Arkaim

Arkaim (Russian Аркаим ) is an archaeological site in the southern Uralsteppe, 8.2 km north -northwest of Amurskiy and 2.3 km south- southeast of Alexandronvskiy, two villages in the Chelyabinsk Oblast, on the border between Russia and Kazakhstan.

The site, a settlement of the Andronovo culture, in general, to the 17th century BC. Other estimates suggest that Arkaim was built around 2000 BC.

Discovery and excavation

A group of scientists from Chelyabinsk, which should prepare for flooding the area in order to create a reservoir, discovered the place in 1987; the site was examined by emergency excavations under the leadership of Gennadii Zdanowitsch. First, the Soviet authorities ignored the findings and clung to the plan, the area - as previously Sarkel - flooding, but those plans had to withdraw eventually. Arkaim was declared a National Monument in 1991, and in May 2005, then-President of Russia Vladimir Putin visited the site.

Settlement

Although the settlement was burned and abandoned, preserved many details. Arkaim is much better preserved than the similarly designed, adjacent Sintaschta where the oldest chariots were unearthed. The site was protected by two circular walls. There was a central square surrounded by two spiral rings, separated by a road. In these rings, 30 houses have been discovered, which were all the same size.

The settlement covered approximately 20,000 m². The diameter of the enclosing walls was 160 m. They consisted of earth, which was packed in wooden frame and amplified by air-dried mud bricks. They were 4-5 m thick and 5.5 m high. A 2 m deep trench surrounded the settlement.

There were four entrances to the settlement by the outer and inner wall, with the main entrance on the west lay. The building had surfaces 110-180 m². The outer ring had 39 or 40 houses, whose orders were to the ring road in the center of the settlement; the inner ring consisted of 27 houses with doors on the 25 m by 27 m large square in the center. The main street was drained by a covered channel. Zdanowitsch estimates that in the settlement of 1500 to 2500 people could have lived.