Emergence and development of the Uybat town (Khakassia). The town-forming role of temples in the middle of the 8th - early 13th centuries

In 1971-1981 L. R. Kyzlasov discovered two early medieval urban centers on the Middle Yenisei in Khakassia. He excavated these sites and examined monumental Manichaean temples, sanctuaries and monasteries of the 8th - 13th centuries. Of special interest is a concentration of sacral constructions in the Uybat town located at a distance from rivers (Figs. 1-3), and the location of the temple and the monastery quarter and its layout which made it isolated from the residential and production areas (Fig. 3) of the geometrically regular town (Figs. 4; 5) built around the sacral ensemble. The archaeological excavations demonstrate that this town and the monastery-temple center existed for at least 400 years, with the temple and the urban culture of the southern Siberian community developing around and near it.