Medieval cities and fortresses at the sources of Inkardariya and Zhanadarya (On the base of work carried out in 2021)

Abstract

The article presents the first results of research, conducted in 2021 in medieval cities and fortresses at the sources of Inkardarya and Zhanadarya and provides additional information about the history of the region’s exploration, location of monuments and their occupied volume. The research work was carried out by the archaeological research group of the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (M. Eleuov), commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan. As a result of the research, 7 monuments were discovered and listed, three of them (Madiyarkala, Zhainy and Saikuduk I) were located in the city, three were asars (Ushasar I,II,III) and one was a fortress (Zhainy). The expeditionary team of university gave the name based on the laws of archaeology in accounting of some of the missing monuments. As well as the expeditionary team of the university visited 6 long-known monuments of Syrlytamkala, Zangarkala, Tokseitkala, Saikudykala Kozha-kazgankala and Egembay where they got acquainted with the current state and the level of protection. In the period from 40 to 60 of XX c., some mistakes were made by the Khorezm archaeological and ethnographic expedition (S. Tolstoy) in accounting of monuments in the lower reaches of Syrdarya. Therefore, some mistakes in the abovementioned works were corrected in the article, and the correct name and location of monuments and their occupied volumes were clarified again.