30 samples of Late Chalcolithic sherds from Tsiteli Gorebi 5 were selected for archaeometric analyses to be carried out in Italy, and 20 obsidian samples were collected for provenance analysis to be performed by Bernard Gratuze, IRAMAT, Institut de Recherche sur les Archéomatériaux, Centre Ernest Babelon, C.N.R.S., Université d'Orléans, France. A sequence of 23 palynological samples (to be processed by Eliso Kvavadze, Georgian National Museum) was collected from the eastern profile of quadrant 100.103d, which included the whole filling of the Chalcolithic ditch 0434. In spite of the poor preliminary results obtained from the 2018 samples, they will hopefully provide some information on the vegetation cover contemporary with the Chalcolithic settlement.
Since preliminary analysis of the animal bones collected in 2018 showed that despite their fragmentary conditions and the presence of abundant surface encrustations they contained a sufficient amount of collagen, we decided this year to adopt a wider sampling strategy on palaeofaunal material. We collected a total of 51 animal bone and teeth samples, to be subjected to the following analyses: stable isotopes analysis (by Paola Iacumin, University of Parma, Italy) in order to trace movements of people and animals, as well as herding systems in the Chalcolithic periods, DNA analyses (by Ino Curik, Agronomski Fakultet of Zagreb University, Croatia, and Eva-Maria Geigl, Institut Jacques Monod, Paris) in order to reconstruct the diffusion of domestic animal races. Animal bones samples will also be used for radiometric dating (under the responsibility of Elisabetta Boaretto, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel), in order to compensate for the almost complete lack of other types of organic materials (seeds, charcoals) at the site.