Chirik-Rabat

Chirik-Rabat

 

a settlement dating from the second half of the first millennium B.C., located in what is now the Kazakh SSR. The site is situated in the Kyzylkum Desert, on the dry riverbed of the Zhanadar’ia, 200 km southwest of the city of Kzyl-Orda. It was discovered and excavated by S. P. Tolstov in 1946 and 1948–49.

In the middle of the first millennium B.C., Chirik-Rabat was inhabited by one of the Massagetae tribes—probably the Apasiacae mentioned by Strabo. The fortifications were rebuilt in the typical Khwarazmian style shortly before the beginning of the Common Era. The settlement, built on an oval plan, is girdled by two rows of ramparts and walls made of mud bricks. The southeast section of the site has a rectilinear fortification characteristic of ancient Khwarazm. Cattle raising played a major role in the local economy.

REFERENCE

Tolstov, S. P. Po sledam drevnekhorezmiiskoi tsivilizatsii. Moscow-Leningrad, 1948.