Sarkel fortress under layers of clay

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Until recently, few people thought that a huge number of ancient buildings (especially fortresses) in historical time were destroyed not by conquerors or time, but by a cataclysm, very similar to the biblical flood. But there are more and more similar facts that speak about this (other interpretations of archaeological excavations) and ossified thinking, trained in history textbooks, begins to ponder seditious (or rather fantastic before that) information.

A lot of facts have accumulated, although not all of them are perceived by the official side. Information is hard to digest and most of the readers who come across a similar topic for the first time. Many people ask questions, but it is simply impossible to convey many dozens, and already hundreds of facts in one or two comments to an article. The majority simply have no desire to independently study the alternative side of the historical question. Rather, laziness rises above interest. After all the thousands of written comments and hundreds of posts, I noticed another feature - those who are not constantly immersed in this topic do not keep more than 7-10 facts in their head. They just don't remember. Maybe this is how the human psyche works. It is cleared of an information virus that can harm a comfortable picture of a person's world outlook. But I digress …

So, the destroyed and buried fortress:

Sarkel (Khazar "white house"), then Belaya Vezha - Khazar, later Old Russian fortress city on the left bank of the Don River. It is currently located at the bottom of the Tsimlyansk reservoir.

Officially, the fortress was built between 834 and 837 in the area of the intersection of trade land roads with the waterway along the Don.

For a long time, the location of the fortress was determined hypothetically, usually in the area of the closest approach between the Don and the Volga. Excavations carried out in the region in 1934-1936 made it possible to identify the left-bank Tsimlyansk settlement with Sarkel.

Aerial view of the Sarkel fortress, 1951.

The fortress was located on a promontory, separated from the coast by a moat. There was a second moat against the wall. The shape of the fortress is a quadrangle (193.5 m by 133.5 m). Built of fired bricks, the masonry is foundationless. Thick (3.75 m), high (at least 10 m) walls are reinforced with tower ledges and massive corner towers.

After the destruction of the settlement, the bricks of the fortress were used by the local population for their buildings, so by the time of excavation only imprints on the ground remained from the buildings. The remains of the fortress were investigated archaeologically in 1934-1936 and 1949-1951 as part of the Volga-Don new construction expedition. Less than a third of the area of the monument has been examined. In 1952, Sarkel was flooded during the construction of the Tsimlyansk reservoir. The found items are in the Hermitage and in the Novocherkassk Museum.

More historical information.

The capture of Sarkel ended the campaign of Prince Svyatoslav against the Khazars in 965. In Khazar, the name of the city meant "white house". The fortress, built under the leadership of a Byzantine architect, was destroyed, and the city was renamed Belaya Vezha.

Excavations in the middle of the 20th century. Female prisoners (about 180 people) who participated in the excavation of the Sarkel-Belaya Vezha fortress. 1949-1951

Excavations on the shore. The photo is b / w, uninformative, but a huge layer is visible above the cultural layer. Whether it is biogenic. And if from the floods - what will the skeptics immediately suggest !? What kind of catastrophic floods could have leveled the fortress and covered it with a layer of clay on top? It shows the level of a reservoir already, not a river in the past …

The plan of the settlement (from the book of S. A. Pletneva)

Right-bank Tsimlyanskaya fortress. Reconstruction based on excavations and plans from 1743

Excavations of the Right-Bank Tsimlyansk settlement. Archaeologist Flerov V. S. (RAS). 2007 year

After seeing this photograph of excavations on the right bank, it becomes clear the reason for the disappearance of this fortress from historical scenes. It was not destroyed (Svyatoslav or in much later times) - it was covered with clay soil. Such a layer will not give a single flood. It was either brought in, or it fell from above. But judging by how the blocks are ground (into crushed stone) - the first version.

Picture of the coast for clarity

Of the two triangular compartments adjacent to the courtyard, one, the northern one, faces a narrow isthmus connecting the cape between the ravines with the coastal strip of the steppe, and is a forward fortification with a gate into it; another, narrow and long, the triangle stretches along the ravine, which protects the approach to the fortress from the western side. At the corners of the fortress and in the middle of the eastern wall there were tower ledges. At present, the outlines of the Right-Bank Fortress can be traced only along the sprawling ramparts consisting of rubble, but even in the 18th century. here were visible walls, faced with hewn blocks of stone and filled with quarry inside.

Are there any doubts that cultural layers with biological inclusions are located on top of the walls destroyed into rubble? It's all just clay!

During the excavations, blocks of sandstone were found lying at the base of the wall cladding, the thickness of which reached 4 m. The complexity of its structure and the high quality of construction skills. The right-bank fortress clearly surpassed all other stone fortifications known in the area of the Saltov culture, and, in all likelihood, represents a building tradition dating back to the Sassanian structures in the Transcaucasus.

Coordinates: 47 ° 41'4 "N 42 ° 10'7" E

All washed down to the foundation

An ancient soil horizon is visible, directly on which towers and walls were placed without a foundation. Archaeologists write that another layer of soil then grew over the ruins … this clayey, red. The fact that the soil layer grows in black layers in favorable conditions is not an argument for them.

During the excavations, the skeletons of the inhabitants were also found. The photos are small, I will not show them, but you can see them here

Here are the observations of archaeologists:

Skeletons, mainly women and children, were found in dwellings and outside them in the courtyard of the Right-Bank Fortress. In some dwellings, skeletons have been observed, possibly representing entire families. The skeletons under the remains of the yurts have traces of fire on their bones. Some skeletons turned out to be partially stolen by animals, from which we can conclude that for some time the corpses of those killed remained lying on the surface of the earth. However, soon the remains of the dead were covered with stones and earth in the place where they were.

But the historical paradigm does not allow historians to assume that these are victims of a catastrophe!

Modern finds of bones in clay in this place can be viewed here

Marble columns from the Sarkel fortress. Novocherkassk Museum. 2007 year

Capital from Sarkel. Novocherkassk Museum. 2007 year

Drawings of finds from the book of S. A. Pletneva

Such tools were at that time worth the weight of jewelry. Losing them is too expensive a pleasure. And they find them as if they were specially scattered.

During excavations, such stone gears were found:

And from history we know that this is a primitive cart thresher:

These gears were used for threshing until the beginning of the 20th century.

Found a book: About the construction of the Sarkela fortress. October 1889. S. Petersburg

Maybe someone will find interesting facts in it