2006-2009 Archaeological Studies of the “Hospital Hill” on the Selitrennoye Settlement

Abstract

The results of the 2006-2009 archaeological research of the Bolnichnyi Bugor (Hospital Hill), a component part of the Selitrennoye (Sarai-al-Maqrus) fortified settlement site, are presented in the article. The objects identified are grouped according to the five construction periods, of which the first three belong to the Golden Horde time (the 14th to first half of the 15th century), the fourth – to the 18th – early 19th centuries, and the fifth refers to the 19th and 20th centuries. The site development stages are analyzed; the description of structures and material culture objects is provided. The first construction period corresponds to the emergence of the Golden Horde city and its heyday in the 14th century. In the layers of the time, in addition to residential and commercial structures, workshops for the production of tableware, glazed tiles and bricks have been discovered. The city decline, which had started in the late 14th century and activity cessation in the territory under study by the mid-15th century probably, resulted from internecine strife aggravation within the Horde.

Keywords

• the Lower Volga river region
• the Golden Horde
• Sarai-al-Maqrus
• the Selitrennoye fortified settlement site
• periodization
• residential structures
• workshops