The Nur Fortress (Nurata) in Written Sources and Archaeological Research: Historical Background and Objectives of the 2024 Excavations

Abstract

The article examines the historical background of the Nur fortress, the ancient core of present-day Nurata in the Navoi region of Uzbekistan, on the basis of written sources, the history of archaeological research and the first results of the excavations carried out in May–June 2024 by the Samarkand Institute of Archaeology. The fortress, which covers about 2.5 hectares on a hill at the foot of the Nurata mountains, was the northernmost fortified town of Sogdiana and controlled the route linking the lower Zarafshan valley with the steppes of present-day southern Kazakhstan and Semirechye. The article summarises the results of earlier research by Ya. G‘ulomov, Kh. Mukhamedov and L. P. Smirnova, analyses the references to Nur in the works of Narshakhi and in the accounts of the Mongol conquest of 1220, and traces the political history of the town in the period of the Uzbek khanates and the Emirate of Bukhara up (CC to the late nineteenth century. It then sets out the objectives and methodology of BY) license the 2024 excavations, which for the first time combined area excavation in the citadel with stratigraphic trenches in the citadel and the town wall, and which yielded materials dating from the antique period (fourth–third centuries BC) to the nineteenth century.