Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T06:39:31.698Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gateway to the Yayla: The Varneti Archaeological Complex in the Southern Caucasus Highlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2018

William Anderson ,
Michelle Negus Cleary Open the ORCID record for Michelle Negus Cleary [Opens in a new window] ,
Jessie Birkett-Rees Open the ORCID record for Jessie Birkett-Rees [Opens in a new window] ,
Damjan Krsmanovic  and
Nikoloz Tskvitinidze
William Anderson
Affiliation:
John Cronin and Associates, Ireland
Michelle Negus Cleary
Affiliation:
Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Melbourne, Australia
Jessie Birkett-Rees
Affiliation:
Centre for Ancient Cultures, Monash University, Australia
Damjan Krsmanovic
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, UK
Nikoloz Tskvitinidze
Affiliation:
Cultural Resources Exploration Centre, Tbilisi, Georgia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent ground surveys in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region of southern Georgia have investigated a previously undocumented group of sites along a ridge overlooking the upper Kura river valley. Features and artefacts recorded at Varneti suggest long but episodic occupation from the Chalcolithic to the later medieval periods, with prominent phases in the Early to Middle Bronze Age and the Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age. Varneti has the potential to contribute to understanding economic and strategic aspects of the long-term settlement pattern in the southern Caucasus, especially the interplay between lowland and highland zones. Its position in the landscape, at a transitional point between the river valley and the upland pasture (yayla), may explain its persistent use by agro-pastoral communities that operated in varied cultural situations. The survey results help us frame a series of questions regarding economic and social dynamics at a local and regional scale and the continuity and discontinuity of practice in highland environments through long timespans.

Des prospections de terrain récemment effectuées dans la région de Samtskhe-Javakheti dans le sud de la Géorgie se sont concentrées sur un groupe de sites jusqu’à maintenant inexploré le long d'une crête surplombant la vallée de la rivière Kura. Les sites et objets relevés à Varneti indiquent que cette zone a été occupée longtemps mais épisodiquement à partir du Chalcolithique jusqu’à la fin du Moyen Age, particulièrement à l’âge du Bronze ancien et moyen et à l’âge du Bronze final jusqu'au début de l’âge du Fer. Varneti est capable de contribuer à notre connaissance des aspects économiques et stratégiques du milieu habité sur la longue durée dans le Caucase méridional et de nous éclairer sur les rapports entre les zones de hauteurs et les terres basses. La situation de Varneti dans le paysage, à la charnière entre la vallée et les hauts pâturages (yayla) explique son occupation persistante par des communautés agro-pastorales vivant sous divers régimes culturels. Les résultats de nos prospections nous permettent de formuler une série de questions sur les vecteurs économiques et sociaux à l’échelle locale et régionale et de nous interroger sur la continuité ou la discontinuité des pratiques dans un milieu montagneux sur la longue durée. Translation by Madeleine Hummler

Eine neue Geländeaufnahme in der Gegend von Samtskhe-Javakheti in Südgeorgien hat eine bisher unbekannte Gruppe von Fundstellen entlang eines Hügelkamms oberhalb des Flusstals der Kura. Die Stätten und Artefakten, die wir vermessen haben, zeigen, dass Varneti sehr lang aber episodisch besiedelt war, nämlich von der Kupferzeit bis zum Spätmittelalter, mit Hauptphasen in der Früh- bis Mittelbronzezeit und in der Spätbronzezeit bis Früheisenzeit. Varneti kann uns wertvolle Hinweise über die wirtschaftliche und strategische Gestaltung der langfristigen Besiedlung im Südkaukasus geben, vor allem über die Wechselbeziehungen zwischen den Tief- und Hochlandzonen. Seine Lage in der Landschaft, zwischen dem Flusstal und den Hochweiden (yayla) erklärt vielleicht, warum dieser Bereich immer wieder von Viehzüchter- und Ackerbauergemeinschaften in verschiedenen kulturellen Umständen besiedelt wurde. Die Ergebnisse der Geländeaufnahmen helfen uns, die Fragestellungen über die wirtschaftliche und soziale Dynamik auf lokaler und regionaler Ebene zu formulieren und die Kontinuität oder Diskontinuität der Praxis über einem längeren Zeitraum im Tiefland und Hochland zu untersuchen. Translation by Madeleine Hummler

Keywords

Southern CaucasusEurasiahighland landscapesagro-pastoralismfortificationepisodic occupationarchaeological surveyCaucase méridionalEurasiepaysage des hauteursagro-pastoralismefortificationsoccupation épisodiqueprospections archéologiquesSüdkaukasusEurasienGebirgslandschaftViehzucht und AckerbauBefestigungepisodische Besiedlungarchäologische Geländeaufnahme
Type
Article
Information
European Journal of Archaeology , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , February 2019 , pp. 22 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © European Association of Archaeologists 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, W., Birkett-Rees, J., Negus Cleary, M., Krsmanovic, D. & Tskvitinidze, N. 2014. Archaeological Survey in the South Caucasus (Samtskhe-Javakheti, Georgia): Approaches, Methods and First Results. Anatolia Antiqua, 22: 11–33.Google Scholar
Badalyan, R., Smith, A.T., Lindsay, I., Khatchadourian, L. & Avetisyan, P. 2008. Village, Fortress, and Town in Bronze and Iron Age Southern Caucasia: A Preliminary Report on the 2003–2006 Investigations of Project ArAGATS on the Tsaghkahovit Plain, Republic of Armenia. Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan, 40: 45–105.Google Scholar
Badalyan, R., Smith, A.T., Lindsay, I., Harutyunyan, A., Greene, A., Marshall, M., Monahan, B. & Hovsepyan, R. 2014. A Preliminary Report on the 2008, 2010 and 2011 Investigations of Project ArAGATS on the Tsaghkahovit Plain, Republic of Armenia. Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan, 46: 149–222.Google Scholar
Deschamps, S. 2016. Erebuni in the Context of Urartean Fortresses in the Ararat Plain: Sources and Problems. Quaternary International, 395: 208–15.Google Scholar
Gambashidze, O. 1983. Concerning the Materials of the Asia Minor-Aegean World in Samtskhe-Saatabago (in Georgian). Dzeglis Megobari, 63: 11–16.Google Scholar
Greene, A. & Lindsay, I. 2013. Mobility, Territorial Commitments, and Political Organization among Late Bronze Age Polities in Southern Caucasia. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 22: 54–71.Google Scholar
Gverdtsiteli, R. 1979. Georgian Soviet Encyclopaedia (in Georgian). Vol. 4. Tbilisi: Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR.Google Scholar
Hammer, E. 2014. Highland Fortress-Polities and their Settlement Systems in the Southern Caucasus. Antiquity, 88: 757–74.Google Scholar
Hopper, K., Anderson, W. & Robinson, A. 2018. Landscape Archaeology in Southern Caucasia: An Introduction. In: Anderson, W., Hopper, K. & Robinson, A., eds. Landscape Archaeology in Southern Caucasia: Finding Common Ground in Diverse Environments (OREA Series 8). Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences, pp. 11–21.Google Scholar
Kakhiani, K., Sagona, A., Sagona, C., Kvavadze, E., Bedianashvili, G., Massager, E., Martin, L., Herrscher, E., Martkoplishvili, I., Birkett-Rees, J. & Longford, C. 2013. Archaeological Investigations at Chobareti in Southern Georgia, the Caucasus. Ancient Near Eastern Studies, 50: 1–138.Google Scholar
Kastl, G. 2008. Didi Gora and Tqisbolo-Gora: Two Middle Bronze Age Settlements in the Alazani Valley, Kakheti, Eastern Georgia. In: Rubinson, K.S. & Sagona, A., eds. Ceramics in Transitions: Chalcolithic through Iron Age in the Highlands of the Southern Caucasus and Anatolia (Ancient Near Eastern Studies Supplement Series 27). Leuven: Peeters, pp. 185–98.Google Scholar
Khaburzania, G. & Robinson, A. 2018. Nature and Local Knowledge Combine in Powerful Strongholds: Preliminary Findings of the Archaeological Survey in Samtskhe-Javakhei Project. In: Batmaz, A., Bedianashvili, G., Michalewicz, A. & Robinson, A., eds. Context and Connection: Essays on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East in Honour of Antonio Sagona. Leuven: Peeters, pp. 303–24.Google Scholar
Khatchadourian, L. 2016. Imperial Matter: Ancient Persia and the Archaeology of Empires. Oakland (CA): University of California Press.Google Scholar
Kiani, M.Y. 1982. Parthian Sites in Hyrcania: The Gurgan Plain. Berlin: Reimer.Google Scholar
Licheli, V. & Rusishvili, R. 2008. A Middle Bronze Age Burial at Atsquri. In: Sagona, A. & Abramishvili, M., eds. Archaeology in Southern Caucasus: Perspectives from Georgia (Ancient Near Eastern Studies Supplement Series 19). Leuven: Peeters, pp. 205–28.Google Scholar
Lindsay, I. 2011. Holding Down the Fort: Dynamics of Late Bronze Age Community Formation and Political Landscape Production in the Southern Caucasus. In: Johansen, P.G. & Bauer, A.M., eds. The Archaeology of Politics: The Materiality of Political Practice and Action in the Past. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, pp. 151–77.Google Scholar
Messager, E., Herrscher, E., Martin, L., Kvavadze, E., Martkoplishvili, I., Delhon, C., Kakhiani, K., Bedianashvili, G., Sagona, A., Bitadze, L., Poulmarc'h, M., Guy, A. & Lordkipanidze, D. 2015. Archaeobotanical and Isotopic Evidence of Early Bronze Age Farming Activities and Diet in the Mountainous Environment of the South Caucasus. A Pilot Study of Chobareti Site (Samtskhe-Javakheti Region). Journal of Archaeological Science, 53: 214–26.Google Scholar
Negus Cleary, M. 2015. Kalas and Kurgans: Some considerations on Late Iron Age Pastoralism within the Central Asian Oasis of Chorasmia. In: Kardulias, P.N., ed. The Ecology of Pastoralism. Boulder (CO): University of Colorado Press, pp. 117–69.Google Scholar
Negus Cleary, M. 2017. Enclosure Sites, Non-nucleated Settlement Strategies and Political Capitals in Ancient Eurasia. In: Kim, H.J., Vervaet, F.J. & Adali, S.F., eds. Eurasian Empires in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 275–312.Google Scholar
Negus Cleary, M., Tskvitinidze, N., Anderson, W., Krsmanovic, D. & Birkett-Rees, J. 2018. Mapping the Vilayet of Gurjistan. The Southern Caucasus Highlands in the Late Medieval–Early Ottoman Periods. In: Batmaz, A., Bedianashvili, G., Michalewicz, A. & Robinson, A., eds. Context and Connection: Essays on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East in Honour of Antonio Sagona. Leuven: Peeters, pp. 383–408.Google Scholar
Omrani Rekavand, H., Sauer, E.W., Wilkinson, T., Abbasi, G.A., Priestman, S., Tamak, E.S., et al. 2008. Sasanian Walls, Hinterland Fortresses and Abandoned Ancient Irrigated Landscapes: The 2007 Season on the Great Wall of Gorgan and the Wall of Tammishe. Iran, 46: 151–78.Google Scholar
Ristvet, L., Gopnik, H., Bakhshaliyev, V., Lau, H., Ashurov, S. & Bryant, R. 2012. On the Edge of Empire: 2008 and 2009 Excavations at Oğlanqala, Azerbaijan. American Journal of Archaeology, 116: 321–62.Google Scholar
Sagona, A. 2000. Sos Höyük and the Erzurum Region in Late Prehistory: A Provisional Chronology for Northeast Anatolia. Varia Anatolica, 11: 329–73.Google Scholar
Sagona, A. 2012. Remarks on the East Anatolian Iron Age. In: Çilingiroğlu, A. & Sagona, A., eds. Anatolian Iron Ages 7. The Proceedings of the Seventh Anatolian Iron Ages Colloquium held at Edirne, 19–24 April 2010. Leuven: Peeters, pp. 253–67.Google Scholar
Sagona, A. & Sagona, C. 2004. Archaeology at the North-East Anatolian Frontier, 1: An Historical Geography and a Field Survey of the Bayburt Province (Ancient Near Eastern Studies Supplement Series 14). Leuven: Peeters.Google Scholar
Smith, A.T. 1999. The Making of an Urartian Landscape in Southern Transcaucasia: A Study of Political Architectonics. American Journal of Archaeology, 103: 45–71.Google Scholar
Smith, A.T., Badalyan, R. & Avetisyan, P. 2009. The Archaeology and Geography of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies. Volume 1: The Foundations of Research and Regional Survey in the Tsaghkahovit Plain, Armenia (Oriental Institute Publications 134). Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.Google Scholar