Discovery on the Silk Road

On July 21, 2009, the second season of archeological digs on the territory of Orikhiv forestland in Zaporizhia oblast. The scientists focused their efforts on a medieval city built on orders of the Golden Horde rulers back in the 14th century.

According to Mykhailo Yelnikov, Ph.D. in History, associate professor at the Zaporizhia National University, who heads the digs, this city is of great historical and scientific value, because it was a transit point on the Silk Road, the main communication route between China and Western European countries. On the 17th-century maps it had different names—Sim mechetei (Seven Mosques), Nekropol (Necropolis), or Kinski vody (Horses’ Waters).

For a long while scholars believed that after the Kakhovka water reservoir flooded the remains of the famous Tatar settlement in Zaporizhia oblast in the 1950s, there were no large historical monuments dating back to the Tatar-Mongol rule left. This myth was busted in 1993 owing to the efforts of the fellows of the Zaporizhia Oblast Local Lore Museum who found the remains of a large city. However, due to the economic hardship, the research was stopped in the 1990s and was revived only in 2008.

“The historical monument itself is very large. It is located on both banks of the Konka River and occupies nearly 20ha. We simply do not have enough resources and people to conduct full-fledged works on such an extensive territory and in accordance with all the rules of the archaeological science. On top of that, the territory overlaps with two inhabited areas creating additional problems. The Orikhiv forestland also has its rules and requirements that we have to comply with,” says Yelnykov.

The archeological expeditions are suffering great damage from the activities of the so-called “black archeologists.” “Because of them we are forced to conserve the site every time covering it with earth and then waste precious time to open it the next season,” Yelnykov explains.

Unfortunately, neither the central, nor the local authorities are of any help to the scientists. According to Yelnykov, all the works are being carried out using the modest provisions made by Zaporizhia National University, donations from a handful of sponsors, and the sheer enthusiasm of the people involved.

For example, in June the bulk of those participated in the excavations comprised volunteer high-school students from Enerhodar and even Kyiv, as well as the members of Oleh Toboltsev’s NGO “New Archeological School.” In July they were replaced by university students who had their mandatory archaeological summer practice there.

In response to the question about the results of the current excavations Yelnykov said that they will become known later, after the finds have been sorted and systematized. However, he said that several unique items have already been found.

“After obtaining special permissions to carry out excavations in 2007, we discovered four structures here. One was a foundation wall of a Muslim mosque and another one—the foundation of a mausoleum (which is yet to be opened). Moreover, prior to that, in 2005, two archeologists found the top of a column decorated with Oriental patterns in possession of local residents. It bears striking resemblance to the column of Khan Uzbek’s mosque in the Old Crimea. Unfortunately, these “archeologists” had sticky fingers and kept the find.

“The main trophies of the current and last year’s expeditions are the glass-faience items and stones decorated with Oriental patterns,” says Yelnykov.

According to historians, the excavations promise to yield great scientific discoveries. One is evident even now: the fact that there was a large medieval Golden Horde city in the southern Ukrainian steppes, which was located at the intersection of trade routes and received merchants from all over the world, can rebuff the established notion that the so-called “Wild Steppe” was uninhabited and that civilization came here only when these lands were conquered by the Russian Empire.