Current Results of the Survey of Medieval Architectural Objects of the Village of Keshta

Tesaev Zelimkhan Adamovich Researcher, Institute of Humanitarian Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the Chechen Republic; Postgraduate, Integrated Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences 364001, Russia, Chechenskaya Respublika, g. Groznyi, bul. M. A. Esambaeva, 13 amin.tesaev@gmail.com Other publications by this author

         Over the past few years, the Chechen Republic has been actively working on the search, registration, restoration and reconstruction of individual monuments of historical and architectural heritage. In particular, the battle towers in the villages of Khaybakh (Nashkha), Kharkaroy; the mosque in the village of Makazhoy; residential towers in the village of Khoy; reconstructed battle towers in the villages of Khoy (Cheberloy), Sharoy (Sharoy-Mohk), Tsogunoy (Shatoy), etc. Some of the monuments were destroyed in various epochs – Shamil's rule, tsarist and Soviet years, as well as due to the fighting in recent years. However, the oral tradition strongly connects the destruction of some structures with the campaigns of the Asian conqueror – Timur-Leng, or Tamerlane.

Chechen narratives and legends tell about Timur Barlas' campaign in mountainous Chechnya in 1395-1396, which is confirmed by both written sources and research ^{[1, pp. 123, 183; 2, pp. 85-91]}. In particular, the story from the lost narrative "Kitab" about the events unfolding in the area of Zumsoy is given in detail. What is noteworthy, according to this source, here, on the site of the modern village of Keshta, there was a large fortification, which became the object of our attention. The garrison of this fortification, according to the Kitab, for three days offered fierce resistance to the conqueror. According to the source, Timur was forced to use stone throwers to destroy the fortress. According to informants, this building was a barracks fortification with a stone fence (wall). The current tower village of Keshta was built precisely on the ruins of the destroyed fortification, using the stone of the destroyed buildings ^{[3, p. 32]}. Moreover, according to the materials collected by the staff of the Argun State Historical, Architectural and Natural Museum-Reserve, it was from here, from Zumsoy, that a detachment led by Irdig arrived first to help the Chechens defending at the entrance to the Argun Gorge. As the legend tells, Irdig, or Idig, having replaced the dying local leader Kalo, took his sword and became a new military commander, leading the further defense of the gorge (transmitted from the words of a hundred-year-old elder Shamad Espiev from Zumsoy) ^{[4, p. 91]}.

Thus, oral reports and narratives claim that the ancient military center of the Chechens was located within the borders of the modern village of Keshta along the BIavn-duk ridge (lit.: Tower Ridge). A well-known Chechen local historian, elder S. D. Gaev (born in 1939) also claimed (recorded by us in the village of Gekhi-Chu in 2013) about the location of a center or "Spartan school" in Zumsoy, where young people from all over the country received military training. Here, according to A. S. Suleymanov, dozens of combat and residential towers with hidden water pipes were located before ^{[5, pp. 187, 194]}. The same ethnographer testified that the length of one of the fortresses on the crest of the BIavn-Duk ridge reached up to 30, and the width – up to 10 meters ^{[5, p. 187]}. In particular, he writes: "BIavn duk ... "Tower ridge" is a high ridge with a sharp ridge … According to the stories of old-timers, dozens of combat and residential towers stood on the crest of this ridge, and one residential tower had impressive dimensions for mountain conditions: up to thirty meters long and up to ten meters wide. It resembled a barracks for troops in size, had three floors and loopholes. One wall remaining from this grandiose structure still stands on the crest of the Biavn-duk ridge. At the base of this ridge on the slope of Selin-lam is the ancient village of Kashta, on the right bank of the river Kashta-erk, and on the left bank is the village of Guida, a little higher – Desh-khelli" ^{[5, p. 187]}.

Today from the aforementioned fortification (barracks?) a wall about 15 meters high has been preserved, on a cliff near the Keshta-erk river. Informants claim that the roof of the building stretched to the foot of the Ginzar-Duk ridge (i.e. about 400 meters long) ^{[3, p. 28]}, which, at first glance, contradicts the data of A. S. Suleymanov. However, our survey of local facilities suggests that we are talking about the whole tower complex, and not about one building. At least, we – M. S. Muradov, R. M. Khadzhieva, M.-A. S. Umarkhadzhiev and the author of the article – conducted reconnaissance work on February 23, 2020 and marked the coordinates of the points where we found traces of the stone foundation of the walls or the fortification wall (along the perimeter of the village of Keshta). The detected points were plotted on a satellite map and showed six main foci: the first cluster was identified in the area of the cliff, where the preserved part of the wall of the ancient fortress stands (42°45'6.06"C; 45°40'53.25"C); the second and third – northeast (like all other foci stretching in this direction), up the BIavn-Duk ridge (42°45'7.61"C; 45°40'53.96"C and 42°45'7.53"C; 45°40'55.56"C); the fourth is at the beginning of the current tower village of Keshta (42°45'9.57"C; 45°41'1.01"C); the fifth – to the side of the center of the village (42°45'11.85"C; 45°41'3.97"C); finally, the sixth – at the foot of the Ginzar-Duk ridge (42°45'13.15"C; 45°41'7.77"C).

Judging by the discovered ruins, the once wider BIavn-Duk ridge was destroyed over the years from the northeast by the flows of the Keshta-erk river, which eroded it and destroyed the fortress structure, and from the south by the flows of the Zumsoy-erk river. The discovered "foci" indirectly confirm the informants' information about the extent of the ancient fortification (complex) along the entire BIavn-Duk ridge up to the foot of the Ginzar-Duk ridge. In addition, the obtained points were connected by a conditional polyline to visualize the assumed outline of the desired object (see Fig.).

         There are other signs (besides the wall) confirming the data of Kitab and informants about the existence of an architectural complex here once - a contemporary of Timur. When examining the walls of the residential towers of the village of Keshta, a stone with an inscription was found, which, as it turned out later, was composed in the early medieval Georgian handwriting of Asomtavruli and nushuri. According to the specialists of the Center of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic S. H. Isaev and A. U. Akhmarov, the text is deciphered as follows: "A. S. A. KH. Ts. L. A. T.". Regarding the semantics of the inscription, the authors suggest that "the phrase asa kha ts [a] lat [i] in translation from literary Chechen means "I did not make a hearth" (asa kha tsa lati) – it means that the author of the inscription did not leave offspring (perhaps we are talking about a monk)." Another reading option is also assumed: "asa ka ca lati" (I have not committed a sin) ^{[6, pp. 344-345]}. L. M. Ilyasov is more inclined to the latter option ^{[7, p. 227]}.

         A systematic review of medieval monuments of writing in Chechnya suggests that the handwriting of Asomtavruli and Nushuri was used by Chechens from the X, and asomtavruli continued to be used in the region in the XV century ^{[6, pp. 343, 345; 8, pp. 36-37; 9, pp. 209; 10, pp. 11-13; 11, p. 69]}. In this regard, attention is drawn to the inappropriate location of the mentioned stone on a blank wall, almost at ground level. Earlier we have already drawn attention to the fact that a fragment of an arched stone with petroglyphs on one of the local towers is also embedded in the blank wall of a residential tower almost at the base, which indicates its secondary use, moreover, not for its intended purpose. The same is true with a fragment of a window stone embedded in the corner of the tower (photographed by us in 2019; see photo) ^{[8, p. 37]}. At the same time, these facts correlate with the statement of informants about the construction of the towers of the village of Keshta from the material (stone) collected from the ruins of the Timur complex.

When further studying the objects of the tower village of Keshta, one should also take into account the consequences of the destruction of the soil over the centuries by mountain streams (a vivid example is given in the work of R. M. Vitaev) ^{[12, pp. 67-69]}, which explains the location of such a massive fragment of the sought barracks complex (the wall at the cliff) on a narrow, collapsed on three sides, strip of cliff between by the Keshta-erk and Zumsoy-erk rivers. Verbally, according to informants (Rukiyat Hadjieva tells from the words of his father, Mukhaddi Hadjiev, born in 1910, who transmitted from his father, Hadji, born in 1863), it is reported that over the past 150 years the gorge of the Zumsoy-erk river (into which the Keshta-erk flows) has deepened by about 20 meters. Be that as it may, this aspect plays an important role in studying the changes in the preservation of the object under study over the past centuries.

So, the current conclusions based on the results of the work carried out indicate that an architectural complex, separate buildings (barracks?) were really located along the length of the BIavn-Duk ridge, up to the foot of the Ginzar-Duk ridge in the early Medieval period (at least at the time of Timur's invasion). which, apparently, had an impressive size. Judging by historical data, the object was almost completely destroyed due to military operations (Timur's campaign of 1395-1396) and the subsequent impact of mountain streams of the rivers Zumsoy-erk and Keshta-erk (soil erosion), with the exception of the aforementioned fragment of the wall. The latter, as it is obvious, is under threat of complete destruction: we are already witnessing a partial collapse of masonry on the stone scattered on the south-western slope of the cliff where the monument is located. This circumstance, by the way, taking into account the historical and architectural value of the object, raises the question of the need for urgent soil-strengthening measures around the base of the wall in order to avoid its complete collapse.

The wall of the proposed barracks, ZumsA stone with an inscription in the wall of the tower of the village of Keshta

Arched stone in the tower wall

Fragment of a window stone in the corner of the tower

The points of the traces of the walls marked on the satellite map

A polyline drawn between the marked points

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