Zilivinskaya E.D. Multi-Room Houses of the Samosdelskoye Settlement (Based on the Materials of the 1st Excavation)
Emma D. Zilivinskaya, Doctor of Science (History), Leading Researcher, N.N. Miklouho-Maclay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Prosp. Leninsky, 32a, 119334 Moscow, Russian Federation; Chief Specialist, School of Archeology of the Lower Volga Region, Tatishchev Astrakhan State University, Tatishcheva St, 20A, 414056 Astrakhan, Russian Federation
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Abstract. The article is devoted to the publication of materials from the excavations of the Samosdelskoye settlement, a multi-layered archaeological monument that existed from the Khazar period (9th – 10th centuries) until the first half of the 14th century in the Lower Volga region. In the lower (Khazar) layers of the monument, residential buildings were represented by yurt-shaped dwellings, semi-dugouts, and single-room houses made of turluk. Researchers associate layers from the 11th to the first half of the 13th century with the city of Saksin, known from written sources. At this time, multi-room houses built from adobe and recycled fired brick appeared in the settlement. The article takes a detailed look at one such house; in it there are at least five rooms. This layout was not original but arose as a result of combining separate rooms into one. The building had two construction periods. In the first period, its walls were built mainly of adobe bricks. Some walls had a shell-like structure, and their outer facades were made of small fragments of fired brick. In the second period, all the walls were built from the outside using whole fired bricks and their large fragments. The filling between the shells was made of clay with small brick fragments. During the reconstruction, the general layout of the house did not change. A special feature of this building is the presence of a strip foundation under some rooms, which is completely uncharacteristic for this time. An analysis of the reconstructions suggests that the house of the first period perished as a result of some catastrophic event that affected the entire city. Subsequently, the building was restored to its original volume.
Key words: Lower Volga region, Middle Ages, city of Saksin, house building, multi-room houses, adobe brick, fired brick, cased walls, foundation.
Citation. Zilivinskaya E.D., 2026. Mnogokomnatnye doma Samosdel’skogo gorodishcha (po materialam I raskopa) [Multi-Room Houses of the Samosdelskoye Settlement (Based on the Materials of the 1st Excavation)]. Nizhnevolzhskiy Arkheologicheskiy Vestnik [The Lower Volga Archaeological Bulletin], vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 123-143. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/nav.jvolsu.2026.1.6
Multi-Room Houses of the Samosdelskoye Settlement (Based on the Materials of the 1st Excavation) by Zilivinskaya E.D. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
