Archaeology in the U.S.S.R.
Arkhaeologiya v SSSR
The growing external trade and internal barter were responsible for silver coinage minted in this area (Colchis) from the beginning of the sixth century B. C. These coins are found in substantial numbers in west Georgia. The burials show already growing property and social inequality in the population. In the rich burials large quantities of weapons, gold, and silver are found; in others a small number of cheap things. Noteworthy among the finds of this period are gold, silver, and bronze ornaments: belts, necklaces, bangles, ear-rings, brooches, and little figures of animals. Especially favoured in this area were broad bronze belt plates with stylized drawings of animals and ornament. The corpses were commonly interred in large pitchers or sometimes in clay coffins.
[220] Antiquities from Colchis [the classical name for west Georgia. T.] had been known previously for the most part from chance finds or amateur excavations, but in recent years the Georgian Academy of Sciences has undertaken systematic research in the area.
From 1937 large-scale excavations have been carried on at Armazi-Mtskheta. At the same time excavations have been conducted north of this site on the largest cemetery in the Caucasus at Samtavro.
The interments here took place from the end of the second millennium B. C. to the seventh to eighth centuries A. D. They are so numerous that the area of the cemetery of almost 14 hectares (over 30 acres) seemed cramped, and sometimes the graves were [221] constructed one on top of another in two or three layers. In Soviet times a substantial part of the cemetery at Samtavro has been discovered and more than 1.5 hectares (3.5 acres) has been examined, in which over 1,800 ancient graves of different periods have been discovered. Some of the graves, as already mentioned, belonged to the Bronze and Iron Ages, but the majority are contemporary with the flourishing period of Armazi-Mtskheta. Over the long period of time that the cemetery was in use the method of burial changed several times: up to the middle of the first millennium B. C. plain burials in the ground; from then to the end of the first millennium B. C. the corpses were usually interred in large clay jars; in the first centuries A. D. they were in cists, which were constructed at first of tiles and flat clay plaques, and later of stone flags. In the graves there were many valuable objects: weapons, utensils, jewellery and ornaments, coins, and so on....
In the citadel at Armazi remains of strong fort walls and palace buildings have been discovered, as well as the town water main and other buildings. A large quantity of building material was found here: beautifully dressed and decorated stone blocks, well fired and painted tiles, bricks, etc. In Samtavro a burial stone was found bearing a Greek inscription in which mention is made of the 'chief artist and architect Akhol'. This Akhol was apparently a leading architect of Mtskheta.
Four km. to the west of Armazi, where the stream Armaziskhevi meets the Kura, on a terrace on the right bank of the latter the ruins of a pagan temple have been discovered as well as the remains of palace buildings and baths. All this was part of a suburban residence of high dignitaries of the Iberian state, eristavi or pitiakhshi. On this terrace was a necropolis that was in use until the seventh to eighth centuries A. D. The most ancient group of tombs dating to the second to third century A. D. were of exceptional interest. These were in a family vault built next to the palace buildings. The eristavi and members of their families were interred in stone coffins or cists of stone flags, sometimes on stands with silver feet. The stands were made of walnut and the corpses covered with gold-woven shrouds with little gold plates and buttons of various shapes sewn on to them. In the graves in this family vault numerous objects were found: gold [222] ornaments, weapons for display, gold and silver coins, and silver utensils of local and foreign make, often with donors' inscriptions. Among the silver vessels deserving mention are a large decorated dish presented to eristav Bersum by King Faldad, two cups with engravings of a sacred horse standing before an altar, cups with the sculptured bust of a man, and the high relief figure of a goddess with a cornucopia (Pl. 13b).
Very remarkable inscriptions have been found at Mtskheta. Besides several in Greek and two in Hebraic, there were inscriptions in some local language written in hitherto unknown characters of Aramaic origin and called after the site [223] 'Armazi script'. In 1940 a stone plaque with a bilingual inscription was found in the Armaziskhevi necropolis. The text is written in Greek and in the local language in 'Armazi script'. The inscription is dated to the middle of the second century A. D.
This bilingual inscription has made it possible to decipher a group of inscriptions written in the unknown language which previously could not be read. Thanks to the knowledge of the elements of the language of the Armazi inscriptions it is possible now to read them, or at least to obtain the general meaning. The inscriptions found in the Armaziskhevi cemetery make it possible to work out some details of the political history of Georgia and in particular the lives of the civil servants of the Iberian kings called pitiakhsh. No less important is the knowledge gained for the study of the development of the Persian and other alphabets, as well as the Georgian script. [Georgian is written in a script of Oriental origin, not in the Russian script which is of course derived from Greek letters. T.]
Mtskheta was the capital of eastern Georgia (Iberia) up to the sixth century A. D. It was at the end of the town's life that the temple of Jvari was built by a man of genius. It holds an exceptional place in the history of Georgian architecture and survives to the present day. In the sixth century Mtskheta gave up its first place to Tiflis (the modern capital), but it remained a religious centre.
The results of the excavations just described prove that ancient Iberia was a developed class-state distinguished by a high degree of Hellenistic culture, which was the foundation on which many centuries of Georgian culture and statehood later rested.
In the early medieval period Georgia was split up into a mass of small principalities; the struggle for unification was prolonged and accompanied by civil war. Only during the reign of David the Builder (1089-1125) was the formation of a single powerful feudal state completed under the control of one monarch. After 1123 when David took Dmanisi the town was once again in Georgian hands. At the end of the fourteenth century Dmanisi like other Georgian towns was destroyed by Timur. In the sixteenth century it was occupied by the Turks, at the beginning of the seventeenth century by the Persians. In the middle of the eighteenth century its existence as a town ceased and it was finally deserted.
During the excavation it was possible to distinguish two layers dated by coins; eleventh to thirteenth centuries, the floruit of Georgian culture, and thirteenth to fourteenth centuries, the time of Mongol control.
The town walls and various houses inside are built of the local stone, basalt. An ancient road leads to the town gate and continues beyond as a street into the city itself where it leads to the upper town, separated from the lower by its own wall. At the foot of the upper town were concentrated almost all the religious buildings, of which the chief one was the so-called 'Sion of Dmanisi' built in the seventh century, restored in the eighteenth century, and still surviving. There are also the ruins of two other churches of very late construction here. Several buildings have been excavated and wine cellars and oil-stores have been found. The best example of urban architecture is the thirteenth-century baths in the fort on the topmost point of the upper town The baths consisted of three rooms of which the largest was inhabited. The walls of the bath are built of stone and flat square bricks. The roofs of two rooms were covered by flat cupolas, in the middle of which were circular holes to let in daylight. Each cupola was covered by a double gable of flat tile set in lime mortar. One room was used for undressing and for rest, the bath was in the other. Two pipes passed through the walls to provide hot and cold water. In the centre of the floor [225] was an outlet pipe which took away the water under the floor outside. The bath building is set on rock and the foundations do not go deep. The heating arrangements were underground. A clever arrangement provided constant circulation of water into the hot bath, so that the furnace heated the water quickly and evenly but did not overheat it. In the suburbs stand the ruins of three large baths used by the citizens, and also extensive cemeteries, Muslim and Christian.
In the excavations many copper coins; bronze objects, glass bracelets and other objects were found. Among the coins are some very interesting thirteenth-century ones struck in the local mint with the name of David the Builder. The local pottery is varied, especially the glazed wares with patterns of many colours and drawings of animals.
Dmanisi is a good example of a medieval provincial town, typical not only of Georgia but of the whole mountain region of Transcaucasia. Similar to Dmitnisi is another town well known from written sources, the fortress of Rustavi (30 km. south of Tiflis on the river Kura).
The monastery of Gelati (in Georgia) founded by that outstanding agent of the Georgian state, David the Builder, had great significance as a powerful centre of enlightenment, philosophical thought, and artistic culture. In the monastery lie the ruins of an academy in which were taught geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, philosophy, grammar, rhetoric, and music. Excavations in 1945 revealed the main lecture hall of the academy with its stone benches for the students and a stone seat for the lecturer. [226]
The study of the medieval remains of Georgia has clarified the various aspects of its national culture and made it possible to establish a number of historical facts. Archaeological examination of the architectural remains not only provides evidence of a high level of architecture in medieval Georgia but also throws light on those details that are important for the history of culture. Thus in 1936 archaeologists cleared the church at Bolnisi of almost half its accumulated soil. Apart from the fact that this is one of the oldest and most interesting churches of Georgia and could be fully studied during the excavations, a building inscription of A. D. 493-5 was found. This inscription, besides recording the exact date of the construction of the church, is also the oldest monument of Georgian epigraphy. It is written in a beautifully formed majuscule, whose degree of refinement presupposes a long period of development of the Georgian script already before the end of the fifth century.
Work at Mingechaur began in 1935 and has continued since. As a result of surveys and excavations, it has been possible to distinguish four periods of settlement and several cemeteries with a complex of rich remains representative of the craftsmanship, life, and culture of the population of ancient Azerbaijan from the end of the Eneolithic Period up to the late Middle Ages (fifteenth to seventeenth centuries A. D.). The excavations have yielded more than 20,000 objects. Several ancient settlements have come to light. They have been called 'earthworks' provisionally and given consecutive numbers. Earthwork No.1 is on the right bank of the river Kura where it joins the Boz- Dag. It belongs to the Bronze Age, to the second and beginning of the first millennia B. C. Remains of huts were discovered here with beaten clay floors, and pottery kilns.
Earthwork No. 2 lay on the other side of the Kura. This was a medieval settlement, whose inhabitants were agriculturalists. Dozens of kilns were found here for baking wheel-turned pots. They were of a different type from the Bronze-Age kilns on the other side of the river. This site contained a pre-Christian temple which was subsequently converted into a church. In the eighth to ninth centuries, evidently as a result of an Arab raid, this building was destroyed by fire. Its walls were built of stone and sun-dried brick, and were up to 1.8 m. thick. They were decorated with polychrome painting on the inside, while the roof was covered with large tiles. Mouldings from an ornamental frieze and column bases were found. On one stone two peacocks were represented with ribbons round their necks and between them a tulip. On the upper part of the stone was a [228] cornice, on three sides of which was an inscription in the native language. Archaeological finds have helped to discover fragments of script of the lost Albanian language that can be read. The cultural deposit at this site covers the period between the fourth or fifth and twelfth to fourteenth centuries.
Earthwork No.3 is also on the left bank of the Kura on a small hill, and covers an area of 300 by 250 m. In the upper part of the cultural deposit, referred to the tenth to thirteenth centuries, remains of huts were found with walls of intertwined twigs and reeds which were plastered with clay. The upper parts, the ceiling and roof, were supported by special wooden props. The second layer (sixth to tenth centuries) was characterized by numerous finds of hut remains, storage pits, and various objects indicative of an advanced state of agriculture and craftsmanship at this time. The lowest layer belongs to the beginning of the Christian era.
The excavation of the graves in this area on both sides of the river has yielded remarkable material. People were buried here from the first millennium B.C. up to approximately the fourth century A. D. Fourteen types of grave were distinguished, of which the most important are described here. In the lowest layer of the cemeteries there were contracted skeletons with eneolithic pots but without other grave goods. Above were Bronze-Age burials. With these were found large bronze swords, battle-axes, daggers, flint and obsidian arrowheads, bronze ornaments, and grey or black pottery sometimes with white incrustation. Judging by the objects of everyday life found in the graves, the population was in a transitional state from nomadic to settled life.
In the seventh to fifth centuries B. C. we find a culture characterized by extensive use of iron mostly for making weapons. Bodies were interred in an extended position and the graves were sometimes covered with stone blocks. Pottery was red and the usual shape was a round pitcher. Triangular gold, bronze, and silver ear-rings, wide bronze belts, gold necklaces, and so on were found in the graves. There were also seal-rings with intaglios of a man standing before an altar, a man with shield and spear battling with a lion, the head of an ox, a lion, a red deer, a roe deer, a chamois. and various birds. Sometimes [229] three- finned arrowheads with barbs are found of the so-called Scythian type. This culture belongs to the Median Period, a time when written sources throw little light on the events in Azerbaijan. The find of these arrowheads of a Scythian type is evidence of the invasions of the Scythians into Media which Herodotus recorded. Graves with slightly flexed skeletons belong to the fourth or third centuries B. C. The weapons are now almost all of iron, and bronze Occurs only as a survival.
From the second or first centuries B. C. up to the first or second centuries A. D. the so-called culture of jar burials is found. In vessels of small size with two handles children were buried. In the larger vessels, from 1.2 to 2.05 m. high and 80 cm. or more broad, adults were buried. Around the interment, pots containing the bones of large- and small-horned cattle are found. In the women's graves abundant ornaments occur: beads, bronze bracelets for legs and arms (one skeleton had thirty-six rings on the legs alone), finger-ring seals with stamps of cornelian and glass, and so on. In the men's graves there are weapons; swords, daggers, spearheads, and knives. In these jar burials painted pottery is found with drawings of birds, plants, geometrical shapes, and so on. The bones of domesticated animals found in the graves testify to stock-rearing; pomegranates, walnuts, and other fruit to orchards; sickles, scythes, querns, and other agricultural equipment to farming. To a later time belong the graves in this area in clay beds, wooden frames, catacombs, etc.
Thus the graves at Mingechaur give a remarkable picture of the sequence of cultures following one after the other, and they have formed the basis of the archaeological chronology of Azerbaijan.
Written information about Albania in the early centuries A. D. has reached us in the collected works of a series of Greek and Roman authors who had obtained their accounts from Roman legionaries taking part in campaigns in Transcaucasia. Of the twenty-nine towns and villages mentioned by Ptolemy (c. A. D. 120-70) only one name has survived to the present day: Khabala (Kabala). Kabala was evidently the capital of ancient Albania. Its ruins lie at Chukhur-Kabala. Graves of the first century A.D. and remains of later times have been found here. The town was in existence for a long time.
The town consists of a large rectangular fortified area covering 39 hectares (about 95 acres). The defensive walls were [232] evidently built in the fourth to seventh centuries A.D. Later, in the ninth century, a rectangle within the town was divided off and surrounded by a wall of sun-dried brick with semicircular towers. It became the main fortress and the outer wall fell into decay in the twelfth to thirteenth centuries, although occupation outside the fortress did not cease. The town perished at the beginning of the thirteenth century as a result of a Mongol raid. A series of buildings of the twelfth to thirteenth centuries were discovered, as well as numerous architectural details, including the clay head of a lion. Eleventh-century baths and workshops were excavated where many tools, ornaments and glazed pots, faience, and other vessels were found.
Ganja in the eleventh to thirteenth centuries extended along two sides of a river spanned by three bridges built of brick and stone. The town was encircled by two defensive walls about 6 m. thick with large towers at the corners and smaller ones in between. In the enclosed area there were artisan areas, where houses and workshops have been excavated. The houses were built of brick and stone. The city was well maintained, for the ramifications of clay pipes of the water supply have been found. The main products of the workshops were textiles and pottery, the former recorded in written sources, the latter abundantly represented by archaeological material. Besides production of ordinary wares for the general market, a fine glazed ware was made, which was decorated with geometric and plant patterns as well as animal and human figures. It not only satisfied local demand but was exported to other towns. After the Mongol [232] ravages, pottery production fell into decay both in Ganja and the other towns of Azerbaijan,
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