attached to the east side and measured 2.6 m in length.91 Its walls were coated with a thick layer of clay. Opposite the passageway entrance, abutting the western wall was a low earthen platform. Its function remains unclear, even though the same feature also occurs at other, similar tombs. Impressions left by the weight of a wheeled vehicle were found, as at Tetri Kvebi.This type of tomb is generally assigned to the late phase of the Middle Bronze Age.92 Whereas the skeleton at Tqisbolo Gora was articulated, on its right side with head pointing east, at Tetri Kvebi the bones were jumbled, perhaps suggesting that the deceased had been placed on the cart.

Stone-Built Graves

It was the stone-built chambers that required the most effort, their chamber walls carefully constructed with slabs of stone.The chamber in Trialeti Barrow 36, for example, was large (15 x 12 m in area) and its wall rose to a height of 4 m.93 It also had wooden posts to support its wooden roof and on its eastern short wall it connected with a passageway (dromos) that led to the tomb entrance. Moreover, gold fitments suggest that the walls of the chamber were decorated, perhaps to replicate a residential house.94 A comparable chamber was found within Trialeti Barrow 45. Passageways were not restricted to stone chambers. Some pit-grave barrows (15, 17, and 34) also had them, and, according to Kuftin’s notebooks, Barrows 6 and 8, which have no pit or stone chamber, had a passageway in the form of an aboveground, wooden platform.95

Ritual Roads

In recent years, another significant feature has come to light, curiously not mentioned by Kuftin – ritual roads that led to the entrance of the passageways, always situated on the eastern fl ank of the barrow.96 These roads were noticed when, in 1999–2000, theTsalka Dam reservoir transgressed markedly, exposing several square kilometres of Kuftin’s investigation area (Figure 7.16).A number of barrows excavated by Kuftin rose from the waters of the reservoir.97 Five of them (3, 6, 8, 15, and 17) and two unexcavated ones (47 and 48) were connected to a road, which formed an integral part of the entire complex. These roads were unwaveringly straight, orientated on the east–west axis, and were made of stone paved and edged with larger basalt blocks. Significantly, the roads were not restricted to a particular burial type.

91Mansfeld 1996.

92Pizchelauri and Orthmann 1992: 18–21.

93Zhorzhikashvili and Gogadze 1974: 25.

94Lordkipanidze 1991: 61.

95Narimanishvili 2004: n. 5.

96Narimanishvili 2004; 2009.

97Barrows 1–2, 4–9, and 15–18, as well as some Kuftin did not investigate (Barrow 47, following his numbering system), were re-investigated.

Figure 7.16. Trialeti kurgans and ritual roads: (1) Barrow 17; (2) Barrow 3; (3) Barrow 6; (4) Barrow 15 (after Narimanišvili and Šanšašvili 2010).

While the width of the roads averaged between 6 and 4 m, their lengths varied considerably.The measurements of the roads (length and width) of Kuftin’s exposed barrows are as follows: Barrow 3 (oval mound with no pit) 41 x 5 m; Barrow 6 (perfectly circular mound with no pit) 160 x 6 m; Barrow 8 (circular mound with no pit) 210 x 5 m; Barrow 15 (rectangular barrow with oval burial pit and passageway) 264 x 4.5 m; Barrow 17 (circular mound with grave pit)