the upper part of a stone millstone were found. From the floor of the third horizon (7th tier), a decapitated horse's burial was laid in, lying on its left side with tightly tucked legs; western orientation. An oval iron stirrup was found near the front legs with a wide step, reinforced at the bottom with a rib, and with a lamellar eyelet for a belt. Nearby lay an iron single-ringed bit and a smooth silver shoulder strap. Between the front and hind legs were the bones of the hind limb of the sheep. Above the mouth of the grave pit on the floor of horizon III, an extensive calcination of the soil was recorded. A bone arrowhead was found nearby. This find specifies the dating of the horizon of the 3rd-7th-8th centuries. The ceramic complex of horizons I-V reveals all the forms and features characteristic of the 2nd-3rd stages of the near-Syr Darya Kaunchin cultures, which makes it possible to date these Kultobe horizons to the 4th-10th centuries.
The sixth building horizon was fixed at the floor level laid out over the entire excavation area with square (25X25X5 cm) baked bricks (level 3). This horizon dates a hoard of post-reform Chagatayid coins found under one brick. It contains 297 silver dirhams and 88 copper falses (determined by V. Nastich). Dirhams were minted at the mints of Almalyk, Andigan, Bukhara, Kashgar, Kenjde, Margiana, Otrar, Samarkand, Taraz, Khujand, Shash, Yangi. Readable data fit into the period 67b AH-696 AH. (121 copies). False by type belong to the Otrar coinage, 698 AH and Farab 699 AH. Obviously, the dates of the falses are close to the time when the hoard was deposited, and the upper boundary of horizon VI Kultobe can be dated to the first quarter of the 14th century.
The seventh, uppermost building horizon (1st-2nd tiers) is dated by finds of glazed ceramics of a peculiar color scheme, fragments of faience bowls from the Kuznetsov factory, and ceramic children's whistles. These materials are typical for Turkestan during the 19th century.
New stratigraphic data from Kultobe localize the location of the early medieval settlement of Yasy and date the time of its occurrence, and in total, with the materials of other excavations at the site, they concretize the history of the formation of medieval Turkestan.