Sarai-Berke

Sarai-Berke 

(Novyi Sarai [New Sarai]; now the village of Tsarev, Leninsk Raion, Volgograd Oblast), a city and capital of the Golden Horde, built in Berke Khan about 1260.

Sarai-Berke reached its zenith in the first half of the 14th century. After 1361 it was captured several times by pretenders to the throne of the khanate. In 1395 it was destroyed by Tamerlane. Excavations were carried out in Sarai-Berke by A. V. Ter-eshchenko from 1843 to 1851, by F. V. Ballod in 1922, and by G. A. Fedorov-Davydov from 1959 to 1967.

REFERENCES

Grekov, B. D., and A. Iu. Iakubovskii. Zolotaia Orda i eepadenie. Moscow-Leningrad, 1950.
Ballod, F. V. Staryi i Novyi Sarai, stolitsy Zolotoi Ordy: Rezul’taty ark-heologicheskikh rabot letom 1922. Kazan, 1923.
Fedorov-Davydov, G. A. “Raskopki Novogo Saraia ν 1959–1962 gg.” Sovetskaia arkheologiia, 1964, no. 1.
Fedorov-Davydov, G. A. “Novyi Sarai po raskopkam 1963–1964 gg.” Sovetskaia arkheologiia, 1966, no. 2.