In Astrakhan Region, archaeologists discover unique children's things in ruins of Golden Horde capital

During excavations of Sarai-Batu, the Golden Horde's capital, situated near the village of Selitrennoye of the Kharabali District of the Astrakhan Region, archaeologists from the cities of Astrakhan and Yoshkar-Ola discovered rare findings belonging to a medieval child.

"Such findings are relatively rare for the dwelling settlement of Selitrennoye," said Yuri Zeleneev, Senior Researcher of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), in his interview to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, and continued: "Look, here is a delicate thing – tuvak. In English – night children's pot. Apparently, it was intended for a child – it's too narrow and small. But, look, it had been done with such a love – we can see glaze inside it."

"The uniqueness of this finding is in the fact that we found it almost undamaged," continued the colleague's story PhD Evgeny Pigarev, the director of the historical-cultural centre "Sarai-Batu".

The Astrakhan archaeologist explained the principle of tuvak's usage: it had been inserted into a special hole in the cradle, using large pot rims to bind the pot.

Unique children's things were found during the excavations of a dwelling estate located near the steep bank of the Akhtuba River. At present, the river oxbow is located in this place. Showing the place of the excavations, Evgeny Pigarev explained that at the beginning of the XIV century a rich mansion house was situated in this place. Apparently, the found children's things belonged to the young occupants of this house. Later, for unclear reasons, the mansion house had been demolished and a dwelling estate occupied by a poor family appeared in its place. Most likely, bricks of the dismantled mansion house became the building material for the house construction.