11. The Central Bazaar in the City of Bolgar on the Volga
Archaeology, Politics and Islamicate Cultural Heritage in Europe - David J. Govantes-Edwards
Vladimir Koval [+ ]
Russian Academy of Sciences
Denis Yurievich Badeev [+ ]
Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Description
The city of Bolgar was active between the 10th and the 15th centuries, acting as the capital of the Golden Horde Empire between the second half of the 13th and the early 14th centuries. The population of the city was multi-ethnic and multi-confessional, but the Islamic component was dominant. The city comprised wooden houses and approximately 20 public stone and brick buildings (mosques, baths, mausoleums). During the excavations of 1989-1990 and 2011-2016, the remains of a stone-and-brick central bazaar, similar to Middle-Eastern examples, occupied by merchants who specialised in luxury goods (including textiles from Flanders and China), were investigated. The bazaar was built in the 1350’s and collapsed after a fire in the 1360s-1370s.