ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN KHIVA IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY UP TO THE REVOLUTION: HISTORY AND RESULTS

The article examines the initial, pre-revolutionary stage of the archaeological study of the medieval architectural monuments of Khiva. The aim of the study is to reconstruct the chronology of the expeditions of the second half of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, to determine their methodological features and to assess their scholarly results. The analysis shows that the study of the region began after its inclusion into the Russian Empire and was carried out simultaneously in the architectural and the archaeological perspective, frequently by the same researchers, both military and civil officials. Four groups of results are distinguished: the first photographic documentation of the monuments (1858), the first descriptions of the ruins of Ichan-Kala (P.I. Lerkh, 1867–1870), systematic historical and geographical generalisation (N.I. Veselovsky, 1877) and the combination of written sources with field observation (V.V. Barthold, 1893–1894). The main methodological limitation of the period is identified: description and collection prevailed over stratigraphic excavation.