EXCAVATIONS OF THE DERBENT SETTLEMENT IN 2015

The article presents the results of the excavations of the Derbent settlement conducted by the Derbent archeological expedition in 2015 within the framework of the grant of the Russian Foundation for Humanities, which started in 2012. The settlement predated the construction of the Derbent defensive complex in late 560s and it was gradually left after the construction of a new town, which was named Derbent (Darband). The excavations carried out in the southern sector of excavation site XXV revealed cultural strata, construction and household remains (walls of rooms, pits, etc.) dated back to the 3rd-6th centuries, and medieval Muslim burials in the cultural layer. As a result of the works, a variety of archaeological finds were obtained. Among the various finds, of special interest is a bronze belt clasp found in pit 18, which is associated with layer 3 and represents an important chronological indicator – according to its analogies it dates back to the last decades of the 4th–early 5th centuries AD. In 2014 during the excavations, a similar clasp was found in pit 12, which stratigraphically is also associated with deposits of layer 3. These clasps allow narrowing the absolute date of pits 12 and 18 to late 4th – early 5th centuries AD. Alongside with other chronologically indicative finds (including samples of the so-called Sasanian ceramics), they give support to dating of the cultural strata of the excavation site and associated constructions and household objects. The obtained materials (fragments of ceramic ware, objects made of ceramics, bone, bronze, iron, stone) characterize the culture and life of the population of the Derbent settlement, identified with the walled town Chor/Chol, known to ancient Armenian, Georgian, Syrian, early Byzantine and Arab authors, and which was an important administrative, political and religious center of the East Caucasus.