Arkaim a cu

The Designs
During the excavations of Arkaim no jewellery was found, no masterpieces of ancient art, no unknown writ-ings, nor other such treasures - only fragments of broken ceramic ware, bones of domestic and wild animals, an oc-casional stone tool and even more rare, bronze tools. But even those common things are not well presented at Arkaim. The collection of “artefacts” is so poor and unim-pressive, that it is not possible to make a museum exhibit appropriate to the site. Therefore, from the point of view of archeologists, the main value of the ruins was, and proba-bly will be, the design of the structures itself and their lay-out.
The structures were tall; they had solid walls, gallery ceilings, wood-paved roadways, second floors and high wooden towers. Nowadays, archeologists have a more complete picture of how the settlement in the Arkaim Valley looked at the time of its peak, and it is quite impressive. First of all it is important to emphasize the point that this large settlement was not a collection of separate struc-tures, but an all-inclusive design and construction. The total area extends to about twenty thousand square meters (twenty-four thousand square yards), and the settlement ground-plan is comprised of two circles, one inside the other, made of massive defensive walls.
The external wall is about 160 meters (500 feet) in di-ameter. It was surrounded by a ditch 2 meters (6.5 feet) wide, filled with water. The external wall is very massive, 5.5 meters (16 feet) high and five meters wide. It was con-structed of timbered cages filled with soil and added lime, and an outer facing of cob blocks. Four entries were desig-nated in the wall: the largest-one southwesterly and three smaller ones located on opposite sides.
Inside the city entrance is the only ring-shaped street, about 5 meters (18 feet) wide, that separates dwellings ad-joining the external wall from the internal ring-shaped wall. As mentioned above, the street had timbered flooring under which, along its full length, the 2 meter-wide (6 feet) ditch was dug which connected to the external ditch. Thus, the city had their storm water drain, the overflow of water
filtered through the timbered roadway into the ditch which then went into the external ditch.
Further on, we see the ring of the internal wall with a puzzling purpose. It is even more massive than the exter-nal wall, being 3 meters wide (9 feet) by 7 meters high (22 feet). This wall, according to excavation data, has no entry, except for a small doorway in the southeast which isolates the twenty-five internal premises from all the rest. To ap-proach the small entry in the internal ring, one had to go along the whole length of the ring-shaped street. This not only served defensive purposes, but also had a sacred meaning. To enter the city, one had to follow the Sun. Most likely, people who lived within the internal ring possessed something that was not meant to be seen even by those living in the external ring, let alone external observers.
The circles of the dwellings were divided into sectors by radial walls, spaced in between every two premises. In the plan they look similar to wheel spokes. There were thirty-five dwellings at the external wall and twenty-five dwellings at the internal one.
One end of every dwelling adjoined either the exter-nal or the internal wall, and faced either the main ring-shaped street or the central square. In an improvised hall there was a special water drain which went into the ditch under the main street. Yes, as we saw earlier, ancient Aryans had a water drain! Furthermore, each dwelling en-joyed a well, a furnace and a small dome-shaped storage place. From the well, above the water level, two earthen pipes branched off. One of them went to the furnace, an-other one to the dome-shaped storage place. What for? The most ingenious things are often simple. We all know that if one looks into a well one feels a flow of cool air. And so in the Aryan furnace, this cool air, passing through the earthen pipe, created a draught of such power, that they could mould bronze without use of bellows. It appears that each dwelling had such a furnace and ancient metal smiths only needed to perfect their skills to compete in this art. An-other earthen pipe provided air to the storage place, of a lower temperature than the ambient air: some type of a re-frigerator?
The central square that crowns Arkaim is approxi-mately 25 by 27 meters (82 by 88 feet). Judging by the remnants of the fire places which were situated in specific locations, this was the square to fulfill certain sacraments.
The complicated and well planned internal lay-out of dwellings and ring-shaped streets made a sophisticated trap for uninvited visitors, in the divide between the exter-nal defensive wall and other fortifications as well as an effi-cient storm water drainage system. Even the colors of the "facing materials" used by ancient Arkaim inhabitants were functionally and aesthetically significant.