Markina Balka

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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Markina Balka **
     This ancient city is known only from archaeological materials recovered from the settlement of Markina Balka in the Rostov region.
     This place on the banks of the Don in its lower reaches was settled with the arrival of the huns in the 5th century after the birth of Christ. Some Khan of the Hun Horde stopped here when he was moving along the banks of the Azov sea in the direction of the Bosporus Strait to the Crimea.
     Until the middle of the 7th century, some special structures are not noticeable here. They came, put up yurts, spent the night, collected yurts and moved on.
     In the second half of the 7th century, the headquarters of some middle Khagan from the Western Turkic Khaganate appeared here. Nomads did not stay in this place for a long time, holding their seasonal community meetings here, where they solved state issues.
     The place was not chosen by the huns and turks by chance. Part of the Great Silk Road caravans from the North Caucasus that passed through Derbent passed here. Downstream was the yurt of the owner of the Crimean town, and above it was the yurt of the owner of the Golden hills. Not far away was another city of the Khazarus state on the island of Kurkin on the Don.
     The townspeople were engaged in agriculture and fishing in khazar times,but the main trade here was merchant. There was a small pier where the city market developed. Goods were bought here, mostly grain, which was processed into flour and then transported around the area.
     A lot of limestone millstones and a large number of grain pits for temporary, seasonal storage of grain were found in the settlement. It was poured there, then it was ground and delivered to the caravans of the Great Silk Road.
     The dwellings here were of the traditional late turkic type. Walls of standing logs were dug into the ground for a meter, then the ground was dug out of this perimeter. At the bottom of such a dwelling, the earth was mixed with the chalk remnants of economic activity and compacted. In the middle of this semi-dugout, a stone hearth was placed, which served for heating, cooking, and other work.
     At the city there were workshops that researchers correlate with artel teams engaged in fishing on the Don.
     Archaeological material from the settlement indicates that the main culture here was saltov-mayatsk, characteristic of the peoples of Khazaria.
     In addition to the khazars, there lived peoples of russ-slavic cultures, who were inclined to sacrifice animals according to their religious traditions. There were also savirs of ancient altaic beliefs, uncultured by the bulgars, khazars, or Rus.
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