Iskher is the former
capital of the Siberian khanate, a place surrounded with legends, where
many Siberian peoples lived in ancient times. Precise data on Iskher’s
history have not survived up to the present. So, the appearance and the
life-style of Iskher could only have been re-constructed through annals
and archaeological excavations.
The first archaeological digs were carried out at the end of the XIXth
century by the known artist and ethnographer Michail Znamenski from
Tobolsk. He made some sketches to re-construct the appearance of a
legendary capital, and described in detail all his discoveries.
Following Znamenski, detailed archaeological study of Iskher was
undertaken by the public figure and researcher V. Pignatti. In later
times the place was thoroughly studied by archaeological expeditions
organized by researchers from the Ural and Siberia.
Over different periods the place had been supposedly inhabited by
various tribes and peoples dated from the Bronze Age (one thousand years
B.C.). In former times the land was called ‘Kashlyk’ or ‘Sybyr’. The
latter had originated from the name of an ancient tribe ‘sybyri’ who
inhabited the territory to the east of the Ural. Iskher was the capital
of the Siberian khanate since the end of the XVth till the beginning of
the XVIth century.
The end of the XVIth century was the time of collapse for Iskher, since
it was conquered by Ermak. In 1587 a Strelets party headed by Daniil
Chulkov founded the town of Tobolsk near this place. Over a short period
Iskher had lost its administrative power, and had become an ‘extinct’
town degraded into the neglected semblance of a settlement. Every year
its remnants keep on plunging deeper inside the earth, and get
destructed by the high waters of the Irtysh river, thus hiding forever
the history of a legendary land.
