The oldest settlement of Yamal's pioneers has been discovered after centuries of searching.
An archaeological expedition discovered the legendary Pantuyev town in Yamal, which scientists had been searching for for centuries. The unique pioneer settlement was found in the exact area indicated by ancient historical sources.
How scientists discovered Pantuyev town
The location of the town matched the travel notes of academician Gerhard Miller and the detailed drawings of cartographer Semyon Remezov. Excavations began last week near the mouth of the Aksarka River.
In addition, the special expedition included 12 people. Among them were students from the "School of Archaeologists" at the I.S. Shemanovsky Museum and Exhibition Complex, four professional archaeologists, and two volunteers.
Historical value and connection with Mangazeya
Pantuyev Gorodok (also known as Voksar-Vozh) is famous for being the place where the detachment sent to build Mangazeya waited out a severe storm in 1600. It was the first Russian city beyond the Arctic Circle and one of the largest fur trade centers in the 17th century. Specifically, the city was founded on the Taz River at the initiative of the tsarist government as a crucial staging post for advancing deeper into Siberia.
However, after the Tsar's official ban on fur exports by sea, Mangazeya gradually declined and disappeared. Eventually, Turukhansk (now Staroturukhansk), located to the east, became known as New Mangazeya.
Why couldn't the settlement be found for hundreds of years?
However, for centuries, researchers failed to find the Pantuyev settlement. Firstly, this was due to a severe shortage of archaeological specialists in Yamal. Secondly, there was a serious possibility that the Ob River had simply washed the settlement away along with its shore.
Before the current expedition, scientists re-analyzed historical sources, compared them with modern toponymy, and selected a large area for exploration. Now the archaeologists must collect a sufficient number of artifacts to definitively prove that the discovered settlement is indeed Voksar-Vozh.
