Study of the Dzhari Fortified Settlement: Excavation VII with the Burials and Dwelling

Abstract

. The article presents the fndings of a study of one section of a fortifed settlement located on the rocky right bank of the lower Amur River, near the village of Dzhari. The subrectangular settlement, consisting mainly of earthen ramparts and adjacent ditches, is the largest fortifed structure among similar ancient and medieval sites in the region. The settlement was used in the second half of the 12th century and in the frst four to fve decades of the 13th century. Its founders and inhabitants were Tungus-speaking Jurchen shamanists, subjects of the Jin state and later of the Dongxia state that split of from it. Excavations at the site were carried out in the 1970s and 1980s. A signifcant area was uncovered, and a large quantity of material was obtained. The fnds from Excavation VII were particularly valuable and quite unexpected. Along with numerous artifacts of the Jurchen culture (wheel-made gray-clay ceramics; various types of fragmented vessels decorated mainly with geometric roller-cut patterns; and items made of iron (arrowheads, knives, fre steels, etc.), bronze, and stone), the excavation also revealed burials belonging, apparently, to the people who defended the town from attacking enemies. According to written sources, the conquerors of the fortifed settlement may have been the Mongols, who completely subjugated the Jurchen territories (including what is now Primorye in Russia) in the 1230s and then moved toward the lower Amur and further on to Sakhalin. The Jurchen layer overlaid a partially destroyed semi-dugout dwelling of the Poltse culture of the Early Iron Age. The data obtained attest to the impressive geographical scale and dynamism of the ethnocultural processes of the Poltse people, who, in the late phase of their development, made a signifcant contribution to the ethnogenesis of the Jurchen in the south of the Russian Far East.