Papers by Nino Shanshashvili
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Archaeology of the Beshtasheni Settlement and its surroundings. Stratigraphy and chronology
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Abstract: Archaeological materials of the Bronze Age South Caucasus clearly indicate
that in this... more Abstract: Archaeological materials of the Bronze Age South Caucasus clearly indicate
that in this period religious rituals used to be conducted in settlements as well as outside of
them. In settlements a sacred place could be a temple, or a specifi c territory (square) and a
separated place or a hearth in house. Outside the settlements a cult space could be a single
object (menhir, kurgan) or a complex. Places for cult ceremonies used to be territories of
cemeteries, where rituals were conducted at single burials or in a specifi c place.
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"Gold & Wein. Georgiens älteste Schätze", 2018, 2018
Trialeti Culture of the Middle Bronze Age is represented with huge burial kurgans of “kings” and ... more Trialeti Culture of the Middle Bronze Age is represented with huge burial kurgans of “kings” and chiefs. Special attention must be paid to the unique, hitherto unknown and very precious materials, which were discovered in burial chambers of deceased. Golden and silver adornments, standards, toreutics, silver and bronze weapons, black polished and painted pottery, which were discovered in the kurgans of the 3rd – 2nd millennium B.C. thoroughly occupied its place not only in Caucasian, but in the world culture treasury.
According to the resent data we can say that the Trialeti culture was spread in the central, eastern and southern parts of Caucasus.
Till the resent times, sites of Trialeti culture mainly were represented with burials. During the last decades settlements of Trialeti culture were discovered in the central part of South Caucasus (Kakheti, Kartli, Lore). Settlement of the last stage of Trialeti culture was discovered in Trialeti, near Jinisi village.
Graves of the Middle Bronze Age are kurgans with earth mound, stone mound and with stone-earth mound. The burial chamber of kurgan is arranged in the center of it. According to the burial chambers there are distinguished two types of burials – kurgans with pit or without pit burials. The construction of such compound complexes of this scale, required a lot of time, money and labor, and possibly lasted for several years. Apparently, the construction of a large kurgan used to start even during the lifetime of the buried. With the funeral rite were connected stone-paved roads, which were built for procession. They were organic part of kurgan. The ritual roads of Trialeti kurgans have no analogues in the distribution area of the kurgan cultures. The grandeur of stone roads is evidenced by their size. The length of some of them reaches 500 meters, and the width is 5-6 meters. They adjoin to kurgan exactly from the east and sometimes are a continuation of a dromos.
In the Trialeti kurgans, sometimes deceased was buried together with a four-wheeled cart. Some of the carts were disposable and were made just for a funeral ritual. Some scientists believe, that deceased, or his ashes, were brought to pit or large kurgans with funeral halls through dromos, into already closed funeral hall, on a chariot harnessed by bulls. The procession used to move along the ritual road.
Ritual-processional roads, discovered in Trialeti, date from the end of the 3rd millennium B.C. and the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C. and belong to the Middle Bronze Age. The ritual roads of Trielti kurgans have no analogues in the distribution area of the kurgan cultures. They have big similarity with the ritual-processional roads known in the Old World. Particular similarity is observed with the so-called "Ascending Roads" of the Egyptian pyramids.
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Over the Mountains and Far Away: Studies in Near Eastern history and archaeology presented to Mirjo Salvini on the occasion of his 80th birthday, 2019
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problems of the Archaeology of Caucasus/კავკასიის არქეოლოგიის საკითხები, 2021
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კავკასიის არქეოლოგიის საკითხები/Problems of the Archaeology of Caucasus, 2021
Discovery of the Kura-Araxes culture raised many question and most of them have no complete answe... more Discovery of the Kura-Araxes culture raised many question and most of them have no complete answers. There is no common opinion between the scientist about social structure and economic development of the society of this culture. Genesis of this culture is unknown. Chronological issues rise more questions, even the term “Kura-Araxes Culture” is a subject to discuss.
Basing on the sites discovered in South Caucasus in the 30-40’s of the 20th century, academician B. Kuftin singled out the Kura-Araxes culture. He connected the so called “Eneolithic” clay pottery, which was discovered on the Trialeti archaeological sites, to the earlier discovered ceramic complexes and, basing on this, he supposed the existence of a new culture in the region between the rivers Kura and Araxes. B. Kuftin was the first who singled out this strong archaeological culture. This distinguished artifacts of the Caucasus region, were attributed to the ancient metal period by E. Takaishvili in 1910. The great achievement of B. Kuftin is that, basing on these artifacts and poor data of that period he singled out completely new archaeological culture and named it Eneolithic culture of Kura-Araxes. He was the first, who described this culture and singled out its characteristic elements. B. Kuftin dated the new culture from the 3000-2200 BC and divided it into two periods: The Eneolithic and the Early Bronze ages.
According to the dates received using radio-carbon method and stratigraphy of the sites, the establishment, rise development and decline of the Kura-Araxes culture took place in the time period between 3500/3400-2500/2400 BC.
The Kura-Araxes culture was spread from the northern slopes of the Caucasus Mountains to south-west in Anatolia, cover the Eliazig-Malatya region and reaches Syria-Palestine, to south it reaches Lake Van, and to south-east covers Lake Urmia and Kazvin plateau. To the east it was spread in Mil and Karabagh steppes. In Syria-Palestine it is known as Khirbet-Kerak culture.
Kura-Araxes culture belongs to the Mediterranean cultural world. B. Kuftin, who first discovered the Kura-Araxes culture, saw some similarities in round architecture, spiral ornament and, so called, horned altars.
Some similarities are also observed between the ceramics, ornament (spiral motives) and single ritual artifacts (zoomorphic application, zoo-anthropomorphic ceramics etc.) of the central and south European cultures and those of the Kura-Araxes culture. Though, these cultures are located far from each other and there is a chronological difference between them as well.
Development and wide spread of the Kura-Araxes culture was connected to mining and metalworking. It is not impossible that there used to be groups of metallurgists, who were potential innovators. These groups used to move from place to place while mining and bring their beliefs, sacral artifacts and holly objects. It seems, that the local population fall under the influence of the migrants. Presumably, appearance of the some sacral artifacts, which are uncommon for the region, could be explained by presence of the nomad metallurgists. Some artifacts discovered on the sites of Kura-Araxes culture are very uncommon for this culture, so this fact raises some questions as well.
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ქრონოსი #1, 2020
Archaeological and interdisciplinary studies conducted in Trialeti make possible to reconstruct t... more Archaeological and interdisciplinary studies conducted in Trialeti make possible to reconstruct the topography, planning, architectural view and interior of Trialeti settlements dated form the middle and the second half of the 2nd mill. B.C. Aeroarchaelogical, geodesic, paleobotanical, paleozoological, anthropological and palynological studies of the Trialeti settlements of this period have been conducted. Several dozens of settlements, citadels and cemeteries were studied archaeologically. Important data on the everyday life of Trialeti population of the middle in the second half of the 2nd mill. B.C. was received during the excavations of Jinisi, Beshtasheni and Sabechdavi settlements and Sapar-Kharaba cemetery. In the middle and the second half of the 2nd mill. B.C. population of Trialeti mainly chose southern slopes of Traileti mountain range. Generally, settlements were situated on the tops or slopes of hills or mountains, on the banks of rivers or lakes. In the Late Bronze Age deceased were buried far from the settlements in special constructed cemeteries.
It is possible to speak about everyday life of the local population, their occupations, dresses and diet, as well as about some religious beliefs. Main occupation of Trialeti population was agriculture and cattle-breeding. They were growing grain-crops and practiced gardening. Important was sphere of cattle-breeding. Breeding of small and large cattle, including horse breeding, used to be popular.
Such fields of craftsmanship as pottery, metallurgy, weaving, carpentry and works on stone, bone and leather played an important role in everyday life of Trialeti people. Also a war and trade was a part of their life.
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Trialeti Culture of the Middle Bronze Age is represented with huge burial kurgans of “kings” and ... more Trialeti Culture of the Middle Bronze Age is represented with huge burial kurgans of “kings” and chiefs. The name of the culture originates from the study of archaeological sites from Trialeti plateau in Tsalka region. In connection with the construction of the Tsalka Reservoir and Khrami hydropower station, archaeological works have been carried out there by B.A. Kuftin. After excavation of kurgans of Trialeti Culture, completely appeared a brilliance of the burial ritual. Special attention deserve the unique, hitherto unknown and very precious materials, which were discovered in a burial chambers of a deceased. Golden and silver adornments, standards, toreutics, silver and bronze weapons, black polished and painted pottery, which were discovered in the kurgans of the first half of the 2nd millennium B.C. thoroughly occupied its place not only in Caucasian, but in the world culture treasury. B. Kuftin named the new archaeological culture as "The Brilliant Culture of Trialeti Great Kurgans", which today is known as the "Trialet Culture". It must be mentioned here a rather high level of development of the cult architecture in the Middle Bronze Age. This is evidenced by the technique of constructing of kurgans, their ideological and aesthetic aspect and architectural appearance. The construction of such compound complexes of this scale, required a lot of time, money and labor, and possibly lasted for several years. Apparently, the construction of a large kurgan used to began even during the lifetime of the buried. With the funeral rite were connected stone-paved roads, which were built for the procession. They were an organic part of kurgan. The ritual roads of Trialeti kurgans have no analogues in the distribution area of the kurgan cultures. The grandeur of stone roads is evidenced by their size. The length of some of them reaches 500 meters, and the width is 5-6 meters. They adjoin to kurgan exactly from the east and sometimes are a continuation of a dromos. Ritual-processional roads, discovered in Trialeti, date from the end of the 3rd millennium B.C. and the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C. and belong to the Middle Bronze Age. The ritual roads of Trialeti kurgans have no analogues in the distribution area of the kurgan cultures.
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Papers by Nino Shanshashvili
that in this period religious rituals used to be conducted in settlements as well as outside of
them. In settlements a sacred place could be a temple, or a specifi c territory (square) and a
separated place or a hearth in house. Outside the settlements a cult space could be a single
object (menhir, kurgan) or a complex. Places for cult ceremonies used to be territories of
cemeteries, where rituals were conducted at single burials or in a specifi c place.
According to the resent data we can say that the Trialeti culture was spread in the central, eastern and southern parts of Caucasus.
Till the resent times, sites of Trialeti culture mainly were represented with burials. During the last decades settlements of Trialeti culture were discovered in the central part of South Caucasus (Kakheti, Kartli, Lore). Settlement of the last stage of Trialeti culture was discovered in Trialeti, near Jinisi village.
Graves of the Middle Bronze Age are kurgans with earth mound, stone mound and with stone-earth mound. The burial chamber of kurgan is arranged in the center of it. According to the burial chambers there are distinguished two types of burials – kurgans with pit or without pit burials. The construction of such compound complexes of this scale, required a lot of time, money and labor, and possibly lasted for several years. Apparently, the construction of a large kurgan used to start even during the lifetime of the buried. With the funeral rite were connected stone-paved roads, which were built for procession. They were organic part of kurgan. The ritual roads of Trialeti kurgans have no analogues in the distribution area of the kurgan cultures. The grandeur of stone roads is evidenced by their size. The length of some of them reaches 500 meters, and the width is 5-6 meters. They adjoin to kurgan exactly from the east and sometimes are a continuation of a dromos.
In the Trialeti kurgans, sometimes deceased was buried together with a four-wheeled cart. Some of the carts were disposable and were made just for a funeral ritual. Some scientists believe, that deceased, or his ashes, were brought to pit or large kurgans with funeral halls through dromos, into already closed funeral hall, on a chariot harnessed by bulls. The procession used to move along the ritual road.
Ritual-processional roads, discovered in Trialeti, date from the end of the 3rd millennium B.C. and the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C. and belong to the Middle Bronze Age. The ritual roads of Trielti kurgans have no analogues in the distribution area of the kurgan cultures. They have big similarity with the ritual-processional roads known in the Old World. Particular similarity is observed with the so-called "Ascending Roads" of the Egyptian pyramids.
Basing on the sites discovered in South Caucasus in the 30-40’s of the 20th century, academician B. Kuftin singled out the Kura-Araxes culture. He connected the so called “Eneolithic” clay pottery, which was discovered on the Trialeti archaeological sites, to the earlier discovered ceramic complexes and, basing on this, he supposed the existence of a new culture in the region between the rivers Kura and Araxes. B. Kuftin was the first who singled out this strong archaeological culture. This distinguished artifacts of the Caucasus region, were attributed to the ancient metal period by E. Takaishvili in 1910. The great achievement of B. Kuftin is that, basing on these artifacts and poor data of that period he singled out completely new archaeological culture and named it Eneolithic culture of Kura-Araxes. He was the first, who described this culture and singled out its characteristic elements. B. Kuftin dated the new culture from the 3000-2200 BC and divided it into two periods: The Eneolithic and the Early Bronze ages.
According to the dates received using radio-carbon method and stratigraphy of the sites, the establishment, rise development and decline of the Kura-Araxes culture took place in the time period between 3500/3400-2500/2400 BC.
The Kura-Araxes culture was spread from the northern slopes of the Caucasus Mountains to south-west in Anatolia, cover the Eliazig-Malatya region and reaches Syria-Palestine, to south it reaches Lake Van, and to south-east covers Lake Urmia and Kazvin plateau. To the east it was spread in Mil and Karabagh steppes. In Syria-Palestine it is known as Khirbet-Kerak culture.
Kura-Araxes culture belongs to the Mediterranean cultural world. B. Kuftin, who first discovered the Kura-Araxes culture, saw some similarities in round architecture, spiral ornament and, so called, horned altars.
Some similarities are also observed between the ceramics, ornament (spiral motives) and single ritual artifacts (zoomorphic application, zoo-anthropomorphic ceramics etc.) of the central and south European cultures and those of the Kura-Araxes culture. Though, these cultures are located far from each other and there is a chronological difference between them as well.
Development and wide spread of the Kura-Araxes culture was connected to mining and metalworking. It is not impossible that there used to be groups of metallurgists, who were potential innovators. These groups used to move from place to place while mining and bring their beliefs, sacral artifacts and holly objects. It seems, that the local population fall under the influence of the migrants. Presumably, appearance of the some sacral artifacts, which are uncommon for the region, could be explained by presence of the nomad metallurgists. Some artifacts discovered on the sites of Kura-Araxes culture are very uncommon for this culture, so this fact raises some questions as well.
It is possible to speak about everyday life of the local population, their occupations, dresses and diet, as well as about some religious beliefs. Main occupation of Trialeti population was agriculture and cattle-breeding. They were growing grain-crops and practiced gardening. Important was sphere of cattle-breeding. Breeding of small and large cattle, including horse breeding, used to be popular.
Such fields of craftsmanship as pottery, metallurgy, weaving, carpentry and works on stone, bone and leather played an important role in everyday life of Trialeti people. Also a war and trade was a part of their life.
that in this period religious rituals used to be conducted in settlements as well as outside of
them. In settlements a sacred place could be a temple, or a specifi c territory (square) and a
separated place or a hearth in house. Outside the settlements a cult space could be a single
object (menhir, kurgan) or a complex. Places for cult ceremonies used to be territories of
cemeteries, where rituals were conducted at single burials or in a specifi c place.
According to the resent data we can say that the Trialeti culture was spread in the central, eastern and southern parts of Caucasus.
Till the resent times, sites of Trialeti culture mainly were represented with burials. During the last decades settlements of Trialeti culture were discovered in the central part of South Caucasus (Kakheti, Kartli, Lore). Settlement of the last stage of Trialeti culture was discovered in Trialeti, near Jinisi village.
Graves of the Middle Bronze Age are kurgans with earth mound, stone mound and with stone-earth mound. The burial chamber of kurgan is arranged in the center of it. According to the burial chambers there are distinguished two types of burials – kurgans with pit or without pit burials. The construction of such compound complexes of this scale, required a lot of time, money and labor, and possibly lasted for several years. Apparently, the construction of a large kurgan used to start even during the lifetime of the buried. With the funeral rite were connected stone-paved roads, which were built for procession. They were organic part of kurgan. The ritual roads of Trialeti kurgans have no analogues in the distribution area of the kurgan cultures. The grandeur of stone roads is evidenced by their size. The length of some of them reaches 500 meters, and the width is 5-6 meters. They adjoin to kurgan exactly from the east and sometimes are a continuation of a dromos.
In the Trialeti kurgans, sometimes deceased was buried together with a four-wheeled cart. Some of the carts were disposable and were made just for a funeral ritual. Some scientists believe, that deceased, or his ashes, were brought to pit or large kurgans with funeral halls through dromos, into already closed funeral hall, on a chariot harnessed by bulls. The procession used to move along the ritual road.
Ritual-processional roads, discovered in Trialeti, date from the end of the 3rd millennium B.C. and the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C. and belong to the Middle Bronze Age. The ritual roads of Trielti kurgans have no analogues in the distribution area of the kurgan cultures. They have big similarity with the ritual-processional roads known in the Old World. Particular similarity is observed with the so-called "Ascending Roads" of the Egyptian pyramids.
Basing on the sites discovered in South Caucasus in the 30-40’s of the 20th century, academician B. Kuftin singled out the Kura-Araxes culture. He connected the so called “Eneolithic” clay pottery, which was discovered on the Trialeti archaeological sites, to the earlier discovered ceramic complexes and, basing on this, he supposed the existence of a new culture in the region between the rivers Kura and Araxes. B. Kuftin was the first who singled out this strong archaeological culture. This distinguished artifacts of the Caucasus region, were attributed to the ancient metal period by E. Takaishvili in 1910. The great achievement of B. Kuftin is that, basing on these artifacts and poor data of that period he singled out completely new archaeological culture and named it Eneolithic culture of Kura-Araxes. He was the first, who described this culture and singled out its characteristic elements. B. Kuftin dated the new culture from the 3000-2200 BC and divided it into two periods: The Eneolithic and the Early Bronze ages.
According to the dates received using radio-carbon method and stratigraphy of the sites, the establishment, rise development and decline of the Kura-Araxes culture took place in the time period between 3500/3400-2500/2400 BC.
The Kura-Araxes culture was spread from the northern slopes of the Caucasus Mountains to south-west in Anatolia, cover the Eliazig-Malatya region and reaches Syria-Palestine, to south it reaches Lake Van, and to south-east covers Lake Urmia and Kazvin plateau. To the east it was spread in Mil and Karabagh steppes. In Syria-Palestine it is known as Khirbet-Kerak culture.
Kura-Araxes culture belongs to the Mediterranean cultural world. B. Kuftin, who first discovered the Kura-Araxes culture, saw some similarities in round architecture, spiral ornament and, so called, horned altars.
Some similarities are also observed between the ceramics, ornament (spiral motives) and single ritual artifacts (zoomorphic application, zoo-anthropomorphic ceramics etc.) of the central and south European cultures and those of the Kura-Araxes culture. Though, these cultures are located far from each other and there is a chronological difference between them as well.
Development and wide spread of the Kura-Araxes culture was connected to mining and metalworking. It is not impossible that there used to be groups of metallurgists, who were potential innovators. These groups used to move from place to place while mining and bring their beliefs, sacral artifacts and holly objects. It seems, that the local population fall under the influence of the migrants. Presumably, appearance of the some sacral artifacts, which are uncommon for the region, could be explained by presence of the nomad metallurgists. Some artifacts discovered on the sites of Kura-Araxes culture are very uncommon for this culture, so this fact raises some questions as well.
It is possible to speak about everyday life of the local population, their occupations, dresses and diet, as well as about some religious beliefs. Main occupation of Trialeti population was agriculture and cattle-breeding. They were growing grain-crops and practiced gardening. Important was sphere of cattle-breeding. Breeding of small and large cattle, including horse breeding, used to be popular.
Such fields of craftsmanship as pottery, metallurgy, weaving, carpentry and works on stone, bone and leather played an important role in everyday life of Trialeti people. Also a war and trade was a part of their life.