CHRONOLOGICAL PARADOXES OF MOHAMMED SHAH BEY’ TURBE IN THE BAHCHISARAY TOWN
According to the memorial inscription without date, which is above the entrance, someone Muhammad Shah Bey ordered to build a turbe for his mother - Bey Yude Sultan. Traditionally, it is considered one of the earliest Muslim memorial buildings in Crimea and usually dates back to the 14<sup>th</sup>-15<sup>th</sup> centuries. The building is constantly cited as an example as the closest analogy during considering a some group of Golden Horde monuments - the Eastern and Northern mausoleums of Bolgar, the mausoleum of Tura Khan in Bashkiria. According to the results of excavations in 1991, the building was dated to the end of the 18<sup>th</sup> century (near 1778). These conclusions are based on numismatic material, a number of specifically signs and, mainly, stratigraphy. Scurf of the building horizon was overlapped by a layer of destroyed build mortar. This top layer is associated with the destruction and restoration of the turbe. Between themselves, these two stratigraphic periods are separated only by thin crust of trampled soil. This gives reason to think that the mausoleum was built shortly before the damage, which caused the loss of the masonry of the upper part of the main facade and roof. Otherwise, if dated the building by the 14<sup>th</sup>-15<sup>th</sup> centuries, then during the next three or four centuries a wide cultural layer would have to accumulate near its walls, above the foundation. But archaeological excavations have not revealed such layer.