Studies on the location of fort Chaussky

This article provides the overview of the written sources on Fort Chaussky, and discusses geophysical and archaeological data on the site. Currently, there are several descriptions of Fort Chaussky, founded in the Upper Ob region in 1713, including the petition of1714 to Tsar Peter I from the Tomsk nobleman D. Lavrentiev, travel notes by foreign (John Bell, 1720) and Russian (S.L. Vladislavich-Raguzinsky, 1726) diplomats, and descriptions left by the members of scholarly expeditions (D.G. Messerschmidt, 1721; G.F. Miller, 1734, I.G. Gmelin, 1741; I.P. Falk, 1771, and P.S. Pallas, 1772). Information on fortifications ofFort Chaussky from the written sources reveals different features of these structures in the first quarter of the 18th century. Thus, in 1714 the walls of the fort were described as logwork (taras), and in 1720 as vertically dug logs (tyn). There are also discrepancies in the location of fort entrance towers in the first quarter of the 18th century. According to report of I.G. Gmelin from 1741, the towers were located at the southern and northern walls of the fort, whereas according to the list of repairs of the fort from 1743 entrance towers were located at the northern and eastern walls. In the late 18th century, in the final period of the fort, the remains of the walls were already described as fence. Inconsistency of this data may reflect various construction periods of Fort Chaussky. Earthworks (ditch) around the fort were described in the written sources with less contradictions. Geophysical field survey has made it possible to identify the southwestern section of the ditch which is promising for archaeological excavations.