Samosdelka

In September 2008, Russian archaeologists excavating in Samosdelka announced their discovery of what they claimed were the remains of Atil, the capital of the medieval Khazar kingdom.

[citation needed] Following Vasilyev's announcement, researcher Kevin Alan Brook[5] wrote that he was "confident" that the team found Atil, even as he acknowledged that the site has yielded no Jewish artifacts.

[2] Dr. Simon Kraiz, an expert on Eastern European Jewry at Haifa University, was more cautious, remarking that only if the team has discovered Khazar writings would the findings "be very important.

[6] On its website dated July 2020, the Russian Geographical Society stated that while "many scholars" identified Samosdelka with Atil, artifacts of the Saltovo-Mayaki culture inherent to the Khazar Khaganate "were not found".

[7] Professor Alex Feldman of the University of Birmingham wrote that "textual and archaeological evidence provides some support" for identifying the site with Atil but noted some objections to the idea, including that none of the coins uncovered there date back "as early as the tenth century".