Is it true that Derbent is 5000 years old?

In June 2023, at the instigation of Vladimir Putin, the leadership of Dagestan decided to add age to one of the oldest cities in Russia. We checked how justified this decision is.

On June 28, during his trip to Derbent, Russian President Vladimir Putin at least twice spoke out on the topic that the city, which recently celebrated its 2000th anniversary, is actually two and a half times older.

Two days later, the head of Dagestan Sergei Melikov stated: “You probably heard how Vladimir Vladimirovich spoke enthusiastically about Derbent live and even corrected me when I reported on the celebration of the city’s 2000th anniversary. The President emphasized that it is probably worth turning to another historical date and milestone and considering that Derbent is 5,000 years old. We took this as an instruction, and I congratulate all Dagestanis and even all Russians on the fact that we now have a city with a 5,000-year history. Derbent is truly the cradle of world and Russian history.”

Derbent, located on the shores of the Caspian Sea, in Media and popular literature is often called the oldest city in Russia. And this has its reasons. According to official website Derbent, first settlement Kura-Araxes culture appeared here in the Early Bronze Age - at the end of the 4th millennium BC. e. (that is, exactly 5000 years ago), “which is confirmed by the conclusion of the Russian Academy of Sciences (probably meaning the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). - Ed.) dated December 4, 2010, signed by Academician-Secretary Derevyanko." The first fortifications, according to the city website, appeared on Derbent Hill in the 8th–7th centuries BC. e.

Nevertheless, even in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (3rd edition, 1969–1986) it says about the Persian citadel built in the 5th century, which consisted of the Naryn-Kala fortress and two walls stretching to the Caspian Sea. It is from this moment that the compilers of the TSB count the existence of the city.

Putin, who in 2023 claimed that Derbent is 5,000 years old, previously had a completely different opinion. On November 21, 2012, he signed the presidential decree about the celebration of the 2000th anniversary of the city - a celebration on a grand scale passed three years later.

What is the reason for such a discrepancy in information about the age of the city? The debate about this has been going on for several decades, and the course of the discussion is influenced by archaeological finds. It all started with expeditions Dagestan branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which began work in Derbent in 1971 under the leadership of Alexander Kudryavtsev and lasted until 1991. In 1987, researchers found terracotta figurine, which was called the “Derbent Madonna”. According to scientists, it was made at the turn of the 4th–3rd millennia BC. e., that is, about 5000 years ago. And although the figurine was discovered in the cultural layer of the 1st–3rd centuries AD. e., it and several other finds (stone grain grinders and a hammer ax) allowed scientists to assume that a settlement existed here long before that.

Thanks to the finds of archaeologists under the leadership of Kudryavtsev, Derbent was included on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Professor Kudryavtsev himself in 2023 welcomed the decision of the authorities to reconsider the age of the Dagestan city, for which they fought for many years.

However, based on the results of excavations, the approximate time of the founding of Derbent was declared to be the 1st century AD for a reason. e. The reason for this decision has been repeatedly discussed told participant of that expedition, and since 1996 - leader of the next one, Doctor of Historical Sciences and head of the archeology department of the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Dagestan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences Murtazali Gadzhiev. According to him, there is no dispute among scientists about the age of Derbent; a consensus has been generally reached in the academic community. The discussion, Hajiyev believes, is taking place among non-professionals - officials, bloggers and journalists, reflecting certain interests and public opinions. Several years ago, in an interview with Kommersant, Gadzhiev said that he encountered a lot of speculation about the age of Derbent, and saw this as politicization and nationalization of the issue.

Indeed, in the second half of the 1980s, in the Naryn-Kala fortress, an expedition led by Alexander Kudryavtsev (Gadzhiev was his deputy) found the remains of three dugouts with ceramics and stone objects of the Early Bronze Age, the so-called Kuro-Araxes archaeological culture (IV-III millennium BC). This proves that people lived on this site approximately 5,000 years ago. However, as Gadzhiev says, the principle on the basis of which the age of a particular settlement is determined is the chronological continuity of its development. And the ancient settlement of Derbent has been continuously developing over the past 2000 years, from the 1st century AD. e. Between the settlement that Kudryavtsev discovered and the above-mentioned one, the chronological gap is almost 3000 years. Over more than 40 years of excavations, archaeologists have not found any traces of life in this place during the specified period. The exception is several Scythian arrowheads (VI-V centuries BC), which do not yet indicate that there was a settlement at this place.

Nevertheless, in the public, non-scientific field, the principle of settlement continuity was poorly observed even in Soviet times. When Alexander Kudryavtsev suggestedthat Scythian arrows can be associated with information about the campaign of this tribe at the end of the 8th - beginning of the 7th century BC. e. north along the Caspian Sea, and on the basis of this put forward the thesis about the 2700-year age of Derbent, this was perceived by the republican authorities as a fact. There were even anniversary icons and other paraphernalia.

At the same time, since the late 1980s, after new discoveries, the popularization of another idea began, about the 5000th anniversary of the city. In 1989, an illustrated guide was published under the editorship of Alexander Kudryavtsev.Derbent is 5000 years old" circulation of 50,000 copies.

And in June 2010 and... O. Mayor of Derbent Imam Yaraliev, having secured the support of the leadership of the republic, signed resolution on the celebration of the 5000th anniversary of the city, tentatively scheduled for 2013–2016. The idea was brought to the attention of then Prime Minister Putin, who supported undertaking. However, as mentioned above, the decree he signed in November 2012 after returning to the Kremlin contained a mention of “only” 2000 years.

The fact is that in the fall of 2010, as part of the preparation of a legislative act, the authorities sent a corresponding request to scientists. On behalf of the Department of Historical and Philological Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences compiled conclusion about the age of Derbent.

It especially emphasizes the fact that the continuous existence of the settlement on Derbent Hill has been proven only from the 1st century to the present day. In other words, scientists from the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences fully confirmed the words of their colleague Murtazali Gadzhiev.

Soon after this to a similar conclusion (“the settlement of the Early Bronze Age, whose age is about 5000 years, cannot serve as a source for determining the age of Derbent”) also came from the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It should be noted that, in addition to scientific literature, here the scientists relied on the above-mentioned document from the Institute of Archeology, as well as a brief historical certificate “The Age of Derbent”, compiled by Gadzhiev.

Finally, in my own conclusion Department of Historical and Philological Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (it is this authority that is referred to on the official website of Derbent) it is said that “there is not sufficient evidence of the development of a settlement in this place in the 3rd–2nd millennia BC. e.”, and “the question of the existence of a settlement complex on the territory of modern Derbent in the 5th–1st centuries BC. e. remains controversial."

Thus, three divisions of the Russian Academy of Sciences immediately came to the conclusion in 2010 that there is no reason to call Derbent a 5,000-year-old city, and this led to an adjustment in the presidential decree two years later. There is no doubt that the first settlement on the site of the city actually arose 5,000 years ago.

The condition of continuity of development, voiced by academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences regarding Derbent, was not a new word in science; a similar approach is accepted everywhere. So, on the territory of Moscow exist remains of Iron Age settlements (1st millennium BC), but the history of the city count down since 1147, when the settlement was first mentioned in the chronicle. People lived in the area of ​​modern Saratov at least 4,000 years ago, but in discourse The age of the city is mentioned at best from the 12th to 14th centuries and Slavic settlers. On the territory of Kazan found the remains of a settlement, which, according to various estimates, is from 10,000 to 12,000 years old, but even the age of the city at 1000 years (the anniversary was celebrated with pomp in 2005) is disputed by many scientists.

Here are a few more examples from the history of other cities in the world, when the date of the city’s founding is taken to be the time of the appearance of a continuous settlement, although archaeologists have also discovered ancient traces of life activity in this place.

Thus, 3000 BC. e. as a starting point for the history of Derbent does not correspond to modern scientific standards and is not consistent with the generally accepted practice of determining the age of settlements.

Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons

Not true

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