Research in the Dzhetyasar tract

In the lower reaches of the Syr Darya, the Khorezm expedition carried out work related to the survey of ancient channels and archaeological sites. Excavations have begun at one of the relatively small sites of the Dzhetyasar tract, which, according to the recovered material, was previously attributed to the period of Dzhety-asar I. The site is marked on the maps as Tompak-asar.

Tompak-asar has a three-member division, the thickness of cultural layers is from 7 to 15 m, the total area is 2 hectares. More than 40 rooms and part of the fortress walls with bypass corridors, belonging to the three upper building periods, and part of the fortress walls of the fourth building period, buried under the rooms and walls of the upper horizons, were buried under the rooms and walls of the upper horizons unearthed. The length of the fortress wall (respectively, the bypass corridor), the central part of the settlement is more than 200 m, the height of its excavated part is up to 7.5 m. The wall is made of horizontal rows of broken clay and raw bricks. More than 30 loopholes were found on the southwestern and eastern sections of this wall, presumably two rows. On the east branch of the wall, the bottom of the loopholes (outside) is at the level of the modern takyr; the distance between the loopholes is 0.9 m. In the southwestern section of the wall, the bottom of the loopholes is at a level of 9.5 m, the distance between the loopholes is 1.9 m.

The excavated premises of the three upper construction periods made it possible to identify a specific pattern in their internal layout (the system of sufas, hearths, utility pits) in the very structure of the premises. Most of the premises and bypass corridors, fortress walls, towers, and stairs leading to them, ramps were subjected to numerous minor restructurings within each building period. Polished bone arrowheads, beads, pottery fragments found in the premises mentioned above, allow us to give only a very preliminary date for the upper construction periods - probably no later than the 2nd-3rd centuries.

To a certain extent, this dating is confirmed by materials obtained from excavations of burial structures near the settlement. Five burial structures have been excavated. Three of them turned out to be semi-underground crypts of the same layout. They have arches protruding above the level of the daylight surface to a height of 0.6-0.7 m under the mound, arched entrances laid with bricks, sufas on which the buried were laid. All the crypts were robbed in antiquity, but the remains of clothes and grave goods allow us to judge their authentic luxury. The amber and coral necklaces, earrings made of precious metal, the remains of clothes embroidered with gold foil, as well as a bronze mirror with a side handle, and other items from crypt 4 found in crypt 1 can be tentatively attributed to the time no later than the 1st centuries AD.