Study of Zhankent settlement P.I. Lerh in 1867.

“At the place where Abul Khair Khan demanded the construction of the city, they (i.e. Muravin and Gladyshev) were and saw, about which they were told that in ancient years a city was built here by the Nogai Tatars, named Yankent, the clay of which and to this day the dilapidated remains of the walls are on the island, which (i.e. the island) is about a hundred miles in length, 45 in width; on one side of that island the Aral Sea went around, on the other - the Syr-Darya River, on the third - from the Syr-Darya into the Aral Sea the Karasar channel fell, two miles wide, along which reeds grow, since in the swamp at a far distance from it there is a salt lake, a flat place, the ground is black with silt; The Karakalpaks wander on that island and plow, and bread will be born, only more millet; water is supplied to the arable land by channels; There is a forest all over that island, not only suitable for building a city, but also for cooking, there is no writing except reeds, and there is nowhere to find such building material anywhere there; You can mow hay if you need small reeds; on that island itself there is a bay from the Syr Darya, which flows into the Aral Sea; the distance to it from Orenburg is 1064 versts, from the Syr Darya River, up it on the right side - 6 versts; The former city described above was content with water from the canals that were released from the Syr Darya. There is a certain fable being circulated among the peoples there about the destruction of that city, which is included below as a curiosity.”

Yakov Khanykov. “A trip from Orsk to Khiva and back, made in 1740-1741. Gladyshev and Muravin." 1851.

Excavations by P.I. Lerh at Zhankent settlement in 1867.

Extract from a report submitted to the Archaeological Imperial Commission.

In order to clarify conflicting opinions about the ruins of an ancient city at the mouth of the Syr Darya, near Fort No. 1, the Governor-General of the Orenburg Territory in the spring of 1867 turned to the Archaeological Commission with a request to send there an experienced person for the immediate study of these ruins.
This assignment, at the request of the Commission, was undertaken by a member of the local Archaeological Society. P.I. Lerkh, who already in 1858, during a trip with our commission to Khiva and Bukhara, had the opportunity to get acquainted with this area, and two years ago was sent by the Commission to study prehistoric antiquities in north-eastern Russia.
To take down the plans and plans, the Governor-General, for his part, appointed captain M.K. Priorov to help him. In case the ruins turned out to be unworthy of extensive research, the Archaeological Commission invited Mr. Lerch to examine other ruins located in the Syr Darya valley.
From the report he submitted about his five-month trip, it turns out the following. 22 versts below Fort 1 (Kazalinsk), on the left bank of the Syr, there is the wall of the former Khiva fortification of Dzhan-Kala, which has a circumference of 80 fathoms, and is currently no more than 2 fathoms high.
Near these ruins, ditches were drawn from the river, the beds of which extend 6-7 versts into the interior of the country, but the water in them is now only 2 or 3 versts, since the fields cultivated by the Kyrgyz almost all lie near the shore. If you follow the extreme ditch on the left side of Dzhan-Kala, then at the fifth verst a terrain begins, covered over an area of ​​4 square versts with low hills, which are overgrown with thorny steppe plants and mostly dug up by the Kyrgyz.
In the southeastern corner of this area, called Dzhankenta, there rises an irregular quadrangle of a shaft, which has from 3 to 4 soots. at the base and on which, mainly on the eastern side, there are still remains of a thick wall made of lumps of clay.
In the northwestern corner the wall was made of brick. The rampart was surrounded by a 2-sazh ditch. width, traces of which are very clearly preserved on the eastern side. The internal area of ​​the fortress contained several elevations. Excavations carried out on it at various points did not reveal any traces of buildings.
If buildings once existed here, they were probably made of clay. The traces of which have been erased by time. There were only shards of clay vessels and lamb bones. The mounds and hills scattered to the north and northwest of the fortress were formed mostly from collapsed buildings that once made up the city of Dzhankent.
Between these hills one can see traces of irrigation ditches drawn from Syr and partly encircling the fortress and the city rampart. There are no visible signs of the city having been destroyed by violence at the outset; it must be assumed that the inhabitants abandoned it intact.
Apparently, the ceilings collapsed first, followed by the upper sections of the walls. The destruction, initially caused by the passage of time, was completed by the nomadic Kyrgyz people in the area. Decades earlier-if not sooner-they had begun using the high-quality square bricks found in the lower sections of the walls and house foundations to construct funerary monuments at a cemetery located one verst west of the fortress.
These monuments, in turn, had already succumbed to the ravages of time, and their domes had begun to cave in. The Kyrgyz informed Mr. Lerch that funerary monuments built from Jankent bricks could also be found along the Kuvan-Darya River.
Large-scale excavations were undertaken by the Kyrgyz at Jankent in 1866. It is said that up to 2,000 people worked there that autumn, using their hoes to break down walls buried under debris and sand. Consequently, the archaeological yield for anyone arriving after such destruction could not have been significant.
After assigning Captain Priorov the task of surveying the Jankent site, Mr. Lerch began his own investigations-first, as previously mentioned, inside the fortress, and then on a hill lying just outside the eastern rampart. This hill was the only significant elevation that had remained untouched by the Kyrgyz hoes.
A cemetery was discovered within this hill. Skeletal remains lay in graves constructed directly upon the virgin soil-often using a mix of fired and sun-dried bricks-bearing no inscriptions. The skulls found there differed slightly in shape from those typical of Turkic tribes.
Of the mounds-which had been disturbed by the Kyrgyz only enough to offer hope that further excavation might yield some insight into the purpose of the structures once standing there—four were selected for investigation: two in the center and two in the western section of the town square.
The first mound, located 550 sazhens northwest of the fortress's northwest corner, revealed the foundation and lower wall sections of a crypt; its interior was meticulously plastered with alabaster, and its western end featured a dome. When the Kyrgyz demolished the crypt's northern wall prior to Mr. Lerch's arrival, the skeletal remains of two individuals were removed.
There was also talk at the Fort that a coin had been discovered there. The debris yielded additional finds, including tiles and fragments of patterned window frames coated in blue glaze. A second mound, situated 50 sazhens from the first, contained the remains of a pottery workshop; preserved features included walls - constructed as two adjoining octagons and standing one and a half arshins high - and the floor where clay vessels were placed for firing.
The vaults and flues of the kilns beneath the floor also survived. Regarding the pottery itself, only shards remained - fragments of pots, pitchers, and dishes that had never been used, crushed by the weight of the collapsing ceiling and upper walls.
Of particular note is a fragment of a small clay pitcher intended for firing. It bears a relief pattern and is decorated near the top with a garland of branches and leaves entwining characters in a beautiful Arabic script. Unfortunately, only five characters remain-belonging to the end of one word and the beginning of another; the inscription likely expressed some pious sentiment.
The third mound had already been excavated by the Kyrgyz to a greater extent than the first two. It contained the remains of a substantial dwelling belonging to a prominent resident; niches and projecting brick ledges featuring arabesque patterns along their edges were discovered there.
The fourth and largest mound-situated 120 sazhens from the previous one, near an old irrigation ditch overgrown in places with reeds-was particularly well-known among the local nomads. Legend held that this was the palace of King Janjarkhan, a ruler notorious for his unjust jealousy toward his wife-a transgression for which he was allegedly punished by snakes that destroyed his city.
The Kyrgyz had likely left this mound undisturbed out of respect for the legends surrounding it; however, when a detachment was sent from Fort No. 1 in the spring of 1867 to prevent further destruction of the Jankent ruins by the locals, a pit measuring one sazhen in depth and four arshins in diameter was dug at the mound's summit.
During this process, several square, glazed tiles were unearthed. The interior of the mound consisted of a heap of brick and rubble, interspersed with a significant number of tiles-predominantly blue and white-bearing blue Arabic script. Closer to the foundation of the building that had once stood there, workers found multicolored glazed elements-cornices, capitals, ledges, and window frames-decorated with various patterns, as well as fragments of inscribed funerary slabs. One inscription was sufficiently restored to confirm that it belonged to the tombstone of an individual who died during the month of Ramadan in the year 763 AH-that is, in June or July 1362 AD.
Upon dismantling the mound, a floor made of square bricks was revealed at its center, with foundations for rectangular pillars at its four corners. The horizontal cross-section of each pillar—which stood up to eight feet tall—formed a square area of ​​sixteen square feet.
A brick wall three feet high remained standing on the foundation at the northeast corner. The layout of the foundation and floor suggests that a dome-clad on the outside with blue tiles—rested upon the four pillars, which were themselves decorated with multicolored tiles.
Entrances to the space beneath the dome likely existed on all four sides, corresponding to the cardinal directions; inscriptions probably framed each entrance. No traces of stucco work were found. Indeed, such work would not have withstood atmospheric exposure, as the interior of the monument was unprotected against the elements during autumn and winter.
Graves enclosed by walls four feet thick were located in the ground on the eastern side.The skeletons-which showed no traces of clothing or jewelry-were oriented facing east. Brick tombstones stood over these graves, clad in exquisitely decorated tiles; the side tiles bore inscriptions.
However, these monuments were so severely damaged that it is difficult to form an accurate idea of ​​their original appearance based on the surviving fragments. Near the northeast corner of the main monument, remains of a pavement made of a single row of small square bricks were discovered; Up to 50 copper coins covered with a thick layer of oxide, as well as two silver coins, were found right there.
They are all Golden Horde issues, with some dating back to the 8th century. ...dating to the XVth century AD and minted primarily in New Sarai. Since the severe devastation of the Jankent mounds meant that further excavations offered little hope of significant finds, Mr. Lerch halted his work there after a month and set out to examine other traces of ancient settlement along the Syr Darya.
Exploration at Jankent convinced the researcher that his earlier hypothesis was correct: the ruins there were the remains of the city of Yangikent, mentioned in historical accounts of the conquest of the Khwarezm-Shah kingdom by Genghis Khan and his sons.
First, the location of the Jankent ruins corresponds perfectly to the location of Yangikent described by the Arab geographer Abu al-Fida (1331)-specifically, on the Syr Darya, two days' journey from its mouth. Second, the history of Genghis Khan states that Yangikent was the furthest city along the Syr and that, following the capture of Jend, a small detachment was sent to occupy Yangikent; consequently, the city was small in size, and its fortifications were not particularly strong.
In this regard, the Jankent ruins support the aforementioned hypothesis. But where was Jend located? This question occupied Mr. Lerch as he continued his journey upstream along the Syr. The Mongols took Jend by storm in 1219, following the successful siege of Otrar, the ruins of which are still visible near the mouth of the Arys River.
En route from Otrar to Jend, Jochi’s troops also occupied Saganak, Barkhaligkent, Uzkend, and Eshnas. Saganak was abandoned by its last inhabitants only a few decades ago; its remains lie east of our fortification at Julek, on this side... ...of the Karatau Mountains.
Jend, conquered by the Mongols, must have been situated right by the Syr Darya, on its right bank. The only locality along the Syr Darya between Fort No. 1 and Julek that shows traces of an ancient population is the Korkhut Kyrgyz cemetery; the final staging post before Fort No. 2 is also located there.
The monuments found here - erected by the Kyrgyz over the graves of their kin - are mostly built of fired brick. Only recently have they begun placing small stones bearing crude, scratched inscriptions with the names of the deceased. Yet, scattered among these more recent monuments are fragments of dark-gray slabs bearing remnants of Arabic inscriptions; these are similar in style to the inscriptions found on monuments in the old cemeteries of once-inhabited Central Asian settlements, such as Sauran.
Furthermore, near the Korkhut cemetery, one can see mounds and hillocks reminiscent of those at Jankent. It is highly probable that Jend once stood here. Fifty versts before reaching the city of Turkestan, Mr. Lerch stopped at the site of the former city of Sabran (or Sauran).
The ramparts of a substantial fortress, featuring an earthen wall, are still preserved here. Of particular interest for exploration were the numerous mounds scattered primarily along the northwestern and southeastern sides of the fortress. Unable to recruit a sufficient number of laborers, Mr. Lerch limited himself to a small-scale excavation within the fortress.
This excavation was carried out around a tower rising 7 sazhens above ground level. Another tower had stood nearby, at a distance of 16 feet, but it collapsed in the spring of 1867. However, the surviving tower - despite the sturdiness of its walls - also threatens to collapse, as the Kyrgyz people extract bricks from its lower section to build graves in the cemetery located near the fortress.
It turned out that there was still a full sazhen of earth between the current ground level and the foundation. Both towers had stood at the entrance to a madrasa; the foundation of the front section remains intact, as does, likely, that of the rear section. Near the aforementioned Kyrgyz cemetery lies the old city cemetery, where many light-yellow sandstone tombstones can still be found.
After making copies of the best-preserved inscriptions on these stones, Mr. Lerch examined the remains of a small fortification known as Mir, located 6 versts from the Sabran fortress, and then traveled to Turkestan. There, he studied the local mosque, erected in 1404 over the remains of the Turkestan holy man Ahmed Yasawi.
This mosque is the most significant one in Central Asia. In addition to the saint's tomb, the site houses the graves of Rabia-Begim - Timur’s great-granddaughter and the daughter of the renowned Ulugh Beg, who died in 880 AH (1475-1476 AD)-as well as those of Abulkhayr Suyunch-Khoja Khan (who died in 931 AH 1524-1525 AD), two of his sons, a grandson, and a daughter; prominent members of the Qongrat clan who died in the first half of the XVIth century; and various Turkestan Sheikh-ul-Islams and Kyrgyz sultans.
Mr. Lerch meticulously copied the inscriptions found on these tombs. Traveling from Turkestan via Chimkent to Tashkent, Mr. Lerch undertook a journey to Khujand, Ura-Tyube, Zamin, and Jizzakh, and visited the Jalan-Uty Gorge on the road between Jizzakh and Yany-Kurgan.
There, he copied two inscriptions carved into a sheer cliff face and determined that they did not pertain to Tamerlane, to whom popular opinion in the Turkestan region attributed them. Both inscriptions are composed in Persian. One commemorates a campaign into Moghulistan undertaken by Ulugh Beg in 828 AH (1424-1425 AD), while the other commemorates a victory won in the local gorge in 979 AH (1571-1572 AD) by the Bukhara Khan Abdullah over the rulers of Tashkent, Turkestan, Fergana, and Desht-i-Kipchak.
On his return journey, Mr. Lerch stopped at Aulie-Ata to visit the ruins located 44 versts from the town - on the road to Merke - known to the local nomadic Kyrgyz and sedentary Sarts as Akhyr-Tash. There, he discovered a structure made of dark-red ferruginous sandstone; although construction had begun on a massive scale, it remained unfinished.
Only the lower courses of the main façade were constructed from enormous stones, measuring up to 7 feet in length and 4 feet in width. The planned dimensions of the structure were 600 feet in length and 450 feet in width. It was likely intended to be a Buddhist monastery. It is mentioned in the travel account of a Taoist monk who journeyed from China in 1222-via Sairam and Samarkand - to the camp of Genghis Khan.
He also describes burial mounds that are still visible today to the left of the road leading from Aulie-Ata to Akhyr-Tash. Carved into one of the dressed stones at the site is a Manchu inscription commemorating the victory of Chinese forces over the Dzungars in 1758 AD. Mr. Lerch brought back a plaster cast of this inscription.

Authority:
"Archaeological Expedition to the Turkestan Region in 1867 by P. Lerch." St. Petersburg. Printing House of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Vasilyevsky Island, 9th Line, No. 12. 1870.