Carved Stones of Chufut-Kale Ancient Fortified Settlement

Attribution of the spolias originating from the excavations of the mosque of the Chufut-Kale ancient fortified settlement is the task and theme of this work. Excavations of the mosque of the 15th century on the site of the Chufut-Kale (Kirk-Er) situated in the South-Western part of the Crimea, conducted in 1928–29 and its further investigation in 1956–59 (U.A. Bodaninsky, B.N. Zasypkin, O. Akchokrakly, E.Weimarn) revealed a number of spolias with ornamental carving that were used as building blocks and architectural details. Among them: blocks with a stylized vegetative and geometric decor ornamenting the casing of the entrances of Muslim religious buildings used in the masonry of the mosque, stalactite conchs of mihrab and side niches of the portal, a capstone, details of portal decor in the form of relief sockets on blocks, as well as fragments of cornices with stalactite and palmetto cutting. In addition to smooth blocks, in the masonry of the walls of the mosque, there were found details with traces of a skived ornamental decoration and epigraphic inscriptions. On one of them, inserted in the masonry of the northern wall of the mosque, there was an Arabic inscription with the date of 746 AD (1346), which, presumably, corresponds to the date of the initial construction of the mosque, which survived a number of rebuildings. The donors of the spolias were Muslim religious buildings - durbe, mosque, madrasah, built in the middle of the XIV century, during the initial period of settling the settlement by the Muslim population.