Report on the Activities of the Fourth Field Season 
of the Joint Shida Kartli Project (2012)

Bidzina Murvanidze (Georgian National Museum), Elena Rova (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia)

Introduction

    The fourth field season of the Shida Kartli project of the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy) in cooperation with the Georgian National Museum (Georgia) took place from June 16th to July 31st, 2012. The Italian team arrived in Tbilisi on July 16th, and reached the site of Natsargora on June 18th. Excavation activities started on June 21th and were completed on July 28th. On July 31st, the team left to Tbilisi. 11 workmen from the villages of Natsargora, Vacha, and from the town of Khashuri were engaged in the excavation.
    The Italian team was composed by: prof. Elena Rova (co-director, chief of the Italian group), dr. Monica Tonussi (post-doctoral fellow), Katia Gavagnin, PhD, Elisa Girotto (PhD candidate), Eleonora Carminati and Mirko Furlanetto, MA, Giulia De Nobili and Laura Tonetto (MA students) from Ca' Foscari University, prof. Giovanni Boschian, geoarchaeologist, and Barbara Zamagni (PhD candidate), lithics specialist, from Pisa University, dr. Elisabetta Boaretto (Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel), 14C specialist, and Kathryn O'Neil Weber, PhD candidate, Cornell University (USA).
    The Georgian team included the following students and doctorands in Archaeology at Tbilisi State University: Davit Darejanashvili, Salome Jamburia, Koba Koberidze, Revaz Vadachkoria, joined for shorter periods by Ketevan Bulukhia, Giorgi Khaburzania, Tamar Meladze, Zviad Sherazadishvili and Ana Tevzadze. Both Georgian co-directors (prof. Marina Puturidze and dr. Z. Makharadze) could not join the team this year on a regular basis during the field season because of other committments, but Marina Puturidze and Bidzina Murvanidze, who acted as representative of the Georgian National Museum, visited the excavation on different occasions. The expedition was also regularly visited by the Director of the Khashuri Museum dr. Revaz Nonadze.
    The expedition received the visit of H.E. the Italian Ambassador Federica Favi, accompanied by a journalist of the "Messenger" journal. On 17/07/2012, the excavation was visited by the following television troupes: First Channel, Rustavi 2, Imedi, and Maestro. It also received the visit of prof. Julon Gagoshidze, dr. Mindia Jalabadze, dr. Mikhail Abramishvili, and dr. Kakha Kakhiani from the Georgian National Museum, and of Mrs. Ketevan Davitashvili (also from the GNM) accompanying a group of students from the 11th and 12th classes of Private School no. 6 from Tbilisi in the framework of the "Young archaeologists project" of the Georgian National Museum. The activities of this year' campaign were the following:


1) Completion of the excavation at the site of Natsargora.
2) Study, for the final publication, of the material recovered at Natsargora during the 2011 and 2012 seasons, including final control of the material excavated by A. Ramishvili in 1984-1987.
3) Collection of samples for radiometric dating and soil micromorphology analyses.
4) Archaeological survey of the Khashuri district.
5) Other activities.
6) Acknowledgements.