Summary

M.G.Kramarovskii (Saint-Petersburg, Russia)

JUCHI ULUS (1207-1502). NOTES ON CULTURE OF DASHT-I QIPCAQ DURING CHINGIZID EPOCH

The paper is devoted to the problem of Dasht-i Q?pcaq cultural development during the Mongolian epoch. The author suggests a three stage development model. The early Juchid period (1207 – 1250s) is actually the period of the Chingizid empire formation. Distinguishing of the early stage can hardly be overestimated for understanding cultural heritage of the first generations of the Juchids who promoted formation of the Golden Horde culture itself. In the middle Golden Horde period (the 2nd half of the 13th – the first two thirds of the 14th c.) in connection with an increasing Islamic influence at the turn of the 13th-14th centuries the time of neglecting the values of the Juchid state founders’ generation began. During the late Golden Horde period (1340s-60s – the 15th c.), when the town vector in the Juchids culture appears to be subordinated to Islamic values solely, the Turkic pre Islamic layer in spiritual culture is still alive. This can be seen on the example of the late belt garnitures with the dragon theme.

E.D.Zilivinskaya (Moscow, Russia)

EXCAVATIONS OF KRASNY BUGOR MANOR OF SELITRENNOYE HILLFORT

The manor nature of the development of the Golden Horde towns has been pointed out in a number of papers devoted to their excavations. Manors of feudal nobility and prosperous townspeople occupied a considerable area. They typically consisted of an owner’s house, servants’ dwellings, and household buildings. One of such prosperous manors was excavated in 1995-2000 on Krasny Bugor which is one of the highest places of the hillfort.

The house had been built in several stages. Firstly, two chambers with thick walls made of the big size adobe brick were constructed on the top of the hill. At the following stage, a chamber with the Fachwerk walls was attached to them from the south, and a pass was cut through in the northern wall from which a corridor with three pairs of rooms on either side of it ran out. The walls of the chambers were made of wood. The third stage was erection of a state-room with adjoined chambers. The walls of the state-room and the chambers were made both of burnt and adobe brick. Thus, the manor house at the XXI excavation site was not constructed according to a uniform layout at once. It represented a conglomerate of chambers of various functions with the walls made of different materials. At the last stage the building size was 18.8 m in its northern part and 24 m in its southern part along the W-E axis. Its length was over 25.2 m (in the eastern part) along the N-S axis. It is impossible to ascertain the building length more precisely since its southern and southwestern parts are destroyed as a result of a landslide of Krasny Bugor edge.

The house excavated on Krasny Bugor does not represent anything remarkable. Nevertheless, this is only the fourth manor house studied on Selitrennoie hillfort completely and the material of this excavation site will undoubtedly enrich our knowledge of the town life in the Golden Horde.

A.N.Maslovskii (Azov, Rostov province, Russia)

CELLAR OF MERCHANT HOUSE FROM AZAK OF END OF FIRST HALF OF XIV CENTURY

The paper presents materials of a rich dwelling dated back to the mid of the 14th century. This complex is the first object which may be connected with the conflict between the Italians and the authorities of the Golden Horde in autumn, 1343. A great bulk of grain and many bags of flour as well as the richness of finds made it possible to presume that the dwelling belonged to a grain dealer. The ceramic finds from the dwelling precisely enough reflect the most essential features of Azak ceramic complex of that period. Among the main directions of its variation are decreasing of a portion of polished and ornamented ceramics made in the Golden Horde centers and replacement of the Byzantine slip ceramics by the production of towns of the Southeastern Crimea. The peculiarities of this particular period are the regularity of finds of Khorezm stamped ceramics, a significant amount of vessels of Majar manufacture, and some series of slip bowls of the East Crimean manufacture distinguished by the style of their decoration.

V.V.Plakhov (Astrakhan, Russia)

PALACE BUILDINGS OF END OF XIV CENTURY NEAR KOMSOMOLSKII VILLAGE IN ASTRAKHAN PROVINCE

The paper is devoted to the palace-like architectural constructions found during an excavation of the 14th c. hillfort site located near Astrakhan at Komsomolskii settlement on the Lower Volga. The investigated remains belonged to the buildings which were a part of an architectural complex erected during the reign of Toktamysh khan. The composite design of the buildings originated from China. The Golden Horde architects took this plan as a basis for the palace constructions of new type combining the Central and Inner Asian traditions. This type of architectural constructions became traditional in the Golden Horde and was preserved in late monuments of Central Asia.

I.V.Matiushko (Orenburg, Russia)

BURIAL OF EMBALMED WARRIOR OF XIII-XIV CC. ON LEFT BANK OF IRTEK RIVER

In 2002 at the excavation of Shumaievskii II barrow burial ground located on the left bank of the Irtek river (the right inflow of the Ural river) a group of the Orenburg archeological expedition headed by N.L.Morgunova explored a burial of an embalmed warrior. The burial is a rich inhumation of the Turkic professional warrior, possibly a military leader of the XIII-XIV cc., whose mortal remains they tried to conserve with the help of mercury to deliver them to some place remote from the place of death. As the pathologoanatomic examination has shown soft tissues had been removed from the warrior’s body and a clay coating containing mercury had been applied to his arms and legs bones. The head and the breast of the dead were wrapped in several layers of silk fabric. A similar clay coating containing mercury was applied on the head over the fabric. The technique of embalming using mercury and the presence of the alabaster coating reveal the connection of this burial with a group of people of the town settled center, probably located in Eastern Asia.

The funeral inventory is extremely varied. The combination of protective armour, the weapon of close (a sword, a ketmen’) and distant combat (darts, a bow, arrows with large flat rhombic arrowheads) in one complex displays the time of the Mongolian conquest of the East European steppes and emphasizes relation of the dead to military professionals. The equipment of a fighting horse also corresponds to the Golden Horde time. A bright sample of toreutics is obviously a military trophy considering its location and the degree of its integrity. In the XIII-XIV cc. silver vessels made using a similar decoration technique are present in rich nomads’ complexes of Eurasia steppes.

Occurrence of a burial with bright nomadic elements and embalming technique can result from the interaction of town and nomadic cultures in the Golden Horde.

V.A.Babenko (Stavropol, Russia)

ZOLOTARIEVKA-3 BARROW-GROUND BURIAL OF GOLDEN HORDE TIME

During the archaeological excavations of barrow 2 of Zolotarievka-3 barrow cemetery on the territory of Ipatovski district of Stavropol province a barrow-ground burial was explored.

In total, 30 burials with different states of preservation have been explored; 3 of them were plundered in ancient times, 4 burials were surrounded by small ditches. The remains of burial ground fencing have been discovered in the west and southwest. Burials 9, 10, 16, and 28 surrounded by ring-shape ditches are the earlier ones. Later burials are grouped around the burials with ditches and form irregular rows which extend along the north-northeast – the south-southwest line.

The vestiges of barrow rite (ditches, a burial of a horse skull and some horse bones) and certain features of Muslim funeral ceremonialism are revealed in the monument. Complete funeral ceremony was performed in 21 burials. The peculiarity of the burial ground is the pits with niches in northern or southern walls (in 13 burials). The deceased were laid extended on their backs or turned on their right side, with their heads to the western sector. 18 burials correspond to the canons of Islam: in 4 burials the skulls were turned to the south, in 6 cases the faces of the dead were directed upwards, in 4 cases – to the north. In 4 burials there was an inventory presented by ornaments which have analogies in the Golden Horde monuments of the lower Volga reaches and the Don basin.

The monument reflects the beginning change in a funeral ceremony among the population of the Central Ciscaucasia in the 2nd half of the 14th – the beginning of the 15th cc. It can be related both with the nomadic and settled population of the region. The presence of a settlement of the Golden Horde time in the neighborhood of Zolotarievka village is quite possible. The trading route Azak – Majahr is presumably localized along the Bolshaia Kugulta watercourse. The barrow-ground burial can be compared both with the burial grounds of the Don Basin dated by the Golden Horde time, and with the later Nogai cemeteries which were discovered on the territory of Ukraine. In view of the absence of anthropological definitions, the question about the deceased’ ethnicity remains open.

The barrow-ground burial explored has no analogies on the territory of the Central Ciscaucasia and the Southern Russia steppes.

A.V.Yevglevsky, N.M.Danilko, S.A.Kuprii (Donetsk; Kiev, Ukraine)

“ORDINARY” LATE NOMADIC BURIAL WITH NON-ORDINARY RITE OF BARROW 2 OF TOKOVSKIYE MOGILY GROUP ON RIGHT BANK OF DNIEPER

The paper gives a detailed analysis of a burial of a female nomad of the Golden Horde time unusual by its ceremonial attributes which has been found near Tokovskoie settlement on the right bank of the Dnieper.

A block of ceremonial features, which permit to throw light upon the place of the complex in the funeral rite of the late nomadic culture, comprises a stone ring-enclosure under a barrow mound, longitudinal and end ledges, a lattice coffin, the westward orientation of the deceased, a single stirrup and a bit in the absence of a horse. In combination (but not separately) these attributes are characteristic of the 2nd quarter of the 13th – the 14th century. The funeral inventory is not numerous but rather expressive. The remains of fabrics deserve special attention: studying of them will enable one to solve the problems of reconstruction of the embossed pattern decorating a caftan, technological features of textile fabrics, the place of manufacturing, etc. T.N.Krupa’s paper presented in the same volume is devoted to a special complex research of fabrics and leather from the burial.

T.N.Krupa (Kharkov, Ukraine)

STUDY OF COSTUME OF GOLDEN HORDE TIME FROM BARROW 2 OF TOKOVSKIYE MOGILY GROUP

The paper is devoted to the complex research of costume fragments found in a burial in barrow 2 near Тokovskoie village on the Kamenka river (the Lower Dnieper basin).

All residues of textile fabrics can be divided for convenience into three groups of brocade (brocade-1, brocade-2, and brocade-3) and three kinds of linen weave silk fabric: linen weave fabric with a string; fabric with leather wefts; fabric decorated with golden “polka dot”. The complex also comprised leather elements of the costume including leather decorated with overlaid gold strips. All the fabrics found in the burial were made under the Chinese technique. Dyer’s-madder and mignonette (for red and yellow colors) were used for their dyeing.

Some fragments of fabrics permit to conclude that the deceased was dressed in an outer robe made of bright red golden brocade. It is obvious that two kinds of red brocade of similar quality were used for tailoring this element of the costume. The robe had a red lining made of foundation weave silk fabric. The outer robe’s cuffs were sewed of yellow brocade-2. It is more difficult to determine the role of the red fabric with golden “polka dot” in the costume. Beneath the costume element made of this fabric, which has not been preserved, there was an item made of golden leather. Therefore, it is possible to presume that the lower robe could be made of the “polka dot” fabric. Under it there was a silk and leather shirt with the neck having a string. The fragments of high-quality leather, which were found to be a part of the costume, are the rests of a waistcoat.

The use of expensive high-quality fabrics and leather as well as golden decoration in the costume may indicate that the remains of the costume belonged to a representative of the Golden Horde nobility.

On the basis of the dating things and the funeral rite (see N.M.Danilko and S.A.Kupriy’s publication in the present book of collected works) the types of fabrics and the costume on the whole can be dated back to the 2nd half of the 13th – the mid of the 14th centuries.

L.T.Yablonskii (Moscow, Russia)

ON PALEOANTHROPOLOGY OF MEDIEVAL POPULATION OF VOLGA REACHES

Physical appearance of the population of the Golden Horde resulted from interbreeding of representatives of two big races, i.e. the Mongoloid and the Caucasoid. The presence of the Mongoloid component is to some extent manifested in the appearance of inhabitants of all the Golden Horde towns. Nevertheless, it is the Caucasoid features that prevailed in urban population.

Both archaeological and paleoanthropological evidence indicates that invasion of eastern tribes mostly influenced the formation of physical appearance of the population of the Lower Volga reaches. However, the Mongolian invasion cannot be considered as mass resettlement of eastern tribes in the European steppes.

Paleoanthropological evidence demonstrates probable similarity of the origin of some modern nationalities of the Volga region, such as the Kazan Tatars and the Chuvashs, with both Bulgarian and the proper Golden Horde (Lower Volga) anthropological components participating in their genesis.

It was in the Golden Horde epoch when a process which eliminated old ethnic borders between the groups of pre-Mongolian population of the Volga region started. This process resulted in transformation of the pre-Mongolian formations into the “Tatars” in the West and the “Uzbeks”, the “Kazakhs”, and the “Nogais” in the East. The ethnic Mongols in the Volga region shared the fate of almost all conquerors – they were gradually dissolved in the total mass of the peoples subjugated by them.

A.G.Yurchenko (Saint-Petersburg, Russia)

SECRET TOMBS OF MONGOLS (AS REPORTED BY FRANCISCAN MISSION OF 1245)

Reports of the Franciscan mission of 1245 deal with the burial ceremony of the military elite of the Mongol Empire. There were three types of the mortuary ceremony: the burials of junior officers, the burials of senior officers, and those of the Chingisids. The overwhelming archaeological evidence of the 13th-14th cc. has no correspondence with the medieval records. This means that it was the secrets of the Mongol Empire but not the ordinary life of rank and file nomads that inspired a great interest between the Franciscans. The Soviet archaeology had not found any traces of the Mongol secret burials and thus declared that the “Mongols” took a minimal part in the cultural life of the Golden Horde. This statement is based on complete misunderstanding as to the meaning of the term “Mongols”, a polytonym which implied the whole ethnic mosaics of the Empire.

The secret burials of the Mongols should be probably considered as an imperial phenomenon, as a sacral practice of a group which waged a war of aggression over vast territories. Thus, they did not form an exclusive ethnographic feature of the Mongol nomadic life. By the end of the 13th c. when the western imperial expansion was over the Mongols in Dasht-i Qipcaq began to construct burial mounds (kurgans) over the tombs. The secret Mongol tombs which attracted a keen interest of the Franciscans are just an element of the war mythology.

J.A.Boyle (Manchester, Great Britain)

A form of horse sacrifice amongst the 13th and 14th-century Mongols

The paper in English see: Boyle J.A., 1977. A Form of Horse Sacrifice amongst the 13th- and 14th-Century Mongols// Mongol World Empire 1206-1370. Variorum reprints. London. pp.145-50.

P.B.Golden (Newark, New Jersey, USA)

Religion among the Q?pcaqs of Medieval Eurasia

The paper in English see: Golden Peter Benjamin, 1998. Religion among the Q?pcaqs of Medieval Eurasia// Central Asiatic Journal. 42/2, pp.180-237.

J.A.Boyle (Manchester, Great Britain)

Turkish and Mongol shamanism in the Middle Ages

The paper in English see: Boyle John Andrew, 1972. Turkish and Mongol Shamanism in the Middle Ages// Folklore. Vol. 83. No. 3. Autumn. pp. 177-193.

Th.T.Allsen (Eugene, Oregon, USA)

Prelude to the Western campaigns: Mongol military operations in the Volga-Ural region, 1217-1237

The paper in English see: Allsen Thomas T. 1983. Prelude to the Western Campaigns: Mongol Military Operations in the Volga-Ural Region, 1217-1237// Archivum Eurasiae medii aevi. № 3, pp.5-23.

D.Sinor (Bloomington, Indiana, USA)

The Mongols in the West

The paper in English see: Sinor Denis. 1999. The Mongols in the West// Journal of Asian History. Vol.33. no.1, pp.1-44.

Ch.J.Halperin (Bloomington, Indiana, USA)

The Kipchak connection: the Ilkhans, the Mamluks and Ayn Jalut

The paper in English see: Halperin Charles J. 2000. The Kipchak Connection: The Ilkhans, the Mamluks and Ayn Jalut// Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Vol.63. No.2. pp. 229-245.

V.P.Lebedev (Dzerzhinsk, the Nizhniy Novgorod province, Russia)

DESTINY OF GOLDEN HORDE SETTLEMENTS OF VOLGA-SURA INTERFLUVE IN 14th CENTURY BY NUMISMATICAL DATA

The monetary circulation of a large Golden Horde region remote from Saray including the modern right bank of the Volga between Saratov and Volgograd and Penza province is described in detail in the paper.

The dependence of the number of abandoned hoards on the date of their hiding has been plotted based on 83 published hoards of Juchi dangs. It reveals 2 clearly defined peaks in 761-765 A.H. and 796-800 A.H. The later of them, undoubtedly, was caused by devastation of most towns and many settlements of the Golden Horde, extermination and capture of their population by Timur in 1395.

TThe early peak of the beginning of 1360s was revealed as early as fifty years ago by G.A.Fyodorov-Davydov and connected by him with the feudal internecine strife started in those years which caused deep economic recession. Though a serious economic crisis can stimulate the population to temporarily resign an excess of cash to the earth more often than before, however, there are no reasons for the overwhelming part of the owners of hidden hoards not to take them back in a little while.

The crisis of 761-765/1360-1364 even more deeply affected the monetary circulation of certain Golden Horde towns and villages of the Volga-Sura interfluve. The attribution of both silver and copper coins gathered on the hillforts of all the three cities and five settlements to the dates of their coinage indicates that the period of maximum business activity there falls on 731-760/1330-1359. But then suddenly the flourishing period of the monetary circulation sharply decreases at the same time in all these settlements at the end of the first five years of 760s A.H. Whereas in towns the monetary circulation continued its existence in a very reduced form after this recession up to the end of the 14th c., in all 5 small settlements it was not renewed any more. These results should be interpreted as follows: during the period under examination certain large-scale events occurred which entailed mass decrease in a number of inhabitants in the towns and total depopulation of small settlements. It is most probable that the reason for mass deaths of the population and abandonment of habitable places settled for a long time in 761-765/1360-1364 was the second wave of the black plague pandemia which was rife and rampant in those years in the Volga region from Beljamen in the south up to Tver in the north and in the areas adjoining.

L.Lazarov (Teteven, Bulgaria)

HOARD OF JUCHI COINS FROM “RAVNA GORA” TERRITORY NEAR OBROCHISCHE VILLAGE OF BALCHIK REGION

The paper deals with a hoard of 16 dirhems of the end of the 13th c. from “Ravna Gora” territory located between Obrochische village and Albena resort of Balchik region, Dobrich province. The hoard comprises the following coins: Tokta (1290-1313) – 13 items (No.2-13 probably imitations), Nogai (1290s) – 2 items (No.14-15), imitation of Tokta – 1 item (No.16). It is difficult to say whether the hoard is complete and what is its destiny. The problems of the place of coining dirhems No.2-15 as well as the question under the rule of which khan the dirhems No.2-13 were struck are considered. According to the author, there is no certainty as to whether they are original Tokta dirhems minted in the Crimea (as, for example, V.P.Lebedev asserts) or imitations issued in Sakchi (according to Е.Oberlander-Tarnoveanu). If they are imitations, they were rather struck at some mint in Dobrudzha (probably the Southern?) than in Sakchi. The hiding of the hoard should be dated back to the late 1290s. Тerminus post quem for the hoard is 695 A.H. (1295-1296) when the Crimean coin No.1 was minted.

V.P.Lebedev, V.M.Pavlenko (Dzerzhinsk, the Nizhniy Novgorod province, Budyonnovsk, the Stavropol province, Russia)

MONETARY CIRCULATION OF MAJAR TOWN OF GOLDEN HORDE TIME

Majar, one of the largest towns of the Golden Horde, was located on the left bank of the middle Kuma river. The written sources contain no information about the time of its foundation whereas its destruction is connected with the capture of the town by Timur’s troops in 1395. Sporadic studies of different degree of preservation of Majar ruins located on the territory of modern Budyonnovsk town and its outskirts have been conducted for 3 centuries. However, the results of these investigations are much more modest than those of ancient hillforts of other Golden Horde towns of the same status, such as Bulghar, Saray, and Gulistan. The paper is targeted at detailed studying of one of the most important sides of a medieval town life, i.e. its monetary circulation. The material basis of research was a monetary complex consisting of 4350 coins which had been collected by one of the authors on the site from 1967 to 2003. In 2004-05 it was complemented by approximately 500 coins definitely coming from the Majar hillfort. The overwhelming part of the complex (97.5 %) consists of Juchi coins. The great volume of the monetary complex permitted to confidently determine that monetary circulation of silver and copper coins in Majar began during khan Tokta’s rule in the first years of the 14th c. and completely stopped after 397/1395. The presence of production of 18 Golden Horde mints in different share in the complex made it possible to trace which coins provided monetary circulation of Majar during different periods of its existence. This in its turn has enabled us to find out with which regions of the state and during which periods Majar had the most active trading connections in the spheres covered with the circulation of the copper and silver original Golden Horde coins as well as with what other states trade based on the international currency of that time was conducted.

В.П.Лебедев, А.В.Зорин (Дзержинск, Нижегородской обл.; Курск, Россия)

MONETARY CIRCULATION OF KURSK REGION IN GOLDEN HORDE TIME

The paper is devoted to the problem of monetary circulation on the territory of Kursk region in the Golden Horde time. The basis of the research is the numismatic material of this epoch which comes from hoards and single finds from the territory of modern Kursk province (Russia) and from some adjacent areas historically connected with this region. All 17 hoards of Juchi coins known on this territory so far as well as numismatic materials collected at some archaeological monuments of Kursk province (first of all, at the Ratskoie hillfort archaeological complex) have been analyzed.

There are two areas of distribution of Juchi coins allocated in the territory of Kursk region: the first of them occupies the area from the upper reaches of the Rat’ river in the east up to the Lgov region in the west, the second one is situated to the south, in the headwaters of the Psiol river.

The first of the revealed agglomerations of hoards and single finds of Juchi coins outlines the borders of Kursk t’ma mentioned in written sources. The Ratskoie hillfort archaeological complex should be considered as the center of the t’ma.

Most likely, Juchi coins came to this region from the lower Volga reaches from a Beljamen (at the Volga-Don isthmus) on the Don route through Bystraia Sosna and further to the Rat’ river and this may mark an overland trading route. It is possible that in the second (southern) area of Juchi coins distribution (the upper Psiol reaches) the coins came from the south (from Azak region along the Severski Donets bank).

The Golden Horde coins circulation in Kursk region began in the middle of 1330s, reached its maximum in 1350s, and decreased sharply in the middle of 1360s. The poor circulation of dangs proceeded up to the end of the 14th c. and completely decayed in the first decade of the 15th c. which should be connected with the political events accompanying the transition of the Kursk lands to the dominion of the Great Lithuanian Princedom.