The medIeval Dashbulag settlement

Abstract

The article deals with the archaeological excavation of the Dashbulag settlement located in Shamkir district in the west of Azerbaijan. The step-by-step progress of the archaeological excavations conducted in the medieval settlement of Dashbulag, the discovered production and farm buildings, household devices, numerous and diverse examples of material culture are described in detail in the article. Archaeological excavations in the village-type settlement with a planned structure were carried out in three stages in 2004, 2005 and 2014 years. Based on the observation of the sediment of the cultural layer during the archaeological excavations carried out at the settlement, which consists of one cultural layer (the thickness of the layer is 1-1.5m depending on the relief), and the analysis of the actual materials uncovered, it was established that a village-type settlement with a free-plan structure existed here in the Middle Ages. Life in the medieval village of Dashbulag, built in the 9th century, was intense until the beginning of the 13th century, gradually declined after the Mongol campaigns, and continued until the end of the 18th century with some intermittent breaks. Remains of civil and economic buildings, rich handicraft products discovered as a result of archaeological excavations in the medieval settlement of Dashbulag are evidence of the economic and farming life of the medieval inhabitants of the area, as well as pottery, metalworking, glassworking, bone-processing, etc. allows to follow the characteristics and development dynamics of art fields. The analysis of the artifacts gives reason to say that the art fields in the medieval village of Dashbulag did not lag behind, on the contrary, some regions went further than the village-type settlements.

Keywords

• archaeology
• azerbaijan
• shamkir
• dashbulag
• settlement
• middle ages
• tandoors (clay made oven)
• glazed ceramics