Mayatsky Whitestone fortress

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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Mayatsky Whitestone fortress **
     Scientists have not yet decided which city stood on the Mayatsky hillfort. It is only clear that it was one of the cities of the Khazar and Alanian states.
     The settlement begins its history at the end of the 8th century after the birth of Christ. The fortress was built on a high promontory of the Quiet Pine river, not far from its confluence with the Don. Now it is in the Liskinsky district of the Voronezh region.
     The fortress was built of white stone, and there was a posad at the fortress. Here lived the alans and khazar from savir and bulgars, whose social culture included for the most part the saltov-mayatsk culture.
     They began to call the settlement Mayatsk after its second birth after almost seven centuries of oblivion. Its first explorers in the mid-17th century considered that in ancient times it seemed to loom over the area with its haughty white-stone grandeur on a high promontory of Quiet Pine.
     People in the city were engaged in the manufacture of ceramics, there were gunsmiths here, since the fortress had a military garrison for almost three centuries, they were also engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding.
     The city was part of the General system of fortresses of the Don defensive line of the khazars from the russo-slavs, who advanced into this Pridnestrovian forest-steppe from the North and West.
     In this system, the city served as a khazar shopping center on the Don. There were also weapons workshops in posad that served the needs of the military garrison in the Mayatsky Whitestone fortress.
     On the territory of the Fortress there are the remains of the castle of a local aristocrat from the khazar nobility, some tudun who looked after order on the border borders of the Khazarus state.
     The city's population was mixed. But first there lived the alans, the heirs of the sarmatians. These were alans of the mixed forest-steppe variant. There were also steppe dwellers of the bulgar type. The first traces of their presence here are noted from the beginning of the 4th century. Everyone lived peacefully, and there were no obvious traces of fortifications on the site until the 8th century.
     Only at the end of the 8th century did the construction of fortifications begin, while they were small ramparts, the construction of which can be associated with the appearance of a threat from the steppe people.
     Gradually, by the early 9th century alanian basis begins to diluted sawir-bulgars of the Khazar tribal Union with the advent of which earthen ramparts are complemented by fortress walls.
     The fortress with white-stone walls created a sense of security for merchants and caravans, with the advent of the khazars, the traffic density on this site increases, trade routes were one of the mainstays of the Khazarian economy. In addition to the trade caravans along this route followed the military convoys of strategic purpose. Merchants appear in the city, who bring goods from Byzantium, Greece, the Caspian sea, jewelry from other cities of Khazaria.
     The fortress itself was guarded by khazar soldiers, and weapons typical of the khazars were found on its territory.
     Forests in this area were sparse and unsuitable for the construction of fortresses, so clay and lime stone were widely used in the construction of the fortress. The architectural culture in the construction of the fortress is identical to those that were used throughout the defensive line on the Don, including in Sarkel, Simikarakors, at the Quiet Pine. This was the architecture typical of the central region of Khazaria. Some elements of the saltov-mayatsk architecture can also be observed during the construction of fortresses in the North-Eastern Caucasus, in the Crimea and in Volga Bulgaria.
     Khazar-type fortresses are usually built on an «island», as the khazars called the high promontory that protrudes into the river. Limestone from the local gorge or from raw clay is used as a building material.
     The Governor Tudun, sent by the Khagan, lives in the fortress with his family. At Tudun there is a military detachment from the bulgars and khazars.
     There were also alanian soldiers at the fortress, but they were not a separate part of the khazar detachment, who performed border service under the instructions of Tudun and guarded their crafts and the community with their families.
     The main provisions of life in the Fortress were set out on its walls in runic records, which were used by the nobility of that time alans, khazars and bulgars.
     There was no particular difference in social culture between the alans, khazars and bulgars. Both of them worshipped fire, sun, and sky.
     Also, all these three ethnic groups were characterized by a common socio-cultural property of bipolarity, which can be observed in the khazar power duumvirate in the form of a Kagan and a King, and, almost similar, the understanding of power among the alans, who revered their kings and their community on an equal footing. The khazars had white and black horses, the alans had horses and foot soldiers.
     This bipolarity got along well in the town with the White stone fortress. In the fortress lived the khazars, who guarded the fortress and the city, in the lower city lived the alans, who were engaged in Affairs characteristic of settled peoples, and they guarded their community themselves.
     The Mayatsk settlement should be considered in conjunction with the six Pridnestrovian fortresses that appeared here simultaneously with the Mayatsk white Stone fortress. All of them appeared almost simultaneously and were built in a single architectural concept.
     All the khazar fortress of this line stood at the frontier of the Slav territories borchevsky culture, wearable Vyatichi.
     Apparently, the fortresses of the Donetsk khazar line were points of control for trade routes along the Don, as well as along the road of the Don that connected the fortresses. In some places, this road is still used today.
     The Don khazar line had several goals according to the initial idea. This includes deterring vyatich expansion, customs points, and protection of trade and military routes. Since ancient times, caravans of the Great Silk Road passed here.
     Despite its relative smallness in comparison with Sarkel, the Mayatsk white-Stone fortress could easily withstand the attacks of the steppe people, who at that time were not particularly persistent. Realizing that a quick pogrom with looting would not work, the pechenegs were not particularly upset, they did not arrange multi-day sieges, and their political ambitions were not interested.
     In 965, Khazaria was abolished as a state. Simultaneously with this event, the life of the Whitestone Mayatsk lighthouse on the Quiet Pine stops. These territories are filled with pechenegs, which have turned the entire district into pastures.
     The mythical and legendary town, which laid its stones on the Mayatsk settlement, did not die at all. In the 2nd half of the 17th century, the walls of the assumption cave monastery were built from its white stones. In addition, it is constantly visited by treasure hunters, who do not so much dig treasures here, but dig up treasures to make fun of other ramons, who are called Ghost seekers in Ramon Castle in the Voronezh region.
     But here, on the territory of Mayatsk White Stone fortress without ghosts is not complete. They are often seen in the cave castle under the promontory on which the Castle of the khazar Tudun stood.
     One such apparition always appears when there is no wind, which is very rare here. The air seems to rise. The cloud moves quickly and hands with long white fingers grow out of it, and the Ghost begins to look like a human image.
     And it tries to wrap its fingers around the entire circle on which the fortress stood. Then the fingers are finally grasped, and a thunderclap is heard right next to them, although the sky is clear, the hands are uncoupled and the cloud returns with a sob somewhere under the coastal cape.
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