Doghlauri cemetery is located to the north-east of the village of Doghlauri, at the southern edge of the Dedoplis Mindori plateau, on the second terrace of the Kura (Mtkvari) river. It is delimited on the south-eastern side by the escarpment of the Western Prone (Ptsiula) river and on the south-eastern side by the Northern Mound of the Aradetis Orgora settlement. The cemetery extends over an estimated area of more than 8 ha. It was in use over the two main periods of occupation of the nearby settlement: the Early Bronze (Kura-Araxes culture) and the Late Bronze -Early Iron Age.
A small section of the cemetery was excavated between 1979 and 1982 by an expedition of the S. Janashia Georgian National Museum headed by I. Gagoshidze (see: I. Gagoshidze, I. Koridze, A. Gogichaishvili, Report of the Fieldwork of the 1979-81 Years of the Shida Kartli Archaeological Expedition, Archaeological Expeditions of the Museum of Georgia VIII, Tbilisi, 1981); on that occasion, a Late Bronze Age kurgan containing a wagon and two horses, 56 pit-burials of the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age and 11 Early Bronze Age burials were discovered (see: I. Koridze, G. Palumbi, Kura-Araxes Tombs at Aradeti Orgora, in A. Sagona, M. Abramishvili, eds, Archaeology in Southern Caucasus: Perspectives from Georgia, Leuven-Paris-Dudley, Ma. 2008: 125-152).
A preliminary study, carried out in spring 2011 in preparation of the construction of the Ruisi-Agara section of the Tbilisi-Senaki-Leselidze highway, which would cause the almost complete loss of the ancient cemetery, concluded that, before beginning the work, the constructing company („China Nuclear Company“ Ltd) should have taken care for salvage archaeological excavations to be carried out at this important archaeological site.
A first excavation season was carried out between September 4th and November 4th, 2012, by a team of the Ngo ,,Georgian Archaeological Association” headed by I. Gagoshidze and composed of members of the Georgian National Museum, of the Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University and of the Georgian Archaeological Association. It concerned the SE portion of the cemetery, in the center of which the highway presently runs, and resulted in the investigation of a total of 153 burials, 36 of which of the Kura-Araxes period. A second excavation season took place between October 8th and December 8th, 2013. It affected a 4,5 ha area in the NW part of the cemetery, from which the company was to obtain the inert materials needed for construction. The excavation team was headed by I. Gagoshidze and composed of members of the same institutions. 257 burials were excavated, 25 of which of Kura-Araxes date. Finally, the construction, in spring 2015, of artificial terraces flanking the path of the new highway destroyed a few additional graves, and thus caused the necessity of a new salvage excavation. This was carried out between June 22th and July 13th by a team of the Georgian National Museum headed by I. Gagoshidze with the assistance of members and workmen of the joint "Georgian-Italian Shida Kartli Archeological project". It resulted in the discovery of 29 additional graves, 3 of which of Kura-Araxes date.
It has to be stressed that excavations at Doghlauri were carried out under severe time pressure and in very difficult conditions, mostly in winter and often in bad weather conditions which heavily affected the work and occasionally compromised the process of documentation of the graves (Fig. 2). In addition, a considerable number of graves had been either looted in the past, or damaged by agricultural work, or by the preliminary removal of the humus layer through heavy mechanical tools by the construction company. All the finds and the documentation from the salvage excavations are presently stored at the "Dedoplis Mindori Fund" of the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi, from which the Georgian-Italian team received the permission to analyse them.
During the whole 2017 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 (documentation and artefacts from the 2013 season) and at the Georgian National Museum at Tbilisi (artefacts from the 2012 and 2015 seasons). First of all, the whole original excavation documentation delivered to us by the excavators (excavation journals, preliminary reports, plans, field photos), was translated into English and digitised. Excavation plans and grave plans were re-drawn and vectorised. Attention should be drawn on the fact that part of the original graphic documentation (a.o. plans of some graves, original plans of the 2012 cemetery excavation) could not be recovered during our field season. As a consequence, the attached plans (Figs 1, 3) are to be considered as a preliminary reconstruction.
The analysed corpus of Kura-Araxes graves includes 67 burials, 4 of which contained no burial goods. The majority were simple pit graves of quadrangular shape, sometimes covered by a group of river pebbles. Most of them were oriented NS (with slight variations), and hosted a single skeleton in crouched position (Fig. 4). 16 graves exhibited a stone-lined pit; they were generally of rather large dimensions, and often hosted the bones of more than one individual (only one of them with still articulated bones), and may have represented family tombs (Fig. 5). From the point of view of relative chronology, a preliminary analysis of the finds suggests that most of the graves belong to the (later) Kura-Araxes 2 phase, with a few of them (e.g. No. 2012 G-51, Nos. 2013 G-114, 2013 G-220), dating to phase Kura-Araxes 3, and one to the Early Kurgan period (No. 2013 G-175).
The standard inventory of burial goods consisted of 2 or three 3 pottery vessels, sometimes (25 graves) joined by a few personal ornaments (pins, bracelets, pendants, hair-rings) of metal, stone, bone and paste, weapons (metal axes, flint arrow-heads) and tools. The presence of animal bones (possibly funerary offerings rather than remains of a funerary offer) was only occasionally observed. As a rule, burial assemblages appear rather similar to each other, and do not suggest a high degree of social differentiation; in general, richer artefacts assemblages appear to be associated with graves which contain more than one skeleton. A preliminary evaluation of burial customs does not show any significant difference with those which have been reported from other Kura-Araxes cemeteries in the Shida Kartli region (see M. Puturidze, E. Rova, eds., Khashuri Natsargora: The EBA Graves Turnhout 2012), and, more in general, in the whole area of diffusion of the Kura-Araxes culture.
The artefacts from the 67 Kura-Araxes graves were completely processed and restored, drawn and photographed, and all relevant data were inserted into a dedicated database. They consisted of 128 pottery vessels, the majority of which were complete or reconstructible and have been glued together and consolidated with plaster bands and gypsum with the help of Ana Pavlenishvili, and 191 object catalogue numbers, many of which consisting of multiple items, such as strings of beads, etc.
The majority of the ceramic assemblage (63%) consists of typical Red-Black Burnished Ware (Fig. 7, a-c, e-g), while 16% can be described as Black Burnished Ware (Fig. 7d, Fig. 6, a). Notably, a single grave (No. 2013 G-175) contained 3 Early Kurgan period (Bedeni) vessels (Fig. 6, b). With this single exception, pottery from the cemetery can thus be attributed to the (later) KA II - KA III phases.
Vessels were generally undecorated, the most notable exceptions being a Black Burnished Kura-Araxes mug with impressed (low relief) geometric decoration including hatched elements, spirals and a stylized vegetal design (Fig. 6, a), and a Bedeni jar with incised hatched triangles.
29% of the graves contained a single vessel; 40% of them were equipped with 2 vessels (the standard set being composed of an open and a closed shape), and 20,5% of them with 3 vessels. Three graves yielded 4 vessels, and two graves (No. 2013 G-220, No. 2012 G-51) yielded 6 and respectively 8 vessels. There does not seem to be any clear correlation between graves containing the largest number of vessels, and graves which contained different types of gravegoods, although a vague correspondence can be established between both of these graves groups and stone-lined graves containing more than one skeleton.
A considerable part of the non-ceramic burial goods were made of metal (at a preliminary autoptic inspection, it appears that different copper alloys and possibly silver had been used beside the most frequent arsenical copper). According to the preliminary report by the Georgian excavators, at least one item (a spiral) was made of almost pure lead (98%). Preliminary contacts have been taken with dr. Irina Gambashidze (GNM) for composition analyses to be carried out on selected metal objects from Doghlauri after the departure of our team.
Two small axes, a gouge (Fig. 8) and two awls were recovered in grave No. 2013 G-175 (in association with Bedeni vessels).
The remaining metal objects belong to well attested Kura-Araxes types, which find numerous precise parallels at other Kura-Araxes cemeteries of the Shida Kartli region (a.o., at Natsargora, Kvatskhela, Tvlepias Tsqharo, Dzaghina, as well as in previously excavated graves at Doghlauri: see Puturidze, Rova 2012). They include double-volute pins (Fig. 9, a), spiral-shaped bracelets (Fig. 9, b), hair-rings, beads (Fig. 9, c-d), and different types of pendants - anchor-shaped (Fig. 9, e), lozenge-shaped (Fig. 9, f), and drop-shaped ones (Fig. 9, g).
A special mention deserve two unusual types of metal pendants, for which no precise parallels are known to us: one in the shape of an animal claw (Fig. 10, a) and one (in two examples) in the shape of a conical shell (Fig. 10, b), bearing an incised decoration.
Beads of different materials (rock-crystal, carnelian, whitish paste, and bone) are well represented in the burial goods: their total number amounts to almost 240. They are mainly disc- or ring-shaped (Fig. 11; only paste and bone beads occasionally show an elongated cylindrical shape). Other bone objects are only sporadically attested: just few spindle-whorls and two drop-shaped pendants.
Chipped lithic artefacts are on the whole rare (36 items), and mainly consist of small arrow-heads with stemmed base and triangular head, as are often found in Kura-Araxes graves: an exceptional find is represented by a group of 25 such arrows, from grave No. 2012 G-121, which apparently lay in a leather quiver, fragments of which were recovered near them (Fig. 12). A side-notched flint spearhead with stemmed base and triangular blade was also found in the same grave.
A preliminary evaluation of the quantity and quality of burial goods of the Doghlauri graves with those from the other Kura-Araxes cemeteries of the Shida Kartli region and, more in general, with those of other areas of diffusion of the Kura-Araxes culture confirms the lack of significant differences in burial wealth between individual graves which characterises this culture. It is worth stressing, in this respect, that the graves which contained a larger number of small finds (especially metal objects) often correspond to those stone-lined pit graves which contained multiple skeletons. In addition, most of these "richer" graves appear to date to a late phase within the life span of the cemetery.
On the other hand, if compared with other more or less contemporary cemeteries of the Shida Kartli region (e.g. with Khashuri Natsargora, for which see Puturidze, Rova 2012), Doghlauri stands out for its in average wealthier graves. This confirms the importance of the Aradetis Orgora settlement, to which the Doghlauri cemetery belonged, as a regional centre of the Kura-Araxes culture.
The study of the artefacts from the Kura-Araxes graves can be considered concluded, to the exception of the laboratory analyses on the samples which have been collected in the course of the season. We therefore hope to be able to produce a final publication of the EBA cemetery of Doghlauri in a relatively short time
