To the Early History of Bakhchisarai: Eski—Yurt

This paper has accumulated and systematized the experience of studying the settlement of Eski-Yurt as the largest Golden Horde centre on the Crimean Peninsula when the role of Solkhat as an economic, military, cultural, and administrative centre declined and the capital was transferred to the western Crimea. The research has used various groups of historical sources: travelogues of numerous voyagers who visited the Crimean Peninsula for personal or official purposes (Marcin Broniewski, F. Dubois de Montpéreux, Iakov Lyzlov, P. S. Pallas, S. I. Tarbeev, Evliya Celebi, and others), scholarly works of local researchers of the Crimean sites in the Golden Horde Period, particularly those who investigated the settlement of Eski-Yurt (A. S. Bashkirov, U. A. Bodaninskii, P. I. Gollandskii, B. N. Zasypkin, A. A. Ivanov, S. V. Karlov, V. P. Kirilko, and others), and the materials from the collections of central and departmental archival depositories. The experience of archaeological researches at the site (expeditions supervised by A. S. Bashkirov and U. A. Bodaninskii in 1924, V. L. Myts in 1991, and S. V. Karlov in 2005) is presented. The main stages of the researches at the site have been distinguished and analysed: 1) Late eighteenth to early twentieth centuries: sketches in travelogues of encyclopaedic scholars who visited the Crimea after its unification with Russia (P. S. Pallas, F. Dubois de Montpéreux, etc.); the first scholarly experience of exploration of the site by A. F. Negri, V. D. Smirnov, and others; 2) 1920s: the beginning of the archaeological studies of the settlement (the expedition of A. S. Bashkirov and U. A. Bodaninskii, 1924); the attempts of attracting attention of the government and public to the cultural heritage preservation in Eski-Yurt (the works of A. S. Bashkirov, U. A. Bodaninskii, P. I. Gollandskii, and B. N. Zasypkin); 3) current stage, or the last quarter of the twentieth century: the revival of the academic interest to the settlement (the works of A. A. Ivanov, V. P. Kirilko, O. M. Stoikova, M. M. Choref, and others); the continuation of the archaeological studies of the site (the expeditions of S. V. Karlov and V. L. Myts); state registration of the architectural and archaeological monuments of the settlement. The present state of the cultural heritage objects has been considered.