86 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. IIO 



interruption on the right bank of the Don River, 8 kilometers below 

 Tsymlianskaia Cossack settlement. This gorodishche was located on 

 a platform, 70.0 m. above the river level, formed by the delta of two 

 ravines. This highly fortified gorodishche, commanding the important 

 waterway connecting the steppes with the cities beside the Sea of 

 Azov and the Black Sea and with the Caspian by way of the Volga, 

 existed from the eighth-tenth centuries. 



Three cultural levels were uncovered. The lowest stratum was 

 well preserved because of a sterile layer (clay floor of a building) ; 

 the few finds included iron slag, bones of animals, and some hand- 

 made pottery. Of particular interest were the remains of a dwelling 

 of the semidugout type, probably a conical structure of yurt type. 

 The lower part consisted of an oval pit (2.5 x 1.8 m.), plastered with 

 clay on the walls and the floor, and with a round hearth pit at the 

 north wall. Hand-made pottery, largely flat-based pots with slightly 

 convex walls and sharply flaring lips decorated with notches of the 

 type known from Maiatskaia settlement, was found both inside and 

 outside the dwelling. 



The second period is represented by ruins of brick and mortar 

 buildings, very similar to those of the left-bank site where stands the 

 Sarkel gorodishche. 



To this period also belong the remains of strong fortress walls, 

 4.5 m. thick with round towers, built of dressed white limestone. 



The finds of the three upper levels are very closely related. The 

 pottery, almost entirely wheel-made, was represented by the following 

 types: (a) pots with incised linear and wavy ornament; (b) various 

 shapes of polished ware of Saltovo type; (c) egg-shaped amphorae; 

 and (d) unornamented well-made pots of hard gray clay. 



This second period was also characterized by a profusion of iron 

 objects including arrowheads and spearpoints, bits and stirrups, and 

 various implements such as knives, fragments of buckets, sickles, axes, 

 fishhooks, and others. Among personal ornaments were beads, frag- 

 ments of metallic mirrors, an earring, and several belt buckles. All 

 pottery and objects from this period have analogies in the finds from 

 the Saltovo and Maiatskaia sites and burials. The existence of the 

 second period was terminated by the destruction of the fortifications. 

 In the third period the building materials from these fortifications 

 were widely utilized in construction. This destruction could have 

 occurred during the capture of the Khazar city of Belaia Vezha by 

 Sviatoslav Igorevich, Prince of Kiev, in the year 965, as recorded 

 in one of the old Russian chronicles. This identification of the right- 

 bank site with the Belaia Vezha city had been anticipated by M. T. 

 Artamanov. 



