Kakamakh 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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Kakamakh in Dagestan **
     This ancient fortified point is identified with the Kakamakh settlement near the dagestani village of Kakamakh.
     The first settlements, according to the raised archaeological material, appear here in the first centuries after the birth of Christ, when the sarmatian camps were located here. Starting from the 3rd century, with the arrival of the huns and the establishment of the huns Kingdom here, defensive fortifications in the form of low walls and fortresses appeared on the settlement. The appearance of fortifications here was associated with the organization of the hunnic governors of the trade route along the channels of the Tersko-Sulak interfluve. It was a caravan road that went from the south through the Chora gate, Derbent and further along the Kumyk plain to the Don and Europe.
     The Tersko-Sulak interfluve has always had a mild climate, which allowed the local population to graze their livestock all year round. The population was engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding, wine-making, and arable farming. Wheat, barley, millet, oats, rice, cotton and silk were grown here for their own needs.
     Artisans of the city have always been famous for the production of weapons, since the city had a military garrison for several centuries. In addition, horse breeding was well developed both for the needs of the military garrison and for caravans passing by the city.
     The highlanders remained the main peoples here until the arrival of the huns and khazars. It is difficult to distinguish any particular tribe from the highlanders. They were kavkasions. Since the 7th century after the birth of Christ, the core of a local autochthonous tribe was formed on the Kumyk platform in the depths of Khazaria, the ethnic basis of which was the kumyks, who later added the kipchak-oguz-bulgar conglomerate of clans and tribes.
     Kumyks have always been in authority among the mountaineers, they formed the basis of the military garrisons of a unified system of cities along the caravan route through the Kumyk plain. Their khagans, khans and shamkhals, as a rule, were the basis of military and trade campaigns of the Eastern highlanders to the Transcaucasian region. From these campaigns, the kumyks brought new cultural trends to their cities, which they borrowed from the slavic, turanian, and aryan tribes, being cultural guides from Asia through the Eastern Caucasus to Europe.
     On the ethnic territory of the kumyk people there were many ancient cities and fortresses that arose many centuries before the formation of the kumyk ethnic core, which the kumyks settled in the huns, khazars, arab and persian times.
     The entire city, with its villages and settlements, sometimes spread over an area of up to 40 hectares.
     The fortress walls and foundations of dwellings were made of glinobit blocks or torn stone.
     With the advent of the khazar era, several settlements appeared around the fortress, which was significantly strengthened by khazar-alanian architects, which formed posads. A Citadel appears in the fortress, which makes it possible to judge the presence of Tudun, the tax collector of the Khazar Khaganate and the organizer of customs in the city.
     The fortress with the Citadel is located in an elevated part. Its area was about 1 hectare.
     The fortress had a reliable natural defense, which was served by the steep slopes of rock outcrops of the hill on which it was located. They determined the configuration of the settlement.
     The presence of the central government of this region in the city raised the status of the city to one of the most important trade and strategic centers of the end of the first Millennium, not only on the Kumyk plain, but also in the entire North-Eastern Caucasus.
     Archaeological materials recovered from the site show that the technology of their manufacture and culture of exploitation has not been interrupted in the cultural layers since the very first centuries of the foundation of defensive structures here. This suggests that until the collapse of the Khazaria in the late 10th century, the socio-cultural chain of the city's history was continuous here from the 3rd to the 10th century of the century after the birth of Christ.
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