In 2003 an international expedition headed by V.V.Klyuchnikov continued excavating the Khazar Time ancient settlement named Zolotyie Gorki (Golden Hills) of the lower Don territories. It focused its efforts on the north-western and south-western site sectors.
A children.s burial was cleared out in a trench of a 16 sq m area located in the north-western site sector. Finds: glass beads and a single copper coin.
Rock-beds of two houses were cleared out in a trench whose area made 128 sq m. in the south-western sector. The houses were preliminarily defined as dwelling or utility rooms. From the northern side these were enclosed in a stronger additional stone wall (120 – 140 cm wide). It is not inconceivable that the stronger wall, apart from its utility function, also served for the purposes of protection. Rather a strong mass of collapsed pieces of light-yellow raw bricks could be traced around the walls. We possibly face here raw-brick-and-stone constructions whose pedestals alone were made of stone.
It should be noted that there was no significant difference between the pottery debris found in the lower layer (the one underlying the houses foundations) and those of the upper layer (the one associated with the brick-and-stone constructions).
The results obtained during the 2003 works in the south-western site sector confirmed the geomagnetic prospecting data of 2002 with a high degree of accuracy. Another geomagnetic prospecting of a significant part of the site (in addition to the area of 2002) was carried out directly before the excavations of 2003.
During the works a private person gave the expedition as a gift an interesting collection of archeological artifacts presumably originating from the Zolotyie Gorki territory and its close vicinity. The collection included an expressive pottery series and a group of bronze artefacts. These articles give some ground to assume that the place was inhabited for quite a long period of time within the framework of the Saltovo-Mayatskaya culture.
A further archaeological study of the Zolotyie Gorki ancient settlement is undoubtedly promising. The discovered raw-brick-and-stone constructions are a phenomenon rather uncommon for the lower Don region of the Khazar Kaganate Epoch.