Gent-Urun in Dagestan

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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Gent-Urun in Dagestan **
     Also Venturon
     This city was considered by ancient authors to be a thriving city of the Kumyk plain.
     Local researchers identify it with the Gentorun settlement on foothill terraces four kilometers from the present village of Karabudakhkent in Dagestan.
     The ancient architects chose the place for the city very well. It is located on the foothill terraces directly above the ancient trade road, which connected the ancient settlements in a single trading post.
     The area of the city and fortress was almost 40 hectares, which at the time when it was functioning, was quite a lot.
     There are remains of fortress walls and defensive ramparts. Dwellings often rested on stone foundations. The walls of the houses were glinobit or made of ragged stone.
     The fortress has elements characteristic of khazar architecture, it is noticeable that it was used in the arab-khazar wars.
     The fortress wall with ramparts and ditches of the khazar era was extended from the settlement itself to the ridges. On the other side, unprotected by the spurs of the mountains, walls of rough stone were also erected.
     Archaeological material shows that the first settlement with small fortifications appears here at the beginning of the 2nd century after the birth of Christ. Cultural layers can be traced back to the end of the 12th century. In their own way, the social culture of gorodets residents can be attributed to dargins, laks and kumyks.
     The name of the city is derived from the greek word «ghent», meaning stop and the turkic word «urun», meaning place. It pulls a bit to the words «genturion» and «centurion» greco-latin origin. Claudius Ptolemy had information about cities and rivers in this part of the Universe. It came to him from the chroniclers of AlexanderThe Great, who followed in considerable numbers in his wagons.
     Ptolemy represented the post-hellenistic cultural nobility, already reincarnated in roman, latinized. Hence his texts in geography fall as greek slowema type «genturion» and the type of the roman «centurion».
     The city's community was fairly conservative and sought to preserve its tribal identity, which was sometimes shaken by intertribal marriages. Here, in the gorges, many legends wander about how lovers who did not agree with the prohibitions on interethnic marriages turned into mountain echoes or stone rocks.
     The first fortified elements of the city were recorded by archaeologists during the reign of the huns, who founded a small fortress here to control the trade routes from Central Asia through Derbent, the Kumyk plain in the Black Sea region.
     At the beginning of the 6th century the Turkic Khaganate ruled here, which sought to gain control over the trade routes of the Kuman platform between the Sulak and Terek rivers.
     With the arrival of the huns, the settlement acquires the main urban functions. A Citadel for the local nobility is being built here, as well as fortifications, villages covered with ramparts and ditches. Ghent-Urun becomes a flourishing city populated by a large number of people.
     Posad people were engaged in the manufacture of ceramics, crafts made of stone and of animal bones. Pottery was his own, but on the basis of the saltov culture.
     The main ethnic element of the city and its districts were kumyks, dargins and laks.
     The city did not lose its qualities with the arrival of the Khazar Khaganate, which provided unhindered passage along the Kumyk valley of the Great Silk Road caravans, which brought considerable income to the citizens, since the caravans had to be accompanied throughout the territory subject to the Khaganate.
     In the khazar era from the beginning of the 8th century, this small town received reinforced fortifications, which can be described as a Fortress. The khazars linked their fortresses along the Sulak into a single defensive system, ensuring the worthy development of many ancient cities and fortresses that existed on the trade routes between Sulak and Terek, which were written about by arab, byzantine, persian, russian, armenian and georgian chroniclers.
     These were developed and filled with artisans cities, towns and towns of the huns and Khazar Khaganate.
     City artisans were engaged in the manufacture of ceramic products, there were stone carvers and carvers of animal bones.
     The culture of the townspeople was similar to that of other caucasian mountaineers. The difference is that the kumyks, who have been the mainstay of the local population since the 7th century, participated in military and trade campaigns of the huns, khazars and the Golden Horde In Transcaucasia, which allowed them to be a transmission link in the movement of cultures.
     During the Golden Horde era, the city's importance did not decrease, since its territory was many times larger, which provided unhindered contact with a large number of cities outside of Kumykia.
     After the collapse of the Golden Horde, many of these fortresses were abandoned, the citizens were defenseless and depopulated. The same happened with Getarun, by the end of the 15th century there roamed only the beasts of the forest.
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