Chilburj

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Chilburj ( Čilburdž ) is a Parthian fortress in the southeast of present-day Turkmenistan ( Mary welaýaty province ). The remains are about 40 km northwest of the ancient Merw and 29 km from Gyaur-Kala ( Turkmen Gourgala ) away. The layout of the facility is roughly trapezoidal and is 260/230 × 200 m in size. The defensive wall of the fortress is still 13 to 15 m high and built from adobe bricks (36 × 36 × 8 cm). It is equipped with 39 towers all around. There are two fortified gates, one is in the north wall, the other in the south, whereby both gates are not exactly in the middle of the wall, but rather offset slightly to the east. The towers protrude 5.4 m from the wall. The walls and towers rest in the lower part on a sloping, 7.7 m high platform, which consists of 0.9 m thick layers of clay. The platform is about 2.2 m lower under the towers. The courtyard level inside the fortress is higher than the ground level of the surrounding area. Inside the wall there is an inner 1.9 m wide battlement with loopholes in the sections between the towers. In the towers there are rooms (about 1.94 × 2.0 m in size) that were vaulted. There are loopholes here too.

Because of the pottery, the fortress is dated to the second and third centuries AD and was probably inhabited until the fourth or fifth century AD. Three Parthian coins were also found to support this dating, although the latter only came to light as surface finds. So they may have been lost here by accident and are therefore not conclusive for the dating of the fortress.

The fortress was archaeologically investigated by JuTAKE (Russian abbreviation for South Turkmen Archaeological Complex Expedition ) under the supervision of GA Pugachenkova in the 1950s , although this research on the fortress was not very intensive and therefore leaves many questions unanswered. The aim of the founding of JuTAKE in 1946 by Michail Masson was to systematically investigate the archaeological remains of Central Asia . It was often a rescue excavation related to large construction projects. The organization was also ideologically related to the slogan: Science and culture in the masses! .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nasiba S. Baimatowa: 5000 years of architecture in Central Asia, adobe vault from 4th / 3rd centuries. Jt. V. Until the end of the 8th century AD (= archeology in Iran and Turan. Volume 7). Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2008, ISBN 978-3-8053-3906-3 , p. 245.
  2. ↑ S. Baimatowa: 5000 years architecture in Central Asia , pp 246-247.
  3. ↑ S. Baimatowa: 5000 years of architecture in Central Asia , p. 9.
  4. ↑ S. Baimatowa: 5000 years of architecture in Central Asia , p. 8.

Coordinates: 37 ° 41 '15 "  N , 62 ° 3' 16.9"  E