Far-Eastern Gardariki: Urban Archaeology Heritage of Jurchen Empire in Primorye Region of Russia

Abstract

The article is concerned with the archaeological past of Ussuriysk town in the Russian Far East. In the Middle Ages, there was a center of Xupin province of Jurchen state in the 12th — 13th centuries, and then the capital of Eastern Xia state — Kaiyuan city — was established. Russian pioneers found here the monuments of past cultures and two tortoises. In one was founded the stele with some write characters — titles of deceased. The scholars established the name of this man. It was prince Yesykui — a collateral relative of Aguda, the first emperor of the Jurchen empire. It shows how the excavations were carried out on the Ussuriysk territory and other sites in Primorye in the 19th — 20th centuries. The activation of studying the Jurchen allowed to write the detailed history of the Jin dynasty (1115—1234) as well as to reconstruct the Primorye history in the times of Jurchen on the base of the combination of the written and archaeological sources as well as to conceptualize the distinctive features of the Jurchen urbanization. One part of Jurchen towns followed the Chinese architectural canons, while the other part followed them partially. The mountain towns and fortresses in Primorye were built following entirely different rules. Jurchens have formulated their canons of the architectural practice of mountain towns: the presence of the internal “forbidden cities” and so so-called “redoubts”, the location of houses on terraces (they acted as analogues of streets), massive extensive frontal fortifications and specific fortifications before the gates.