Two seasons of georgian-italian excavations at Aradetis Orgora (Georgia)

Iulon Gagoshidze, Elena Rova,

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Abstract

In 2013 and 2014, excavations were carried out at Aradetis Orgora, one of the main archaeological sites of the Shida Kartli province of Georgia, by a Georgian-Italian team of researchers. Work concentrated on the site’s main mound (also known as Dedoplis Gora), a hill of natural origin overlooking the left bank of the Western Prone River, near the confluence of the latter with the Kura. The mound was occupied from the late prehistory to the Early Medieval period; its present top is occupied by an important palatial building of the Late Hellenistic/Early Imperial period (kingdom of Caucasian Iberia), in course of excavation since the 1980ies. Excavations were carried out in three different areas. Fields A and B, two stratigraphic soundings on the opposite sides of the mound, revealed a more than 10 m high sequence of pre-classical levels. Preliminary results suggest that a significant occupation of the Kura-Araxes period (Late Chalcolithic/early Early Bronze Age) was followed by a more sporadic presence during the late Early Bronze and (possibly) the Middle Bronze Age. The Late Bronze Age witnessed to large-scale building activities (erection of protection and terracing walls, etc.) at the mound’s periphery.
The site continued to be occupied throughout the Iron Age, until the erection of the Hellenistic palace. Field C, on the present top of the mound, was devoted to the continuing investigation of the latter. Three rooms of the eastern wing of the palace and part of its pillared portico were brought to light; one of them contained a clay fire altar on the surface of which lays a ritual deposit containing, a.o., a numbper of small bronze figurines adorned with gold. Remains of Early Medieval structures dug into the palace debris were also investigated. A multidisciplinary sampling program for reconstructing the site’s palaeoenvironment and its evolution in the course of the time is also being developed.