Vakhtang Licheli  

Bronze Age Krater form Atskuri

Introduction
Archaeological site Atskhuri is located in one of the historical province of southern Georgia – Samtskhe. Excavated sites are disposed in the village Atskhuri on the left and right bank of river Mtkvari, on the 950-965 m from sea level (Tab. I).

There are discovered sites of four chronological group in this part of village Atskuri:

I. Burials of Middle Bronze Age.
II. Cultural layers and burials of end of the Late Bronze Age.
III. Settlement and burials of I millennium BC.
IV. Settlement and burials of I millennium AD (Sites of Middle Ages – fortress; temple; necropolis; settlement).

The archaeological material found in these layers – in some cases – contains completely new information. For example, there were confirmed some important facts on the settlement and in the burials of the middle of I millennium BC. In particular, the building of V-IV centuries BC is the only in the southern Georgia, where you can see the traditions of II millennium BC, which was first confirmed in Khovle and till this time it was typical only for the sites of Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages in the eastern Georgia [11, pp. 249-259]. Further excavation proved the importance of V-IV centuries layers of Atskuri settlement in the investigation of cultural-economical relations between the east and west, which is proved, on the one hand, by collection of Greek pottery quite rare for Transcaucasian Hinterland (From late archaic bowls form Asia Minor to the so called Pergamian red-varnished pottery of late Hellenistic period. Tab. 3; [Compare: 5, p. 22; 14; 15, pp. 101-107; 16, pp. 113-115; 17, pp. 29-34] and for the other hand, by Achaemenid materials, including painted pottery, which was widely spread in the eastern Georgia (Tab. II, 1-2;) [18, pp. 139-142; 4, pp. 54-70; 3, p. 8; 9, p. 132; 1, p. 118; 6, pp. 52-76]. Such pottery is typical for western Iran and Anatolia [7, pp.101-110; 23, pp. 239-248; 8, pp. 115-144; 21, pp. 3-31; 22, pp. 85-108; 10]. adreuli moxatuli: [19, pp. 105-135]. In this regard, it is very important that the worship of Mithras and Anahita in IV-III centuries BC were changed by worship of Apollo and Artemis in the 1st century AD. The discovery of “Charon's obol” in the 1st century AD burial preconditions the information from writing sources about influence of population of Samtskhe by Hellenistic culture [12, pp. 29-34; 13, pp. 246-249].

Result of excavations in 2007
In 2007 archaeological excavations were carried out on the 1st century BC settlement and Middle Bronze Age burials only.
The moust important materials were found in the Bronz Age burial on the left bank of the river Mtkvari, to the east from classical and hellenistic period settlemet (Tab. I). It was arranged at 6 m depth and was coverd by big boulders (Average sizes: 1,50x0,50x0,8 m).

Such is the stratigraphy of this tranch:
First Layer. On the 1,9m depth from the zero level were found wall formation made bay processed stons, which was oriented from north-west to south-east. The wall was placed in V-IV centuries layer and, I think, it’s belongs to that period. Here were found also paleobotanical materials (analysis were made by R. Rusishvili), which revealed remains of medlar.

Second layer. Next layer was presented by remains of big workshop. Because of private property of the territory, unfortunately this area was not excavated. As we can see by excavated area and materials, this is a II-I centuries BC metal objects pouring workshop, because here were found fragments of “tigel” and mpould. The floor of the workshop was made by pressed clay. I should mention, that the remains of production are also confirmed in the central part of settlement (trench #6), where were found fragments of mould and slag’s (Tab. II-4, 5).

Third layer. This layer was represented by one burial. It is a pit-burial; there was buried 50-55 years old man (Tab. III). The deceased was buried on right side, without inventory. But it was very interesting the results of paleontological (E. Kvavadze) and anthropological investigation of skeleton. The analyses revealed that before death deceased has eaten porridge made with sheep fat. Supposedly, right hand of deceased was cut from shoulder, and the left – from wrist. It seems to me that he died because of serious problems of health. Also it should be mentioned that in age 35-40 he had extracted sixth molars in both side. It seems, that dental operation was qualified and process of cicatrize was successfully conducted.

As I mentioned above, in the burial there wasn’t inventory, because of this it is difficult to date, but stratigraphicaly it’s maybe belongs to the middle or end of II millennium BC.

Fourth layer was the main object of our research. As it was mentioned, in the burial excavated in this layer, was discovered unique pottery. The part of this pottery doesn’t have analogies in Transcaucasia, Anatolia and Balkans, and I think, they are remains of unknown micro-culture. Probably, we can suppose that in the burial #2 there were discovered entirely new, unknown micro-culture, dated by XVII-XVI centuries BC.

There were discovered also: pieces of bronze helical bracelets (Tab. IV); Headdress decoration, which represents small thin rectangular pieces of gold, decorated with parallel lines, circles and points (Tab. V). The deceased’s (there were buried three deceased’s) were buried in a crouched position, on the right side (they are males). The pottery was placed to the east side form the deceased’s, near the head of one of the deceased. In the western side of the burial were discovered two bronze pins with disc-shape heads.

I want to draw particular attention to Krater (Tab. VI, VII), because it does not have analogies in Caucasian archaeology. It has very exceptional form and straight and above equally extended walls with flat bottom (if we will use classical archaeological terminology, we can call it “Bell-shape Crater”). It has different ornamentation – cut rhombic frieze connected with also cut vertical rhombic column. The vessel has rectangular (“flat”) in section long handles, which sets from rib to middle of the body and they have flat overhangs. Also it is very interesting the results of petrologic analysis (“the clay used for pottery are widely spread to this area and it’s belongs to period of early Eocene”. The analysis were made in the Technical University by Prof. N. Poporadze). It shows that vessels were made by local materials somewhere on the territory of Smatskhe. 

According to the items of complex the Krater is dated by 17th – 16th centuries BC.

Conclusion
If we will analyze materials from burial from Atskuri and burial of same period from village Ota, it is clear that after “Brilliant Culture of Trialeti” there are few somewhat different cultural elements, which preserves old traditions, but also in this group of traditional items appears a new cultural elements as well, which characterizes all this complex as new micro –culture with diverse and rich inventory: various potteries (traditional Transcaucasian, analogies of Anatolian pottery, also “Kantharos-shaped” pottery and so on), bronze daggers, bracelets, various pins, bronze plates, bronze discs, bronze figures, bronze necklaces, forklift, obsidian and flint arrowheads, cornelian beads, decorated golden plates, golden headdress decorations, golden discs). this very clear that typical for this culture - besides of bronze items and pottery - golden artifacts too, and part of them are made by alluvial gold.

Thanks 
During the excavation of burial #2 my friend from Nurnberg Paul Hitz was making conservation of metal artifacts. I would like to pay a special tribute to his memory. Also, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the board of directors of NHG Nurnberg (Germany) and volunteers – my best friends form Nurnberg for the supports, thanks to what were made important scientific discoveries.

Description of illustration:
I. Areal photo of Atskuri. Location of burial #2 indicated by an arrow.
II. 1. Greek pottery from Atskuri; 2. Achaemenid items from Atskuri; 3. The skeleton of bull from IV-III centuries burial; 4. Piece of I millennium BC mould; 5. Piece of I millennium BC slag.
III. Burial from third layer.
IV. Pieces of bronze bracelet from burial #2.
V. Golden headdress decoration.
VI. Excavation of Krater from burial #2.
VII. Bronze Age “Bell-shape Krater”.