The ninth field season of the Shida Kartli project of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy) in cooperation with the Georgian National Museum (Georgia) took place from June 16th to July 31th, 2017. The Italian team arrived in Georgia on June 17th and reached the town of Kareli on June 19th. On July 26th the team returned to Tbilisi for completing work at the Georgian National Museum, and on July 31st it left the country.
    Members of the Italian team were the following: prof. Elena Rova (co-director of the project, chief of the Italian group), dr. Katia Gavagnin and dr. Elisa Girotto (post-docs), Davit Darejanashvili, MA (PhD candidate at Ca' Foscari University), Laura Tonetto and Flavia Amato, MA (post-graduate students at the SISBA archaeology specialisation school), Beatrice Barbiero, MA (Ca' Foscari University), Chiara Mariotto and Francesco Bianchi, BA (MA students at Ca' Foscari University), prof. Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati (UCLA University, Los Angeles) and Giampaolo Ceccarini, MA, archaeologists, joined for a short period by Mirko Furlanetto, MA; prof. Francesca Bertoldi and Piera Allegra Rasia, MA, physical anthropologists.
    The Georgian component of the team included the following archaeologists: prof. Iulon Gagoshidze (co-director, chief of the Georgian group), Nana Gogiberidze, Davit Gagoshidze, MA (Georgian National Museum), Ketevan Davitashvili, BA (student at Tbilisi State University), Tamar Bijashvili and Magda Patiashvili (students at Sokhumi State University), archaeologists, prof. Lia Bitadze and Shorena Laliashvili, MA (Tbilisi State University), physical anthropologists, assisted by Nino Tavarchiladze (student at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University) and Ana Pavlenishvili (GNM) restorer. Like in the previous seasons, Mr. Emzari Tzulukidze drove the mission's minibus and took care of logistics.
     The main activity of the season was the study, aiming at its final publication in English language, of the material from the Kura-Araxes graves of the Doghlauri cemetery (Fig. 1). This is one of the largest cemeteries of the Shida Kartli region, and belongs to the Aradetis Orgora site, where the Georgian-Italian team carried out excavations in 2013-2016. It was excavated between 2012 and 2015, in the framework of a salvage excavation, by a Georgian team under the direction of Iulon Gagoshidze. The publication of the Doghlauri Kura-Araxes cemetery, which comprises 67 graves and represents the largest corpus of funerary evidence available for the period, will complete the publication of the KA funerary record of Shida Kartli, which was initiated by the publication, by the joint project, of the Khashuri Natsargora cemetery and other cemeteries of the region (M. Puturidze, E. Rova, eds., Khashuri Natsargora: The EBA Graves, Turnhout 2012). It will also allow a comparison between the KA material from burial contexts at Doghlauri and material from contemporary settlement levels excavated by members of the project in 2013-2016 on the Aradetis Orgora Main Mound, an almost unique opportunity for the region.During the whole field season, work on the artefacts from the graves was carried out by members of the team at the same time in the expedition house in Kareli and at the Georgian National Museum at Tbilisi, where the finds from Doghlauri are stored. The original excavation documentation (excavation journals, preliminary reports, plans), was digitised and translated into English; the artefacts from the 67 Kura-Araxes graves were completely processed and restored, and all relevant data were inserted into a dedicated database.
    Work on the original material from the Kura-Araxes graves can thus be considered concluded, and we hope to be able to produce a final publication of the EBA cemetery in the next future.
   At the same time, physical anthropologists Francesca Bertoldi, Lia Bitadze and Piera Allegra Rasia analysed the human osteological material from the Doghlauri cemetery excavations (season 2012) at the Institute of History and Ethnology of the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University in Tbilisi. Not only bones from the Kura-Araxes graves (27 in number), but also those from the later (Late Bronze-Early Iron) ones were fully analysed. This will provide a unique opportunity for a comprehensive analysis of the site's ancient population over a longer period of time, under the point of views of its composition, health status, diet and ways of life.
   For technical reasons (impossibility, due to health reasons, of the Georgian co-director to be present on the field during the period of presence of the Italian team), it was impossible for us to continue, as foreseen, the small stratigraphic sounding on the W side of the Aradetis Orgora Main Mound. However, in the course of the whole season we continued the final re-analysis and check, which had been initiated during the 2016 season, of some categories of materials collected during the 2013-2016 excavation seasons at the site, on which MA, PhD and specialisation theses are presently in course by students affiliated to the team. In particular, Flavia Amato completed the analysis of the microlithic finds from the site, Beatrice Barbiero the analysis of animal bones, while Laura Tonetto, with the help of restorer Ana Pavlenishvili, completed the restoration of some pottery vessels from the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
    Sampling for different types of scientific analyses was also continued. Samples for radiometric dating (to be analysed by E. Boaretto, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel) were collected by P.A. Rasia from the human osteological material from Doghlauri cemetery. Samples for age determination, palaeonutritional analysis and stable isotopes analysis were also collected from the same bones/teeth.
    We also collected some samples of pottery sherds from the Kura-Araxes graves in order to implement our collection for a comprehensive archaeometric analyses of Aradetis Orgora's ceramic production in a diachronic perspective. In addition, we collected a few samples of paste beads from the graves (to be analysed in Italy by dr. Ivana Angelini of Padua University) and samples of modern animal bones from the Kareli region for stable isotopes analysis, to be used as a term of comparison with ancient samples. Contacts were also taken with Dr. Irina Ghambashidze (Georgian National Museum) for samples for archaeometric analyses to be taken from the metal objects from the Kura-Araxes  graves of Doghlauri.
    Finally, Mirko Furlanetto delivered to the Italian Embassy the Georgian version of the second comic strip about the expedition's activities ("Aradetis Orgora - The reward") and took preliminary contacts for the production, in collaboration with the Italian Embassy, of a cartoon illustrating the work of the Italian archaeological expeditions in Georgia.
    In spite of the logistic difficulties encountered (the team had to split between Tbilisi and Kareli, and both equipment and people had to be repeatedly moved between the two seats) the 2017 field season was very productive, in that the study of the Kura-Araxes graves of Doghlauri was successfully concluded and will thus allow a quick publication of this very important corpus of funerary evidence, and considerable progress was also made in the study of the material from the previous excavation seasons of the project.