Excavation in Field C, at the E limit of the Dedoplis Gora mound, near its highest point, involved six different quadrants (103.099a, b, c, d, 103.100c, d), two of which had been already investigated in 2013. Ceramic sherds of the Early Medieval period recovered from the topsoil allowed us to suppose that this sector of the settlement contained important remains of the medieval period. In particular, the presence of tiles led us to hypothesise the existence of an important building with tiled roof, since, in fact, none of the buildings (including the temple) previously excavated on the mound had been covered by tiles. The 2013 and especially the 2014 seasons revealed that this building had been built in the 4th, or at the limit between the 3rd and the 4th century AD, and restored (or re-built) at least twice until the 6th century, when the Dedoplis Gora settlement ceased to exist. Evidence of this has been found during the excavation of the topsoil layer, where we discovered three different types of tiles. The first of them, which is of semi-cylindrical shape and painted in red, shouldn’t be later than the 3rd-4th century. In the same layer, however, we also recovered a different type of tiles: these are thicker and their curve is lower, and they have a grooved line in the upper part. According to their typology, they shouldn’t date earlier than the 6th century. Finally, there were also tiles, whose shape is in-between these two types.
    In spite of the fact that we found thousands of tile fragments, we couldn’t discover any clear architectural plan of this period, since the corresponding level (Level I, of the Early Medieval Period) was very damaged; we therefore proceeded to excavate Level II under it, which corresponded to the remains of the royal palace of the Late Hellenistic/Early Imperial period (1st century BC-1st cent. AD). The bad preservation of Level I can be attributed to two different reasons. The first one is wind erosion, which must have especially affected the E part of the top of the mound: in fact even nowadays, when strong wind is blowing on the E, highest part of hill, on the W, lower part one can’t often even feel it. We assume that another reason could be that, when at the beginning of the 20th century the local population ceased to live in semi-subterranean dwellings and began to built houses at ground level, they opened a stone quarry on the E part of the mound, as we proved during previous excavations in the palace area. Such quarrying activities caused significant damage to the Hellenistic palace’s outer wall; we therefore assume that any traces of stone Medieval architecture (if present at all) would have also been obliterated by it.

Level I (Early Medieval Period)
    Under the topsoil layer we found a burnt surface, which extended over the southern part of quadrant 103.099a, the SW part of 103.099b, and the W part of 103.099d. No artefacts were recovered from this feature, which could exactly date it. There was also no direct connection between this burnt surface, continued in the unexcavated part of quadrant 103.099c, and the building which we suppose was located to the N of it. Under this feature, ceramic fragments were discovered, which undoubtedly belonged to the first dwellers that settled in the area after the destruction of the Hellenistic palace. In our opinion, this reoccupation took place not before the 4th century AD, as proved, for example, by a fragment of large storage jar, discovered in quadrant 103.099a square, but especially by a jug with a scratched Greek letter (“?”) (Fig. 18, left). the shape of which appears to be characteristic for the final 3rd-early 4th century.
    The rest of the area excavated in 2014 (in the N half of 103.099a and in quadrant 103.100c, as well as in the E part of quadrants 103.099b and 103.099d) showed a different situation. Here the remains of the palace were preserved almost up to the level of the contemporary surface, but their top was cut by some large storage jars of Early Medieval date (Fig. 19), which had been inserted into them. All of the jars belong to characteristic types of this period, have a high neck, a flat base and show relief decoration on the body. They were all used for vine, except for one, which was recovered at the limit between quadrants 103.100c and 103.100a. This large jar had no base, and had been set on a base of cobblestones, apparently as part of a toilet construction. Several similar installations had been excavated in previous years at the site. Among the most significant finds from the level was a fragment of the base of a marble vase (Fig. 18, right) from quadrant 103.100c: an unique luxury artefact, which seems completely inappropriate for the rather poor social group to which the Medieval settlement discovered by our excavation should be attributed.

Level II (Late Hellenistic/Early Imperial palace)
Room no. 20
    Room no. 20 had been excavated during 10 days in the course of the 2013 season, without workmen and with the help of the students of Ilia University. During the 2014 season, it was re-excavated and integrated in the new general plan (Fig. 20). Room no. 20 has a “standard” size: it measured 4.70 m in E-W, and 5.30 m in NS direction; the door is located on the NW side. The room's walls were plastered and the floor consisted of compacted clay. A complete, undamaged altar was discovered in the central part of this room, not far from its W wall. A mass of materials blended together by fire lay on the altar's upper surface: since it was impossible for the archaeologists to clean them properly, a professional restorer, Mr. Teimuraz Fanjikidze, transported them to the GNM laboratory. After one year of restoration work, the mass turned out to be composed of bronze and silver figurines of Artemis, Apollo, the mother-titaness Leto, Tyche-Fortuna, Silen, an eagle, a raven and a dolphin, joined by a silver censer, a gold laurel branch, two pheasant's eggs and 15 coins (13 coins of August, and two imitations of coins of Alexander the Great) (Fig. 21).
    Among the other interesting items discovered in Room no. 20 there are several iron objects (a knife, a handled plate, etc.) and two sealed bullae. These were discovered near the room's doorway and bore impressions of two different stamp seals, one with a roman style design, and the other with a local style pattern. In the SW corner of the room, under a flat stone inserted into floor, we discovered a fragment of pottery jar fragment of greyish colour with polished surface and thinned rim, which apparently dates to the Achaemenid period. This is the first time that items of this period are discovered directly under remains of the palace.

Rooms nos. 21 and 22
    During the 2014 season we excavated rooms nos. 21 and 22, which are located to the S of Room no. 20. They were filled with a similar heterogeneous mass of melted material, looking like metal slag, which we assume was created by the violent fire which destroyed the building. This "conglomerate" contained a large number of different poorly preserved materials, which made their investigation quite difficult. An exception was a bronze balance scale, whose remains were found in the filling of Room no. 21, The beam had been deformed and twisted by fire, but had survived, while only fragments of the weighing pans were preserved. Many items were also found in the filling of Room no. 22. Especially interesting is a door-lock consisting of a flat iron plate with key-hole on it; fragment of the key were also discovered in the filling.
    Room no. 21 is situated to the S of Room no. 20. It is an elongated space of trapezoidal shape: its length amounts to 4.70 m; the W wall is 2.05 m long, and the E wall measures 2.50 m. The doorway is located on the W side, and opens into the pillared portico. To the exception of a bone plate, nothing was found in this room, which we suppose had the function to accommodate the stair to the upper floor. Other spaces with a supposedly similar function years (Room no. 2, excavated in 1986, and probably Room no. 17, excavated in 2004) had been excavated in previous years.
     As we mentioned above, a large part of the E, outer wall of the building had been destroyed by villagers quarrying building material for their houses. In this area we therefore dug a small sounding in order to expose the wall's base, and try to understand how wide the outer wall originally was. The wall's base was found at a depth of 40 cm from the level of the palace's floor: it was 2.80 m wide, and consisted of cobblestone (Fig. 22). Several pottery fragments with polished surface and dotted ornamentation, which resemble Middle Bronze Age materials, were found in the nearby filling.
     Room no. 22 lies to the S of Room no. 21. Its N and S walls are 4.70 m long; the E wall (4.40 m) is slightly shorter than the W one (4.80 m); a ca 1 m wide doorway providing access to the portico is located in the S part of the W wall. The room's walls are plastered on the outer as well as on the inner side. Room no. 22 was probably a kitchen, since a mud-brick oven was discovered in its SE corner (Fig. 23). This consisted of two different sections, the proper baking place, and a narrow ashy area. A flat tile (solenos) was placed upside down on the bottom of the installation; a clay lamp was lying over it. It appears that it had been covered by a similar tile, after removing ashes from the oven's bottom to the ashy section. The cover tile was actually found on the floor, in front of the oven.
    Several pottery vessels and fragments thereof, and two basalt grinding stones were found in the room's filling and on the floor. One of the grinding stones has a flat, slightly concave shape, which is characteristic for the Hellenistic period in Georgia, the second one is quadrangular, and is probably to be considered an innovation of the Roman period, when, as far as we know, this type of grinding stone was first introduced in the Kartli region, while in Western Georgia it was already in use during the Hellenistic period. Grinding stones are often found in kitchens; in this case two heaps of cereals grains were also discovered in the room. An almost vitrified semicylindrical tile (calipteros) was recovered in the SE corner of the room, between the oven and the S wall; it was impossible to separate it from the melted conglomerate during fieldwork. We assume that it belonged to an oven originally located on the second floor. In fact, ovens consisting of two cover- or ridge-tiles had previously been discovered in Rooms no. 10 and no. 16.

Portico
     During the 2014 season, we excavated the part of the pillared portico lying in front of Rooms nos. 20 and 21, and partially in front of Room nos. 19 and 22, in quadrants 103.099a, 103.100c and (partially) 103.099c (Fig. 24). Two complete pillars were located in this section of the portico: the first one in front of the doorway of Room no. 20, and the second one in front of the doorway of Room no. 21. Since the level of the portico's floor in front of Room no. 19 is slightly higher (20 cm) than in front of Room no. 20, a wooden step had been constructed between Room no. 20 and the pillar. Since the same situation is met with in front of Room no. 21, one could expect the presence of a similar wooden construction there, but no clear evidence was found for it.
    The pillars in this part of the portico have the usual rectangular shape (they measure 1.60 x 1.30 m), and are built in the same technique as the palace walls. In the lower part they consist of a framework of wooden beams filled with pebbles and clay, while the upper part (over the height of 2 m) is made of mud-bricks strengthened by wooden beams. Similarly to the rooms' walls, pillars are also plastered. The excavated pillars provide evidence of how the palatial building may have been affected and destroyed by an earthquake, since an up to 1.30 m high part of the pillars had been violently displaced and thrown at a distance of over two meters. This process is particularly clear in the case of the first pillar, whose upper part, including the section made in mud-bricks, was found, with bricks still in their original connection, in SW part of the excavation area. During the Early Medieval period, a pit for inserting a wine jar was dug exactly in the centre of the mud-bricks of the displaced pillar.
     The destruction of the pillars provoked the collapse of the upper storey, evidence of which was also encountered while excavating this part of the building. The portico was filled with stone pebbles and mud-bricks debris. As we explained above, in the Medieval period wine jars were inserted into this mixed debris. During the 2014 season we also excavated a small section of the palace's inner court, beyond the limit of the portico; here, in its NW corner, we discovered some iron grill sticks.