The resistance to the planned expansion of the Ottoman Empire becomes in the second half of the 15^th century one of the key accents in the foreign policy of the states of the Northern Black Sea Coast and Eastern Europe. Traditionally, this historical problem is studied on the basis of written sources. However, the archaeological studies of the Mangup hillfort carried out in the last 50 years under the direction of A. G. Herzen provided, for the first time ever, the material evidence of the siege and taking by storm of the Principality of Theodoro’s capital in 1475. In the end, the systematic work carried out since the early 1970s has brought results. In the light of the traditional ways of studying the Mangup hillfort, the problem of the archeological context of the 1475 Turkish siege is one of the closest to solution to date. The identification of new objects and horizons directly or indirectly associated with the events of 1475, the opportunity of using the archaeological material in combination with written sources data made it possible to obtain a historical reconstruction of the last months of the life of the Principality of Theodoro’s capital. The results of studies have long gone beyond their use in the context of studying the Mangup fortressIt was on the basis of the data, obtained on Mangup, the materials from the Genoese fortresses of the southern coast of the Crimea captured by the Ottomans in June 1475, were analyzed. Not only did the results of such a comparison clarify the picture of the hostilities, but also helped to substantially clarify the reliability of the data of some written sources. All this ultimately allowed us to raise the veil of secrecy over the history of one of the important trends in the Ottoman Empire policy in the third quarter of the 15th century, i.e. the struggle against the Moldavian Principality, the seizure of the Genoese possessions and the Principality of Theodoro, as well as the subordination of the Crimean Khanate. The archaeological studies of monuments and artifacts associated with the events of the Ottoman siege and the assaults of Mangup in 1475 are divided into three chronological stages. This division is based on the final publications which reflect the analysis of the finds, with the subsequent historical reconstruction of the 1475 hostilities proposed.

Ruev Vladimir Leonidovich, Candidate of Sciences (History), Associate Professor, V. I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University; 4, Academician Vernadsky Avenue, Simferopol, Republic of Crimea, 295007, Russian Federation, e-mail: vl.ruev@gmail.com

Ruev V. L. Results of an Archaeological Study of the Ottoman siege of Mangup in 1475. Bulletin of the Irkutsk State University. Geoarchaeology, Ethnology, and Anthropology Series. 2018, Vol. 26, pp. 99–107. https://doi.org/10.26516/2227-2380.2018.26.99 (in Russ.)

Republic of Crimea, Principality of Theodoro, Mangup, Ottoman Empire, 1475, the 15^th century, Ottoman Turks

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