Issues:
Sections:
Issue 97
HISTORY, ARCHAEOLOGY, ETHNOGRAPHY
UDK: 94(470.67)
THE KUYADA HAMLETS AS A RELICT OF MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENT PATTERNS
KHAPIZOV Shakhban Magomedovich,
KHIRACHIEV Magomed M.
The Kuyada community represents a unique example of the preservation of an early medieval settlement model characteristic of Highland Daghestan. Unlike most Avar villages, where consolidation into large auls occurred (XIV-XV centuries), Kuyada retained a decentralized structure of 67 hamlets without a single center. The Kuyada hamlets appear not as a new phenomenon, but as a relict of the medieval settlement system, preserved due to a unique combination of geographical, economic, and social factors. Their structure reflects archaic features of Daghestani society: the tukhum (clan) organization, economic autonomy, and adaptation to the challenges of the time. This makes Kuyada a valuable object for studying the evolution of the settlement structure in Daghestan. The reasons for the original settlement structure of the Kuyada hamlets are seen in a number of circumstances. Firstly, economic specialization related to the development of metallurgy and woodworking required a dispersed population for efficient resource use. Secondly, geographical isolation played a role; location in a hard-to-reach basin contributed to the preservation of archaic forms of social structure. Thirdly, historical processes were significant, as legends associate the disintegration of the central settlement of Rosol with a plague epidemic (XVII century) and internal conflicts, leading to migration to the hamlets. Archaeological data (cemeteries from the V-XIV centuries) and ethnographic research confirm the antiquity of this system, ruling out its late origin.
Pages: 63 - 71
Date: 30.08.2025