Report on the Activities of the Seventh Field Season of the Joint Shida Kartli Project (2015)
Iulon Gagoshidze (Georgian National Museum), Elena Rova (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia)
Introduction
The seventh 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 18th to August 4thnd, 2015. The Italian team arrived in Tbilisi on July 18th, and reached the town of Kareli on June 20th. Excavation activities started on June 21th and were completed on July 31th. On August 1st, the team returned to Tbilisi.
The Italian team was composed by the following archaeologists: Prof. Elena Rova (co-director of the project, chief of the Italian group), Katia Gavagnin and Elisa Girotto, PhD, Davit Darejanashvili and Marta Aquilano, MA (PhD candidates at Ca' Foscari University), Livia Gervasi and Laura Tonetto, MA (students at the SISBA archaeology specialisation school), Chiara Mariotto, MA candidate and Cristina Martin (students at Ca' Foscari University), and Stefano Camellini, MA (topographer), joined for shorter periods by Prof. Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati (UCLA University of Los Angeles, USA), Lorenzo Crescioli, MA (PhD candidate at Ca' Foscari), Giampaolo Ceccarini, MA, Alessandro Armigliato, Mirko Furlanetto and Angelo Di Michele, MA (topographers). The Georgian component of the team included the following archaeologists: prof. Iulon Gagoshidze (co-director, chief of the Georgian group), Tinatin Chanishvili, Nana Gogiberidze, Tinatin Kutelia (GNM), Davit Gagoshidze and Soso Ukhleba (MA and respectively BA students at the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University).
Like in the previous seasons, the expedition was joined by experts in different fields: Prof. Francesca Bertoldi (physical anthropologist, Ca' Foscari University of Venice), Prof. Giovanni Boschian (geoarchaeologist, University of Pisa), Veronica Scandellari, MA (palaeozoologist), Ketevan Esebua (palaeobotanist, MA student at Sokhumi State University), Fabio Fratini, MA (geologist, CNR, Institute for the Preservation and Valorisation of Cultural Heritage, Firenze) and Eleonora Venier (architect, MA student at the IUAV University of Venice).
12 workmen from the villages of Doghlauri and from the town of Kareli were engaged in the excavation; Mr. Emzari Tzulukidze drove the mission's minibus and took care of logistics.
On 29/07/2015 the expedition received the visit of Dr. Stefano Crescenzi, First Secretary of the Italian Embassy in Tbilisi. It was also visited by the following colleagues: Mr. Alvaro Higueras (21/07/2015), Dr. Zurab Makharadze, Dr. Mindia Jalabadze, Prof. Marina Puturidze (22/07/2015), Dr. Modwene Poulmar'ch, Dr. Estelle Herrscher and Dr. Eliso Kvavadze (22/07/2015), a group from Khashuri Museum (23/07/2015), Mrs. Kathryn Weber (23/07/2015), Prof. Giorgi Mindiashvili (26/07/2015), Prof. Annegret Plontke-Lüning and a group of students from Jena University (26/07/2015), and by the following television teams: Trialeti, First National Channel (03/07/2015).
This year's campaign was characterised by a closer interaction between the two components of the expedition. Excavations were carried out in three different areas (Fields A, B, and C) of the Main Mound (Dedoplis Gora) of the Aradetis Orgora multimound site (Figs. 1,2), all of which had already been excavated in the course of the 2013 and 2014 seasons (Fig. 3).
Field C is situated on top of the eastern side of the mound, and its aim is to complete the exposure of the eastern wing of the Late Hellenistic/Early Imperial palatial building. Excavation was carried out by the Georgian team under the responsibility of Prof. Gagoshidze. The group of topographs, architects/experts in cultural heritage preservation (Camellini, Fratini and Venier) produced a plan of the excavated area, took samples of the building materials and produced a preliminary report of the building's present state of preservation with the aim of proposing an overall plan for its future preservation.
Fields A and B represent the continuation of the two stratigraphic soundings initiated in 2013 on the opposite (Western and Eastern) sides of the mound with the aims of verifying the settlement's pre-classical occupational sequence and of obtaining a corpus of stratigraphically secure artefacts and ecofacts from the different occupational phases: they were excavated by a mixed Georgian-Italian team under the responsibility of Prof. Elena Rova (sites supervisors Davit Darejanashvili, Katia Gavagnin and Livia Gervasi).
In addition, the team exploited the opportunity offered by the contemporary presence at the site of a Georgian team headed by Prof. Gagoshidze working of the neighbouring Aradetis Orgora (Doghlauri) cemetery in the framework of a salvage excavation of a Governmental project financed by the World Bank for the building of the new Tbilisi-Batumi highway for opening a new field of investigation. Marta Aquilano and Veronica Scandellari helped removing the human bones from the excavated graves, and physical anthropologist Francesca Bertoldi studied them at the expedition's house in Kareli. She also made a preliminary analysis of the bones from the salvage excavations of the previous years, which are presently housed in Tbilisi under the responsibility of Prof. Lia Bitadze (Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University). The excavated graves belong to the main periods of occupation (Kura-Araxes and respectively Late Bronze/Iron Age) represented in both stratigraphic soundings (Fields A and B): this will provide a unique opportunity for a comprehensive analysis of the site's ancient population.
As far as the palaeoenvironmental sector the expedition's research project is concerned, geoarchaeological and soil micromorphological research continued this year under the responsibility of Prof. Giovanni Boschian, analysis of palaeofaunal and palaeobotanical finds under the responsibility of Veronica Scandellari and respectively Ketevan Esebua. Samples for radiometric dating were collected by the members of the team according to the instruction provided by Dr. Elisabetta Boaretto (Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel), who could not take part to the field season this year, but will take care of the samples' analyses in the course of the next winter. Sampling for palinological analysis and for archaeometric analysis of pottery and obsidian was also carried out in the course of the season.
Finally, some experiments in the replication of Kura-Araxes and Late Bronze Age firing installations excavated during the previous seasons took place at the expedition's house in Kareli under the responsibility of Davit Darejanashvili, Marta Aquilano and Livia Gervasi.
The field season was very productive in all respects: not only was the main objective of the excavation on the Aradetis Orgora Main Mound (to obtain a complete stratigraphical sequence of the mound's pre-classical occupation) reached, and a huge amount of data concerning the site's ancient populations was collected, but some unexpected important discoveries were also made. In particular, the Kura-Araxes levels in Field B yielded a portion of a large building in which a zoomorphic ritual vessel and fragments of two similar ones were recovered. Finally, both stratigraphical soundings yielded evidence of occupation of the Middle Bronze period (a.o., Trialeti painted and incised pottery sherds), a fact hitherto unparalleled in the Shida Kartli region.
The Italian team was composed by the following archaeologists: Prof. Elena Rova (co-director of the project, chief of the Italian group), Katia Gavagnin and Elisa Girotto, PhD, Davit Darejanashvili and Marta Aquilano, MA (PhD candidates at Ca' Foscari University), Livia Gervasi and Laura Tonetto, MA (students at the SISBA archaeology specialisation school), Chiara Mariotto, MA candidate and Cristina Martin (students at Ca' Foscari University), and Stefano Camellini, MA (topographer), joined for shorter periods by Prof. Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati (UCLA University of Los Angeles, USA), Lorenzo Crescioli, MA (PhD candidate at Ca' Foscari), Giampaolo Ceccarini, MA, Alessandro Armigliato, Mirko Furlanetto and Angelo Di Michele, MA (topographers). The Georgian component of the team included the following archaeologists: prof. Iulon Gagoshidze (co-director, chief of the Georgian group), Tinatin Chanishvili, Nana Gogiberidze, Tinatin Kutelia (GNM), Davit Gagoshidze and Soso Ukhleba (MA and respectively BA students at the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University).
Like in the previous seasons, the expedition was joined by experts in different fields: Prof. Francesca Bertoldi (physical anthropologist, Ca' Foscari University of Venice), Prof. Giovanni Boschian (geoarchaeologist, University of Pisa), Veronica Scandellari, MA (palaeozoologist), Ketevan Esebua (palaeobotanist, MA student at Sokhumi State University), Fabio Fratini, MA (geologist, CNR, Institute for the Preservation and Valorisation of Cultural Heritage, Firenze) and Eleonora Venier (architect, MA student at the IUAV University of Venice).
12 workmen from the villages of Doghlauri and from the town of Kareli were engaged in the excavation; Mr. Emzari Tzulukidze drove the mission's minibus and took care of logistics.
On 29/07/2015 the expedition received the visit of Dr. Stefano Crescenzi, First Secretary of the Italian Embassy in Tbilisi. It was also visited by the following colleagues: Mr. Alvaro Higueras (21/07/2015), Dr. Zurab Makharadze, Dr. Mindia Jalabadze, Prof. Marina Puturidze (22/07/2015), Dr. Modwene Poulmar'ch, Dr. Estelle Herrscher and Dr. Eliso Kvavadze (22/07/2015), a group from Khashuri Museum (23/07/2015), Mrs. Kathryn Weber (23/07/2015), Prof. Giorgi Mindiashvili (26/07/2015), Prof. Annegret Plontke-Lüning and a group of students from Jena University (26/07/2015), and by the following television teams: Trialeti, First National Channel (03/07/2015).
This year's campaign was characterised by a closer interaction between the two components of the expedition. Excavations were carried out in three different areas (Fields A, B, and C) of the Main Mound (Dedoplis Gora) of the Aradetis Orgora multimound site (Figs. 1,2), all of which had already been excavated in the course of the 2013 and 2014 seasons (Fig. 3).
Field C is situated on top of the eastern side of the mound, and its aim is to complete the exposure of the eastern wing of the Late Hellenistic/Early Imperial palatial building. Excavation was carried out by the Georgian team under the responsibility of Prof. Gagoshidze. The group of topographs, architects/experts in cultural heritage preservation (Camellini, Fratini and Venier) produced a plan of the excavated area, took samples of the building materials and produced a preliminary report of the building's present state of preservation with the aim of proposing an overall plan for its future preservation.
Fields A and B represent the continuation of the two stratigraphic soundings initiated in 2013 on the opposite (Western and Eastern) sides of the mound with the aims of verifying the settlement's pre-classical occupational sequence and of obtaining a corpus of stratigraphically secure artefacts and ecofacts from the different occupational phases: they were excavated by a mixed Georgian-Italian team under the responsibility of Prof. Elena Rova (sites supervisors Davit Darejanashvili, Katia Gavagnin and Livia Gervasi).
In addition, the team exploited the opportunity offered by the contemporary presence at the site of a Georgian team headed by Prof. Gagoshidze working of the neighbouring Aradetis Orgora (Doghlauri) cemetery in the framework of a salvage excavation of a Governmental project financed by the World Bank for the building of the new Tbilisi-Batumi highway for opening a new field of investigation. Marta Aquilano and Veronica Scandellari helped removing the human bones from the excavated graves, and physical anthropologist Francesca Bertoldi studied them at the expedition's house in Kareli. She also made a preliminary analysis of the bones from the salvage excavations of the previous years, which are presently housed in Tbilisi under the responsibility of Prof. Lia Bitadze (Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University). The excavated graves belong to the main periods of occupation (Kura-Araxes and respectively Late Bronze/Iron Age) represented in both stratigraphic soundings (Fields A and B): this will provide a unique opportunity for a comprehensive analysis of the site's ancient population.
As far as the palaeoenvironmental sector the expedition's research project is concerned, geoarchaeological and soil micromorphological research continued this year under the responsibility of Prof. Giovanni Boschian, analysis of palaeofaunal and palaeobotanical finds under the responsibility of Veronica Scandellari and respectively Ketevan Esebua. Samples for radiometric dating were collected by the members of the team according to the instruction provided by Dr. Elisabetta Boaretto (Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel), who could not take part to the field season this year, but will take care of the samples' analyses in the course of the next winter. Sampling for palinological analysis and for archaeometric analysis of pottery and obsidian was also carried out in the course of the season.
Finally, some experiments in the replication of Kura-Araxes and Late Bronze Age firing installations excavated during the previous seasons took place at the expedition's house in Kareli under the responsibility of Davit Darejanashvili, Marta Aquilano and Livia Gervasi.
The field season was very productive in all respects: not only was the main objective of the excavation on the Aradetis Orgora Main Mound (to obtain a complete stratigraphical sequence of the mound's pre-classical occupation) reached, and a huge amount of data concerning the site's ancient populations was collected, but some unexpected important discoveries were also made. In particular, the Kura-Araxes levels in Field B yielded a portion of a large building in which a zoomorphic ritual vessel and fragments of two similar ones were recovered. Finally, both stratigraphical soundings yielded evidence of occupation of the Middle Bronze period (a.o., Trialeti painted and incised pottery sherds), a fact hitherto unparalleled in the Shida Kartli region.