To the issue of the historical topography of Otrartobe

Abstract

Research on historical topography of Medieval cities is associated with names of prominent archaeologists: M.E. Masson, O.G. Bolshakov, Kazakhstan: K.A. Akishev, K.M. Baipakov and L.B. Erzakovich. The great city, known as Otrar, changed its names many times during its long history (Turar, Turarbent, Turarkent, Farab). It was one of the largest urban centers of pre-Mongol Central Asia. The city localized on the largest fortified site Otrartobe of urban culture in the Middle Syrdarya. This article based on publications and reports of last decades of research. The results of modern technologies are involved. According to the revealed data, it was possible to define the area of the districts of the city more exactly, increasing it up to 400 hectares. Getting a height of cultural layers up to 18 m residents abandoned Otrartobe on the threshold of the New Age. Life never renewed on it. The city has gone through several stages of growth and decline during two thousand years of its history. The city loses its paramount importance in 1219, gradually becoming a large but anyway ordinary city, giving primacy to Turkestan and Sairam. The period of its greatest prosperity and influence of Otrar was in the Early Turkic time and the era of the "Muslim Renaissance" as evidenced by the developed three-part structure of Otrartobe.

Keywords

• archaeology
• otrar city
• otrartobe fortified settlement
• late antiquity
• middle ages
• historical topography
• structure of fortified settlement
• citadel
• shahristan
• rabads
• balads