244 CHAPTER 5
antique tradition does not refer only to Byzantium or Rome, but also to the
Caucasus and Persia, including Middle Asia.86
Brick construction is not reason enough to suspect a direct influence from
Byzantium. The bricks used in the construction of Sarkel differ in size from the
Byzantine ones, but are similar to those from the Caucasus and Middle Asia.87
The theory, according to which Sarkel and all the other fortresses were erected
by Byzantine builders, is rejected by M. Artamonov88 and V. Flerov.89 According
to V. Flerov, Semikarakorsk and Sarkel harbor both southern (Transcaucasian)
parallels of the fortress construction in Khazaria, without actually associating them with
the Byzantine tradition (Afanas’ev 1984b, 46–48 and 54).
86 On the building traditions of Middle Asia, see Belenitskii, Bentovich, and Bol’shakov 1973.
87 The main dimensions of the bricks in Sarkel are 25×25 and 27×27 cm, although there are
also larger ones—30×30 and 34×34 cm (Artamonov 1958, 28; Pletneva 1996, 16). The bricks
from the Semikarakorsk hillfort are similar in size—25×25 and 26×26 cm (Flerov 2001,
61 and 2002, 157). The same brick sizes can be found in several centers in Volga Bulgaria
(25–27×25–27 cm in Biliar, Suwar, the Khulash hillfort and the Murom Township), with
the bricks in Suwar also reaching 30–31 cm. During the ninth and tenth centuries, the
bricks typical for Middle Asia ranged from 29x29 cm to 25–29 cm (the same 29 cm ones
can be found in the Murom Township), in contrast to earlier traditions which dictated
larger bricks with sides that reached 50–55 cm. In the Caucasus, the common brick size
was 26–27 cm. (Davlenshin 1990, 41; Matveeva and Kochkina 2005, 26 and 30). Bricks,
used in the Tsimliansk hillfort, ranged from 40x20x10 cm to 37×38×8, etc. (Flerov 2002,
160). The same bricks can be found in Samkerts—40×20×6–7 cm, as well as in various for-
tresses in Dagestan: the Sigitma, Shelkovsk, Nekrasovka and other hillforts, where brick
size was generally 40×20×10 cm (Pletneva 2000b and 2003, 172). Bricks ranging in size from
40×20×10 cm to 43×23×10 cm can also be found among the Uyghur hillforts of Middle Asia
(Kyzlasov 1959, 69). In Samosdelka, the bricks are not only 20×21 and 26×27 cm in size, but
also 39–40×8–9 cm (Zilivinskaia, Vasil’ev, and Grechkina 2006, 29). Similar sizes, 40×40×9
cm, as well as bricks with sides of 28×28 to 33x33 cm, can be found in the “marsh hillforts”
along the lower reaches of the Syr Darya River, associated with the Oghuz (Tolstov 1947a,
60–62). The size 40x40x10 cm is also typical for ancient Khwarezm (Tolstov 1948b, 91 and
119; Vainberg 1990, 133). Flerov 2002, 158 sees a close likeness to the brick construction of
Sarkel and Semikarakorsk in the Oren-Kala hillfort in Azerbaijan, which had a square
ground-plan and where many of the used bricks were 24 cm and 28 cm in size.
88 Artamonov 1958, 25–26 and 1962, 301–302.
89 Flerov 1991, 166–168 and 2001, 68. Of special interest is the research of Chobanov 2008,
152–153 and 164. He assumes that the construction of the walls of Pliska, Preslav and
Sarkel was done with the help of the Iranian measurement system. This indicates that
“Sarkel, as well as the Lower Danube cities were built by the same workers or in the very
least by workers that worked within a common building tradition”. Thus, the proximity of
the Saltovo culture to the culture of pagan Bulgaria indicates “a common building tradi-
tion, shared by Bulgars and Khazars, which was based on Caucasian practices from the