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Russian archaeologists may have found the capital of the medieval Jewish Khazar polity:

"'This is a hugely important discovery,' expedition organiser Dmitry Vasilyev told AFP by telephone from Astrakhan State University after returning from excavations near the village of Samosdelka, just north of the Caspian Sea.

"'We can now shed light on one of the most intriguing mysteries of that period -- how the Khazars actually lived. We know very little about the Khazars -- about their traditions, their funerary rites, their culture,' he said.

"The city was the capital of the Khazars, a semi-nomadic Turkic peoples who adopted Judaism as a state religion, from between the 8th and the 10th centuries, when it was captured and sacked by the rulers of ancient Russia.

"At its height, the Khazar state and its tributaries controlled much of what is now southern Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan and large parts of Russia's North Caucasus region."

One historical question concering the Khazars is how Jewish they actually were and how deeply and in what sectors the religion was absorbed by Khazar society. These are issues on which archaeology can shed a great deal of light.

(Hap tip: Juan Cole, who has a bit more)