Sarkel

Rouran epoch Göktürk epoch Uyghur epoch Kirghiz epoch

Rouran First Göktürk Tang rule Second Göktürk Uyghur Kirghiz Huns Western Göktürk Türgesh Karluk Khazar

Rouran 400–554
First Göktürk 552–630
Tang rule 630–682
Second Göktürk 682–744
Uyghur 744–840
Kirghiz 840–924
Huns 370–469
Western Göktürk 552–659
Türgesh 699–766
Karluk 766–800
Khazar 650–969

Sarkel was a fortress of the Khazars on the left bank of the Don, near Tsimlyansk.^[1] The Byzantines helped to build it in 838. It was meant to watch the Hungarians, who were entering the steppe north of the Black Sea, and the Pechenegs behind them.^[2]

Name

SarkilTurkic
aspron ospitionGreekDe administrando imperio
Belaya VezhaRussian

Sarkel is among the Khazar words that look Turkic. It is read Sarkel or Sarkil.^[3] If Sarkil is the right form, it could point to an Oguric language, but the evidence for that is open to several interpretations.^[4] The Byzantine emperor Constantine VII says that Sarkel means “white house” among the Khazars. He gives the Greek words aspron ospition.^[5] The Rus chronicle names a town Belaya Vezha, “white tower”, which is usually identified with Sarkel.^[6]

The building

Constantine VII tells the story in chapter 42 of De administrando imperio. The envoys of the khagan and of the bek of Khazaria asked the emperor Theophilos for a fortress.^[5] The emperor agreed. He sent the spatharokandidatos Petronas, called Kamateros, with warships of the imperial fleet, and the warships of the strategos of Paphlagonia went with them. Petronas came to Cherson and left the warships there. He took his men on ships of burden to the place on the Don where the fortress was to stand. The place had no stones, so he made kilns, burned bricks and built the fortress with them, using mortar made from tiny shells of the river.^[7] The garrison is 300 men, who are relieved every year.^[5] After the building Petronas went to Theophilos and told him to appoint his own military governor over Cherson and not to trust its leading men. Theophilos promoted Petronas to protospatharios and sent him out as military governor of Cherson.^[8]

The fortress was part of a Khazar and Byzantine system of defence.^[1] It had a deep moat, like other forts built in the area.^[1] Byzantine sources call it a bulwark against the attacks of the Pechenegs.^[1]

The year is not settled. Most accounts give 838. The older date is 833, and a later one, 839, has also been proposed.^[9]

Excavation and loss

The Soviet archaeologist Mikhail Artamonov made a first survey in 1929 and 1930. He excavated the site in 1934 to 1936 and again in 1949 to 1951, with the Volga-Don expedition. Less than a third of the site had been examined when the work stopped. The results appeared in 1958.^[10] According to Artamonov the bricks differ in size from the bricks of Byzantine buildings. The letters in runiform script, the symbols and the figures on them are very close to those on the bricks of Pliska, the capital of the Danubian Bulgars.^[11] He concludes that the Byzantines only supervised the work and that the labour and the technique came from the local Bulgaric population.^[11] The finds are also reported to include reused Byzantine columns.^[10]

In 1952 the filling of the Tsimlyansk reservoir put the site under water. Some accounts give 1953. No further excavation has been possible since.

A survey of 1989 names Sarkel among the find-places of runiform inscriptions in the Don region. The inscriptions are not deciphered.^[12]

Sviatoslav, 965

According to the Rus chronicle, Sviatoslav defeated the Khazars under their khagan in 965 and took their town of Belaya Vezha. He then subdued the Yas and the Kasogs and returned to Kiev.^[6] The chronicle does not record the fall of the Khazar capital.^[6] In 965 the Rus, allied with Oghuz, may have overrun Atil and perhaps Sarkel.^[13] A different account has the Rus take Sarkel in 965 and other enemies devastate Khazaria in 968.^[14]

The record

The sources for Sarkel are the Byzantine emperor’s account of its building, the Rus chronicle’s account of its end and the excavation of the 1930s and 1950s. The fortress itself now lies under the reservoir.

References

^ a b c d Sinor 1990, p. 267
^ Golden 1992, p. 239
^ Golden 1992, p. 234
^ Golden 1992, p. 235–236
^ a b c De administrando imperio; Porphyrogenitus 1967 (New Revised Edition; Greek text and English translation), p. 183
^ a b c Dunlop 1954, p. 241
^ De administrando imperio; Porphyrogenitus 1967 (New Revised Edition; Greek text and English translation), p. 183–185
^ De administrando imperio; Porphyrogenitus 1967 (New Revised Edition; Greek text and English translation), p. 185
^ Golden 1992, p. 239, 186, 67; Dunlop 1954, p. 239, 186, 67; Golden 1980, p. 239, 186, 67
^ a b Artamonov 1958
^ a b Golden 1980, p. 67–68
^ Bayçorov 1990, p. 13–14
^ Golden 1992, p. 243
^ Dunlop 1954, p. 243

Sources

De administrando imperio

Literature

Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
Peter B. Golden, Khazar Studies, Vols. I–II (1980)
Denis Sinor (ed.), The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia (1990)
M. I. Artamonov, Саркел – Белая Вежа (1958)
Douglas M. Dunlop, The History of the Jewish Khazars (1954)
Constantine Porphyrogenitus; Gyula Moravcsik (ed.); R. J. H. Jenkins (trans.), De administrando imperio (1967 (New Revised Edition; Greek text and English translation))
Soslanbek Y. Bayçorov, Avrupa’nın Göktürk Harfli Eski Anıtları. Göktürk Harfli Eski Yazının Kuzey Kafkasya, Volga-Don ve Tuna Bölgeleriyle İlişkisi (1990)