MAIASP. 2024. No. 16

M.S. Gadjiev (Makhachkala, Russia), A.L. Budaychiev (Makhachkala, Russia), A.M. Abdulaev (Makhachkala, Russia)

Underground brick building of the 11th — early 13th centuries in Shahristan of Derbent (Bab al-abwab)

DOI: 10.53737/2713-2021.2024.85.12.024

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Pages: 527—567

When digging a foundation pit for a private house in the old part (mahalla) of Derbent, an underground room was discovered, during the clearing and excavation of which its parameters, design features, dating were determined and possible purpose.

The structure is a small rectangular brick room on a stone base, covered by a semicircular vault. Its internal dimensions: 256—258×180—194 cm, height 210—215 cm. In the center of the transverse southwest wall there is an opening with a staircase to the top, in the center of the other three walls there are arched niches. The building was erected from burnt bricks (20—23×20—23x4 cm, rarely 25×25×4 cm) with chain masonry on lime mortar. Lime plaster is fixed on the walls. The floor of the room is partially lined with fragments of bricks on clay mortar. The vault has a width of 180 cm, a height of 65 cm and is composed of half-standard bricks placed on a rib in one row (20—22×10—12×4 cm). The design of the walls and niches indicates that the brick room, entered into the layers of the Sasanian and Arabic times (V—IX centuries), was built in a pit, was underground and part of some larger architectural complex.

Near the premises, part of the monumental stone wall (thickness approx. 90 cm, height above 330 cm) of a large, obviously public building was revealed. This wall is also let into the layers of Sasanian and Arabic times. According to indicative glazed and unglazed ceramics, the brick room and the identified monumental wall date from 11th — mid 13th century CE.

The stratigraphic position, mutual location and dating of these two architectural objects implies their structural relationship within the same architectural complex. Probably, an open underground structure is a room for ritual solitude such as a halwat-khana or chilla-khana at the khanaqa or mosque of the city.

Key words: Dagestan, Derbent, Bab al-abwab, Pre-Mongol period, brick architecture, ritual room, khalwat-khana, chilla-khana.

Статья поступила в номер 11 января 2024 г.

Принята к печати 27 января 2024 г.

About the authors:

Gadjiev Murtazali Serazhutdinovich (Makhachkala, Russia). Prof., Dr. of History, Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography, Dagestan Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences

E-mail: murgadj@rambler.ru

Budaychiev Arsen Lakhmanovich (Makhachkala, Russia). Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography, Dagestan Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences

E-mail: arseneihae@yandex.ru

Abdulaev Abdula Magomedovich (Makhachkala, Russia). Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography, Dagestan Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences

E-mail: realhigh87@mail.ru