Samosdelka

Medieval fortified town near Samosdelka

Samosdelka (Russian: Самосделка) is a village in southern Russia (about 40 km south-south-west of the city of Astrakhan) near which archaeologists reported in September 2008 that they had found the remains of Atil, the capital of the medieval Khazar kingdom.

The team of archaeologists, led by Dmitry Vasilyev of Astrakhan State University, had been excavating for nine years. According to Vasilyev, they found the remains of an ancient brick fortress in the newly found 9th and 10th century layers, which contained characterisric Khazar yurts. The investigated area covered more than 2 square kilometers. "This is a hugely important discovery ... We can now shed light on one of the most intriguing mysteries of that period – how the Khazars actually lived. We know very little about the Khazars – about their traditions, their funerary rites, their culture."

The layout of the city conforms to the written sources. As reported by Norman Finkelshteyn, it was "a city bisected by riverbeds with a central island citadel of fired brick". The central portion of Samosdelka was located on an island between dried-up river beds. Old documents said that Atil's castle was located on an island in the center of the city.

The fortress at Samosdelka had a triangular shape was made from limestone bricks. It is known from written sources that the Khazar khagan had a monopoly on brick buildings. Traces of a widespread fire were found at Samosdelka in an Atil layer. The fire was probably set during the conquest of Atil by Kievan Rus' prince Sviatoslav I in 968 or 969 CE.

Layers of 11th-12th centuries have Oghuz artifacts and are associated with Saqsin.^[1]

Notes

External links

• The Khazar Capital City of Atil
• Russian archaeologists find long-lost Jewish capital (Yediot Ahronot)
• Scholar claims to find medieval Jewish capital Yahoo!

Khazaria
Byzantium Bulgaria Abbasids Arab–Khazar wars Kipchaks Meshchera Pax Khazarica Radhanites Rus Volga trade route Dnieper trade route
Khazar rulers	Irbis Busir Bihar Parsbit Zachariah Bulan Obadiah Hezekiah Benjamin Aaron II Joseph David George
Other figures	Alp Iluetuer Alp Tarkhan Balgatzin Barjik Hazer Tarkhan HLGW John of Gothia Leo IV Papatzys Pesakh Ras Tarkhan Serach Sfengus Sviatoslav Theodora Tzitzak Yitzhak ha-Sangari
Places	Atil Azaq Balanjar Bar Chersonesos Daghestan Güsliyev Golden Hills Kaffa Kavkaz Kazarki Kerch Kerem Khamlij Khazaran Khumar Levedia Saltovo-Mayaki Samandar Sambalut Sambat Samiran Samosdelka Saqsin Sarkel Semikarakorsk Sudak Taman Tamatarkha
Tributaries	Abkhazians Alani Arsiya Baranjars Barsils Bashkirs Burtas Crimean Goths East Slavs Huns Juhuri Kabars Kassogs Lazica Lezgins Magyars Mordvins Oghuz Onogurs Pechenegs Sabirs Sarir Volga Bulgars
Scholars	Mikhail Artamonov Vasili Barthold D.M. Dunlop Norman Golb Peter B. Golden Lev Gumilev Alexander Harkavy Thomas S. Noonan Svetlana Pletneva Omeljan Pritsak
Legacy	Crimean Karaites Khazar Correspondence Khazar language Khazar theory The Thirteenth Tribe Khazars in fiction Kuzari Kievian Letter Mandgelis Document Red Jews Schechter Letter Subbotniks
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Coordinates: 46°01′32″N 47°50′26″E / 46.02556°N 47.84056°E / 46.02556; 47.84056