Arsa on the Oskol

Cities of Khazaria. Kromos Estatium
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     The khazar cities here include not only those cities that were built by the khazar architects, but also those that were built before the arrival of the khazars, were used by the khazars for their needs and tasks for a long time.
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Arsa on the Oskol **
     Also Arsana.
     The city was located in the area of the present village of Yutanovka, on the right bank of the Oskol river, the capital of the state of slavs, alans and aors Arsania. According to various Chronicles and legends, it was one of the three slavic centers of the early middle Ages, along with Kuyab, in the area of present-day Kiev and Slavia, in the area of present-day Novgorod.
     The industrial zone of Arsa, the capital of the legendary Arsania, is associated with the Yutanovsky settlement in the present-day Belgorod region.
     It was the largest metallurgical center in Eastern Europe, where ancient Metalworkers gathered, who kept their craft a secret from everyone. They loaded their wares on rafts, went down to the big river, sold everything there, told no one anything about their wares or how they made them, and allowed no one to follow them to Arsania. Anyone who goes there without their permission will be executed. So they keep their secrets for many centuries.
     Starting from the 2nd century after the birth of Christ, the union of artisans of diverse tribes of Arsania, located at that time between Oskol and the Seversky Donets, began to accept the turkic wave of immigrants that the Turkic Khaganate brought with it to Eastern Europe. These settlers were distinguished by the fact that they were able to work with iron, which is reflected in the ancient legends about the cult of Asena, preserved not only in khazar legends, but also in Chinese sources that recorded the conflict of Chinese leaders with the ancestors of the khazars, based on the fact that the khazars refused to teach the Chinese metallurgical production.
     Here since the 3rd century BC there is a crossing point of several trade-transport routes linking the riverine valley of Oskol with the basins of the Seversky Donets river, with the road network in the direction of the Don, and near the Vorskla leading their waters into the Dnieper. According to them, the products of the Yutama Arsa plant got to the world markets. In the trade of Arsa, an active role was played by the merchants of Rus, which had good ties with Europe since the doryurik times.
     From the second half of the 8th century, the high cetaceous spurs of the right indigenous banks of the Oskol and Seversky Donets of the Don basin began to be inhabited by the alans, who bring here elements of the saltovo-mayatsky culture developed in the depths of the khazar Confederation of tribes, which then included part of the alans, among whom were the ancient aorsi, their upper, richer branch, the sarmatian heirs.
     These aorsi once lived in the legendary country of Arsania, in memory of which they took their name. They carried with them a lot of knowledge, including working with ore.
     The new settlers named their fortress Arsa, the chroniclers called it Arsana, and the country where their main city was reputed to be the capital was called Arsania.
     The center of the city of Alana was laid on a promontory that towered over the river at an altitude of 50 meters. Under the cape lay a wide river floodplain with a swampy area. Here the ancient architects made an artificial steep slope, and on the floor side they placed two shafts with moats. One shaft was reinforced with stakes sunk deep into the ground, and on top of the second shaft were log cabins covered with clay and earth.
     The entire structure of the fortress almost completely corresponded to the old russian architectural technology. When creating fortifications here, as well as in Russia, stone was not used. Although during the construction of guard structures in Khazaria, stone was one of the main building materials.
     The main trade of Arsa's iron products went along the rivers to the Don, where it was bought by khazar merchants.
     However, some of the products also reached the markets of Kievan Rus. In the first half of the 10th century, during the reign of Prince Igor and his wise wife Olga, there was a trading town that was founded by natives of Arsa, who traded here, including metallurgical products coming from Yutan.
     This was a time when direct trade with the khazars began to weaken, and the leaders of Arsa were forced to enter into relations with the khazar merchants, who bought some of their products from Oskol producers, delivering them to the Dnieper, from where, using their old connections, they supplied metal to Byzantium, using the merchant fleet of Kievan Rus. The pier with a small town near the Rodnya town khazars was named Arsana. There was carried out the transhipment of goods to Byzantium and back. At this time, in trade documents, this pier and the settlements around it were called Arsania by eastern authors, and Artania by slavic authors.
     In the 10th century Arsan metallurgical craft was cut off from the khazars, pechenegs, flooded steppe. The metallurgists had to leave the Yutan iron ore deposits on Oskol and seek applications for their secrets in the North of Rus and beyond the Dnieper.
     The Yutan period of Arsa's history reveals mainly the khazar period of the city's existence, expressed by the saltovo-mayatsky culture, which was carried here by the alans, aors, and vyatichs. as well as several centuries of the presence of the finno-ugric culture, which was represented by the mordvins.
     In khazar times, part of the city complex of Arsa was called Yutam, which means crossing the river, perhaps there was the mouth of an ancient river with a similar name. But most likely, historians and linguists overlook some older meaning of the word based on the root «yutam», leading to the iron case.
     During the khazar period, the inhabitants of Arsa were engaged in the production of products based on ferrous metallurgy from local iron ore. It is believed that the technologies used here could not be replicated anywhere else in Europe. It was the largest metallurgical enterprise in Europe in the middle of the 1st millennium after the birth of Christ. Here they used technologies for producing iron, which at that time were the most advanced.
     The basis of the metallurgical production of the khazars in Arsan Yutama was a raw blast furnace, an aggregate for producing iron through chemical reduction. The khazar raw blast furnace produced high-quality iron, this technology, as well as the iron itself, were unique, and not repeated anywhere else.
     A design feature of the Yutam raw blast furnace was a flask-shaped crucible. Yutam technology involves the manufacture of iron only in a closed room that allows you to trade all year round.
     The technology of iron production in Arsa combined the cultures of Aryan, ancient turkic, ugric and local khazar industries. At the same time, these technologies were differentiated in production depending on the available orders and the technological culture of artisans, which was inherited from generation to generation.
     The production of the Yutam metallurgical complex was based on several production zones, each of which employed hundreds of artisan raw blast furnace. In addition to the furnaces, there were also pottery workshops. The industrial zone has completed the whole cycle of iron production.
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