The Samara University turned to implementation of a large international archaeological project in the framework of which the researchers of Russia and Uzbekistan would analyze various aspects of the political and military situation and the social and economic environments in Eurasia as it had been in the end of the 14th century and would try to define the exact place of a gory battle between the troops of Tokhtamysh, a Khan of the Golden Horde, and Amir Timur from Central Asia — one of important battled for the Russian history. 

That large-scale battle, which, according to the historians, marked the start of a decline of the Golden Horde era and enabled strengthening and ascent of the Grand Principality of Moscow, occurred in 1391 on the territory of today’s Samara Region; however, scientists have not yet been able to establish where exactly the battlefield lay, and offer widely different versions. The scientists have a few years to conduct a series of archaeological expeditions and excavations, to re-establish the details of Amir Timur’s military campaign against Khan Tokhtamysh and to determine the exact place of the battle. 

“A new international pilot project for exploration of Amir Timur’s military campaign in Desht-i-Kipchak in 1391 started in the Samara Region. In the framework of the interdisciplinary historical and archaeological research it is planned to find the places of avantgarde and rearguard actions, the exact place of a decisive battle between the troops of Amir Timur and Tokhtamysh, a Khan of the Golden Horde, the places of bivouacs and military camps of those two huge armies. The decisive battle took place on the territory of today’s Samara Region on June 18, 1391, and it seems to me that it is symbolic that the project is launched straight after another anniversary of the battle. We kind of render a tribute to the historical memory of the event that directly provoked a change of the political map of Eurasia and had a great importance for the future establishment of the Russian nationhood,” Sergey Zubov, a Head of the R&D Archaeological Laboratory of the Samara University, Director of the Research and Education Center of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Volga-Ural Region, said.

The project is implemented by universities and academic institutions of Uzbekistan and various Russian regions, including the Scientific Research Institute for the Study of the Problems of Cultural Heritage Objects and Tourism Development under the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Uzbekistan; the Shahrisabz State Museum-Reserve; the Institute of History named after Shigabutdin Marjani and the Institute of Archaeology named after Alfred Khalikov of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, as well as the Kurgan State University and the Ufa University of Science and Technology. As Sergey Zubov emphasized, the Samara University serves as the main organizer and coordinator of this international interdisciplinary research. At the recent meeting of the Scientific and Technical Council of the University, the interdisciplinary researches in archaeology received a priority in the academic and educational dimension of the university activities, so implementation of that project would receive the utmost support. 

The initial stage of the project suggests making a general plan of works on the project, establishment of the main areas of research, development of a comprehensive set of events for the entire project, generation of academic work groups out of the researchers from different countries, and many other things. The field reconnaissance (including one with the use of unmanned air drones and means of Earth remote sensing) will be arranged in four districts of the Samara Region — in the Sergievsky District, the Koshkinsky District, the Elkhovsky District, and the Krasnoyarsky District. The researchers will make the expedition routes and plans of archaeological excavations, and will define top priority points of the future field works. Apart from archaeologists and historians, the interdisciplinary project will involve chemists, optic physicists, geophysicists, biologists and specialists of other scientific fields.

There is a large instrumental base available for the researchers, including new equipment purchased at the end of last year with the funds obtained through the university’s participation in the Priority 2030 strategic academic leadership program. The new equipment includes a modern total station used by archaeologists to make a topographical plan and build a 3D models of the area, and copters for surveying and examining the excavation site from above. 

While looking for the place of battle the scientists will rely on hyperspectral remote sensing and laser scanning of the surface. A chemical soil test will also be performed — though more than six centuries have passed since the times of the battle, the researchers will try to identify quite a thin cultural deposit of military bivouacs and encampments with the chemists’ help. The armies of several thousand soldiers and their multiple herds of horses definitely left a trace that can be found through the change of the soil’s chemical compound to plan the archaeological researches based on all the applied naturalistic methods.

The project will be completed in 2028.
 
For reference:

* The Samara University is a participant of the Science and Universities National Project. 
** Desht-i-Kipchak (Polovitsan Steppe) is a historical region in Eurasia that constitutes a Great Steppe from the lower reaches of the Danube to the Irtysh River and the Balkhash Lake. 
*** In 1391, Timur went on a campaign against Tokhtamysh, who had previously launched a series of raids on Timur’s possessions. In June 1391, Timur’s army of 200,000 soldiers overtook the retreating Tokhtamysh in the territory of today’s Samara Region, and the famous battle took place, when the army of Tokhtamysh was defeated and the Khan himself fled. Four years later, Timur dealt a final blow to Tokhtamysh by defeating his army in a battle on the Terek River. 
According to written sources of the period, the battle of 1391 took place in the area called Kunduzcha; this name is unanimously interpreted by historians as the Kondurcha River. The Kondurcha River is about 300 km long and the exact location of the battle remains unknown. Some scientists believe that the battle took place between the Sok River and the Kondurcha River, others — that it occurred near the village of Stary Buyan in the Krasnoyarsk District, others — that it happened near the village of Koshki, the name deriving from the Turkic word “kosh” — “a camp of shepherds, a military camp.” No physical evidence of the battle has yet been found.
According to most historians, the defeats of Tokhtamysh in the battles of 1391 and 1395 were fatal for the Golden Horde and marked its decline and the start of fatal destruction of its nationhood at the edge of the 14th and 15th centuries. Such a new political reality lay a foundation for reinforcement and ascent of the Grand Principality of Moscow over the rest Eastern-Slavic principalities which served as a prerequisite of establishment of the united Russian state in the future.