The first Russian settlement on the Taymyr peninsula (Commemorating the 350th anniversary of Khatanga)

Abstract

Abstract It has been established on the basis of archival data that the first Russian settlement on the Taymyr Peninsula of northern Siberia was established in 1625–26 as an outpost of old Mangazeya. It was first named the Pyasida tribute‐levying winter camp, for the old name of Taymyr, and after a few years was renamed the Pyasida Kheta winter camp, for a nearby stream. In the 1680's this settlement appears as Khatanga on a map of the area included in S. U. Remezov's Chorographic Book, an atlas of Siberia. It shows the location of the northernmost Russian settlement in Taymyr, on the right bank of the Khatanga River, north of the Kheta‐Kotuy confluence, where the village of Khatanga stands today. At various distances along the Kheta and Katanga rivers, the map shows the 17th‐century winter camps of fur hunters. New data illustrate the important role that was played by this northern settlement in geographical exploration of the northern belt of the Asian continent. (The translation is by James R. Gibson, ...