page_title: Arkaim
section_title: Structure of Arkaim
hierarchical_section_title: Arkaim / Structure of Arkaim
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Городище &#x22;Аркаим&#x22;: 10 км северо-западнее поселка, левый берег р.Большая Караганка, Амур, Брединский район, Челябинская область This is a photo of a cultural heritage object in Russia, number: 7410020000 This template and pages using it are maintained by the Russian WLM team. Please read the guidelines before making any changes that can affect the monuments database!
context_page_description: Arkaim is an archaeological site of an ancient fortified settlement, situated in the steppe of the Southern Ural, 8.2 km north-to-northwest of the village of Amursky and 2.3 km south-to-southeast of the village of Alexandrovsky in the Chelyabinsk Oblast of Russia, just north of the border with Kazakhstan. It was discovered in 1987 by a team of archaeologists led by Gennady Zdanovich, preventing the planned flooding of the area for the creation of a reservoir. Arkaim is attributed to the early Proto-Indo-Iranian of the Sintashta culture, which some scholars believe represents the proto-Indo-Iranians before their split into different groups and migration to Central Asia and from there to Persia and India and other parts of Eurasia.
context_section_description: Arkaim was a circular stronghold consisting of two concentric bastions made of adobe with timber frames, and covered with unfired clay bricks. Within the circles, close to the bastions, sixty dwellings stood, The dwellings had hearths, cellars, wells and metallurgical furnaces. They opened towards an inner circular street paved with wood. The street was lined by a covered drainage gutter with pits for water collection. At the centre of the complex was a rectangular open space. The complex had four entrances, consisting of intricately constructed passages and oriented towards the cardinal points. According to V. A. Shnirelman, @ All the evidence suggests that the settlement had been built to a common plan, which is indicative of a society with a developed social structure and local leaders with high authority."
  Scholars have identified the structure of Arkaim as the cities built "reproducing the model of the universe" described in ancient Aryan/Iranian spiritual literature, the Vedas and the Avesta. The structure consists of three concentric rings of walls and three radial streets, reflecting the city of King Yima described in the Rigveda. The foundation walls and the dwellings of the second ring are built according to what some researchers have described as swastika-like patterns; the same symbol is found on various artifacts.
  The fortified citadel of Arkaim dates back to the 17th and 16th century BCE.  More than twenty other structures built according to similar patterns have been found in a larger area spanning from the southern Urals' region to the north of Kazakhstan, forming the so-called "Land of Towns".
caption: View of the Arkaim site and the surrounding landscape
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