Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 45 (2) 2017   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2017.45.2.113-122

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Albazin, a Russian Town on the Amur: Population Size
in the Late 1600s

S.P. Nesterov

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

Judging by modern studies and written sources, the town of Albazin, founded more than 330 years ago, has lost its western rampart, facing the Amur; and also 17 % of the enclosed area (the latter totaled 7630 m2 in 1684). Given the reports stating that the fort had a garrison of 222 men, it could not have accommodated 826 inhabitants during the 1686 siege. It is proposed that in the 1680s, owing to a military threat, Fort Albazin was turned into a fortified town numbering more than 1000 inhabitants. The Cossacks used a nearby Mohe or Daur fortification, consisting of three ramparts and moats, to erect an external defense-belt around the fort with a piece of land accommodating 53 houses. During the first three months of the war, more than 800 Cossacks defended the town from the Manchu attacks, after which the surviving defenders took refuge in the fort. The estimated population size at that time was 310, including 241 persons buried in dugouts, 66 survivors of the siege (including women and children), and three Cossacks who left the fort in November 1686 to report on the siege.

Keywords: Amur Region, Albazin, 17th century, Manchu, Albazin siege.