show distant connections, most notably the pot featuring the representation of a human face, the kantharos-like vessel (Figure 7.17(9)), a bowl with an upswung handle, bronze weapons, pins, gold discs, and beads and pendants made of various stones and minerals. Finally, the nature of the Atsquri burial makes one reflect on its social implications and, like other Middle Bronze Age burials, the ritual implications of disposing of such wealth.

Ephemeral Settlements

A rare glimpse of the wayTrialeti communities lived is afforded by the recently discovered settlement at Jinisi (in Trialeti) and by Didi Gora and Tqisbolo Gora in Kakheti.Their geographical situations, however, are different: Jinisi is located in an open field beside the Gumbatistsqali River, whereas communities in Kakheti preferred to position their villages on riverside terraces and mountain slopes.

At Jinisi, five houses and a handful of associated pits were exposed and can be dated to the end of the Middle Bronze Age.110 Twenty-four pits of the first millennium BC perforated this settlement, but the two separate strata could be clearly distinguished on the basis of stratigraphy, cultural finds, and pollen content.The dwellings were semi-subterranean, built within a rectangular pit that reached a depth of 1.2–1.5 m (Figure 7.18). They were substantial structures, measuring 12.5 x 7 m in the case of House 1; some had rounded corners.The lower part of the walls were preserved and built from one course of stones, laid horizontally and bonded with mud, which reached ground level. According to the excavators, the superstructure was probably built from stone as well. Field stones (basalt), dressed on one side, and riverine pebbles were selected to construct the walls.

The load-bearing parts of the roof were supported by wooden columns erected on fl at stone bases, equally spaced within the house and along the walls. In House 1, four rows of wooden columns, about 2 m apart, ran along its longitudinal axis. Judging by the construction of some funerary houses within the barrow burials at Trialeti (Zurtakerti and Kushchi), the roof may have been fl at, but a pitched roof is not to be ruled out.The entrance had a low threshold and was placed in the southern wall. Upon entering the house, a visitor would have noticed the compartmentalisation of space afforded by the rows of wooden columns, a circular hearth defined by a row of stones in one corner, an oven placed against the east wall, a niche in the south wall, and wellkept mud-plastered floors.The occasional fl agstone, ceramic vessels filled with wheat and barley, mortars, and hand grinders scattered across the floor would also have been noticeable. A combination of farming and animal husbandry

110 Narimanishvili and Amiranishvili 2010.

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Figure 7.18. Jinisi,Trialeti settlement (adapted by C. Sagona after Narimanishvili and Amiranashvili 2010).