Samosdelka (russian: Самосделка) is a fishing village in southern Russia (about 40 km south-south-west of the city of

Astrakhan Astrakhan ( rus, Астрахань, p=ˈastrəxənʲ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in Southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the ...

) near which archaeologists reported in September 2008 that they had found the remains of

Atil Atil (also Itil) , was the capital of the Khazar Khaganate from the middle of the 8th century until the end of the 10th century. Known to have been situated on the Silk Road in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea, its precise location has long been ...

, the capital of the medieval

Khazar The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...

kingdom.

Archaeology

A team of archaeologists, led by Dmitry Vasilyev of

Astrakhan State University Astrakhan State University (formerly Astrakhan State Pedagogical University) is a university located in Astrakhan, Russian Federation. It was founded in 1932. The traditional functions of Astrakhan State University include training specialist ...

, had been excavating for nine years. According to Vasilyev, they found the remains of an ancient brick fortress in the newly found 9th and 10th century layers, which contained characteristic Khazar

yurt A yurt (from the Turkic languages) or ger ( Mongolian) is a portable, round tent covered and insulated with skins or felt and traditionally used as a dwelling by several distinct nomadic groups in the steppes and mountains of Central Asia. ...

s. The investigated area covered more than 2 square kilometers. "This is a hugely important discovery ... We can now shed light on one of the most intriguing mysteries of that period – how the Khazars actually lived. We know very little about the Khazars – about their traditions, their funerary rites, their culture." The layout of the city conforms to the written sources. As reported by Norman Finkelshteyn, it was "a city bisected by riverbeds with a central island citadel of fired brick". The central portion of Samosdelka was located on an island between dried-up river beds. Old documents said that Atil's castle was located on an island in the center of the city. The fortress at Samosdelka had a triangular shape was made from limestone bricks. It is known from written sources that the Khazar

khagan Khagan or Qaghan (Mongolian:; or ''Khagan''; otk, 𐰴𐰍𐰣 ), or , tr, Kağan or ; ug, قاغان, Qaghan, Mongolian Script: ; or ; fa, خاقان ''Khāqān'', alternatively spelled Kağan, Kagan, Khaghan, Kaghan, Khakan, Khakhan ...

had a monopoly on brick buildings. Traces of a widespread fire were found at Samosdelka in an Atil layer. The fire was probably set during the conquest of Atil by

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of ...

prince

Sviatoslav I ; (943 – 26 March 972), also spelled Svyatoslav, was Grand Prince of Kiev famous for his persistent campaigns in the east and south, which precipitated the collapse of two great powers of Eastern Europe, Khazaria and the First Bulgarian Empire. H ...

in 968 or 969 CE. Layers of 11th-12th centuries have Oghuz artifacts and are associated with

Saqsin Saqsin (a.k.a. Saksin, Saksin-Bolgar) was a medieval city that flourished from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries. It was situated in the Volga Delta (modern-day Astrakhan Oblast), or in the Lower Volga region, and was known in pre-Mongol t ...

.Vasil’ev D. Preliminary results of researches on Samosdelskoye site in connection with oguz problem // European Association of Archaeologists. 9th annual meeting. Final program and abstracts. S.-Petersburg, 2003. Р. 29.

Notes

External links

The Khazar Capital City of Atil
(Yediot Ahronot)
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Scholar claims to find medieval Jewish capital
Yahoo! Khazar towns Former populated places in Russia Forts in Russia Archaeological sites in Russia Defunct towns in Russia Cultural heritage monuments in Astrakhan Oblast Objects of cultural heritage of Russia of federal significance {{Europe-hist-stub