New data on different patterns of obsidian procurement in Georgia (Southern Caucasus) during the Chalcolithic, Bronze and Iron Age Periods

Bernard Gratuze · Elena Rova

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Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies Archaeological and Geological Studies Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis

Abstract

The analysis of 107 obsidian samples collected in the course of the archaeological investigations carried out from 2009 to 2019 by the Georgian-Italian expeditions in Eastern Georgia in the provinces of Shida Kartli (Natsargora, Aradetis Orgora and Okherakhevi) and Kakheti (Tsiteli Gorebi 5) allowed us to confirm the existence of two contrasting obsidian procurement patterns in the region. Virtually all the samples (56 out of 57) from the province of Shida Kartli, west of the present capital Tbilisi, regardless of their site of origin and of their date, which varies from the late 4th to the early 1st millennium BC, originate from a single general source (i.e., the outcrops of the Chikiani volcano near lake Paravani in southern Georgia). On the other hand, the samples from the early 5th millennium site of Tsiteli Gorebi 5 in the province of Kakheti, close to the present border of Azerbaijan, originate from seven different volcanoes located in Armenia (Gegham, Syunik, Gutansar and Tsaghkunyats), in southern Georgia (Chikiani), and in eastern Turkey (Sarıkamış region and Yağlıca Dağ). They thus outline for Kakheti a more complex multisource procurement pattern, already familiar from other sites of the same region, as well as of the neighbouring area beyond the Georgian/Azerbaijani and Georgian/Armenian borders, which deserves being further investigated in the future.

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References

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