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THE KHAZAR FORTRESS OF SARKEL
Last Updated: December 17, 2004

This page is Copyright © 1997-2003 by Kevin Brook, all rights reserved.
Unauthorized reproduction of this page is prohibited.

Of all of the excavated Khazarian cities, the one which provided the richest
material remains was Sarkel, which was flooded in 1952 upon the completion of
the new Tsimlyansky Reservoir. Archaeological work at the Sarkel site was never
fully completed, and it is not possible to conduct further studies.
Nevertheless, the existing data recovered from Sarkel provides valuable clues to
the Khazarian culture. We are indebted to the reports of Soviet archaeologists
-- including Mikhail I.
Artamonov, Svetlana A. Pletnyova, and Pavel A. Rappoport -- who explored the
artifacts and architecture of Sarkel during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.

The grand fortress of Sarkel, located near the Don River, was built in the
830s by a joint team of Greek and Khazar architects. Its Turkic name, sar-kel,
means "White Fortress", and was named this because the fortress' bricks were
made of white limestone. Some of the bricks from the Sarkel site were decorated
with Turkic tamgas (tribe symbols) or images of horses and armored riders.

(Source: Sol Podolefsky, Di geshikhte fun di Kazarn un zeyer ideshe
meluche in tsentrel Eyrope. New York: Rokhman, 1971. Page 148.)

Sarkel's fortress had 4 towers and 2 gates, and a citadel was located in its
south-eastern section. Its garrison consisted of 300 Turkic guards. However,
Sarkel also served another purpose, in addition to military defense: its
strategic location led it to become a major center of trade. Sarkel linked to
the famous overland trading route known as the "Silk Road". Caravans would often
pass through the region, and in fact the remains of Sarkel caravanserais have
been identified, each consisting of (1) rooms for visitors, (2) an area for
holding cattle, and (3) a courtyard where the caravans were kept overnight.

Besides the commercial and military sections of Sarkel, there were also
residential areas. The houses in Sarkel originally had an open hearth in the
center, but by the 10th century many of the houses had more advanced stoves and
they were located in a corner rather than in the center. It appears that
Sarkel's population consisted of Shamanists, Jews, and Christians.

Many productive activities took place in the vicinity of Sarkel. The remains
of forges and potter's workshops were identified by archaeologists. Thus, much
of the kitchenware, jewelry (bracelets, rings, earrings), belt-buckles, and
pottery used by the residents of Sarkel was produced locally. However, a
substantial amount of non-local goods was imported into Sarkel, both from other
Khazarian industrial centers (e.g., the Crimean and Taman peninsulas) and
foreign countries (e.g., the Byzantine Empire).

Many graves were
excavated at Sarkel and the nearby Tsimlyansky site across the Don. The human
remains were mostly European types, but some Mongolian types also were found.
Animal bones (for example, those of dogs and horses) were also found.

The Grand Prince of Kievan Rus, Svyatoslav Igorevich, took over Sarkel in the
year 965. The Rus'ian Chronicle recorded the conquest of Sarkel as follows:

"Svyatoslav went to the Oka and the Volga [rivers], and on coming
into contact with the Vyatichians [a Slavic tribe] he asked them to whom they
paid tribute. They answered that they paid a silver piece per plowshare to the
Khazars. When they [the Khazars] heard of his approach, they went out to meet
him with their prince, the kagan, and the armies came to blows. When the
battle thus took place, Svyatoslav defeated the Khazars and took their city of
Byelaya Vyezha."
Byelaya Vyezha, the East Slavic translation of
sar-kel, also means "White Fortress". After destroying Sarkel, the Rus'ians
rebuilt the city and it once again served as a vibrant trading post.

In 1117, a group of "belovezhtsi" from Byelaya Vyezha settled near Chernihiv
and established a new town called "Byelaya Vyezha" which was named after their
old hometown along the Don River.

Hermitage
Museum's revised exhibit on Sarkel as it appeared in August 2003

An
inscription in Turkic runes from Sarkel, apparently of Bulgar
manufacture

"Slavic"
necklaces from Sarkel, 9th century

The Sarkel
excavation site as seen from the air circa 1949-1951

Miscellaneous photographs from the Sarkel-3 fortress site (nearby the
original Sarkel), courtesy of the Russian journal Donskaya Arkheologiya: Photo
1, Photo
2, Photo
3

Elephant
chess piece made of ivory, found at Sarkel, housed at Hermitage Museum in St.
Petersburg

SUGGESTED READINGS
For additional information about Sarkel, we
recommend the following works:

SARKEL I "SHIOLKOVYI" PUT' by Svetlana A. Pletnyova (Voronezh, Russia:
Izd-vo. Voronezhskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta, 1996).

"Khazarskaya krepost Sarkel" by Mikhail I. Artamonov, in Acta
Archaeologica Hungarica (Budapest), 1956, vol. 7, pp. 321-341.

"Sarkel - Belaya Vezhya" by Mikhail I. Artamonov, part of "Trudy
Volgo-Donskoy Arkheologicheskoy Ekspeditsyi" vol. 1, in Materialy i
issledovaniya po arkheologii CCCP, no. 62 (Moscow-Leningrad), 1958.

"Krepostnie sooruzheniya Sarkela" by Pavel A. Rappoport, part of "Trudy
Volgo-Donskoy Arkheologicheskoy Ekspeditsyi" vol. 2, in Materialy i
issledovaniya po arkheologii CCCP, no. 75 (Moscow-Leningrad), 1959.

Khazarskaya
krepost' Sarkel - a brief Russian history of Sarkel

"The Jews of
Khazaria" by Kevin Brook contains information on the Sarkel Fortress as
well as other fortresses and cities in Khazaria.

An Introduction to the
History of Khazaria

Khazaria Image
Gallery

Khazar Burial Mounds
at Chastiye Kurgany

Khazar-Era Fortress of
Golden Hills (Zolotiye Gorki)

Bibliography of
Khazar Studies, 1901-Present

Medieval Quotes About
Khazar Judaism

The Kuzari's
References to the Khazar Conversion to Judaism

Current Issues in
Khazar Studies

Are Russian Jews
Descended from the Khazars?

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