The “Internal” Ethnic Communities in Khazaria 245
and Byzantine-Crimean building traditions; in his opinion it is also possible
that fortress construction with bricks first came to the Don Region from Itil.90
S. Pletneva believes that the building tradition of Sarkel and Semikarakorsk
stems from the Caucasus, particularly from Dagestan and Caucasian Albania.
She presumes that it was through Albania that the building practices, typical
for Sassanid Iran and reflected in the construction of Sarkel, entered Khazaria.91
Wall construction using panzer technique was widespread in the Caucasus,
the Northern Black Sea region, the Middle East and Middle Asia between the
fourth and the seventh centuries. In Dagestan, it was used from the late fourth
or fifth century, during the Albano-Sarmatian period (i.e. after the influx of
Sarmatian (Late-Sarmatian) population there). In the lands of the Alans in the
North Caucasus stone fortifications built with this technique were erected en
masse at the end of the sixth and during the seventh century (prior to that,
large-area earthen fortifications were used). During the ninth and the tenth
centuries, some fortresses (such as Gornoe Ekho) entered a new building
period, which is associated with the influx of Bulgar population that fulfilled
the function of a local garrison. It is during this period that the Khumar hill-
fort was built, and also inhabited by Bulgars. The arrival of Bulgars and the
erection or restoration of fortresses is an expression of the khaganate’s policy.
The spread of Byzantium’s influence and building traditions (the presence of
Byzantine construction workers) in Alania refers to the time after Khazaria’s
defeat in the 960s and is typical for the period between the tenth and the thir-
teenth centuries.92
During the Khazar period, the old fortresses in Dagestan were reconstructed
and new ones were built. That was also the time when a new building tech-
nique was introduced in this region—alternating layers of rammed clay (pisé)
with brick layers. This technique is used in Transcaucasia (it has also been
found in the lower layers of Derbent), but is typical for Middle Asia, where it
is widespread.
The walls of Afrasiab (Samarkand) are also built with this technique, as well
as those of Panjakent and Varakhsha, whose bricks are similar in size to the
ones used in the Terek-Sulak Interfluve.
Sassanid era [.. .] the workers that erected the various monuments (the ones in Danube
Bulgaria and those in the Khazar Khaganate) adhered to a common building tradition”.
90 Flerov 2002, 168.
91 Pletneva 1967, 44; Pletneva 1976, 50–51; Pletneva 1996, 20; Pletneva 1999, 53–54 and 86–89.
92 Magomedov 1983, 137–138; Gadzhiev 2002, 29 and 152–153; Arzhantseva 2007a, 75–76 and
2007b, 61–63; Bidzhiev 1984; Afanas’ev 1993, 139–140.