Ancient stone fortresses rising across the highlands of southern Georgia are forcing researchers to reconsider what they knew about a civilization that thrived there for thousands of years. A new study published in Antiquity documents how massive Cyclopean structures in Georgia’s Javakheti Plateau served not just as military defenses but as part of a complex, mobile society with rich ritual traditions stretching back to 3500 BC.
Roberto Dan of the International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies in Rome led the research. The study is the product of a joint Georgian-Italian initiative called the Samtskhe-Javakheti Project, which has been working in the Samtskhe-Javakheti province since 2017.
Researchers used satellite imagery, GPS mapping and geographic information systems to survey the high plateau and conduct targeted excavations.
Eight-year survey maps 168 sites across remote plateau
Over eight years, the project documented 168 archaeological sites, including settlements, fortifications, and burial grounds. Sites such as Abulis Gora and Saro-1 show repeated human activity from the Bronze Age onward.
Extensive necropolises near Bertakara and Lake Tabatskuri point to persistent funerary traditions across centuries. Earlier groundwork by the University of Melbourne and the Georgian National Museum helped establish the region’s archaeological potential before the project expanded into the high plateau.
Excavations at Baraleti Natsargora, a prominent mound at the center of the plateau, uncovered occupation layers spanning from roughly 3500 to 500 BC. Researchers found a defensive wall, domestic structures with partition walls and clay installations, and evidence of repeated burning events.
The site’s name literally translates to “hill of ashes,” which the physical evidence confirmed. A bronze solar disk recovered near the site carries concentric bands of knobs, angular motifs, and evenly spaced perforations.
Similar objects across southern Georgia typically appear in female burials, suggesting this disk, now held at the Akhalkalaki Museum, came from a nearby grave.
Ancient cyclopean structures in Georgia yield rare ritual discoveries
At Meghreki Fortress, partially exposed by road construction before researchers arrived, excavations revealed unbroken human activity from the Kura-Araxes culture around 3500 BC through the Iron Age and into the medieval period.
Two domestic structures dating to the Achaemenid period, roughly the sixth to fourth centuries BC, contained clay installations decorated with incised and painted geometric designs in red, white, and dark blue.
Dan noted that comparable decorated plaques appear at nearby sites of Digasheni and Amiranis Gora, suggesting a broader regional tradition where decorated surfaces marked ritually significant domestic spaces.
The findings paint the Javakheti Plateau not as an isolated frontier but as an active cultural crossroads connecting highland and lowland communities across millennia. Future work will focus on radiocarbon dating, ceramic analysis, and environmental data to sharpen the chronological picture.
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