Samtavro and Shida Kartli

SAMTAVRO AND SHIDA KARTLI

A few words must be said about the site of Samtavro and the surrounding region of Shida Kartli, given that some studies isolate it as a separate early Iron Age ‘culture’. While I do not subscribe to this view, the salient features are worth noting. Samtavro is located on the northern fringe of Mtskheta, a town positioned at a confluence, where the fast flowing blue waters of the Aragvi River meet the more placid murky swell of the Kura.The ancient site consists of a settlement, only partially investigated, and a vast cemetery harbouring no less than 4,400 tombs. To judge from the positions of known burials, the cemetery covers approximately 20 ha. Samtavro is the larger of two ancient cemeteries in Mtskheta, the other being Armaziskhevi, where the élite of late Roman and Antique society and their funerary gifts were buried.65 Samtavro attracted the attention of antiquarians more than a century ago, and has continued to be investigated ever since. Four major archaeological expeditions have been carried out at Samtavro; the most significant for the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age was M. M. Ivashenko and Sandro Kalandadze’s expedition, which conducted its investigations during the period 1938–61.66 The earliest burial at Samtavro,Tomb 243, can be dated to the second millennium BC, to the barrow period, but the site was most utilised during the Late Bronze and Iron Ages (ca. 1600–300 BC), and then during the late Roman and early medieval periods (ca.AD 100–580).

Burial Types

We are better served on the Late Bronze Age burials at Samtavro than the Iron Age ones, which have yet to be studied systematically. During the Late Bronze Age, the deceased at Samtavro were placed in a crouched position in a rectangular earthen grave, defined at the head and feet by a pair of stone slabs. Planks of wood or tree trunks, covered with a layer of earth or stone, sealed the tomb. A circle of stone placed around the tomb often marked the place of burial. In the Iron Age, stone slabs replaced wooden planks as the roofing material. Single burials are the most common in both periods, with males laid on their right side and females on their left. Cenotaphs, double burials (male

65Apakidze et al. 1958.

66The expeditions are best referred to as Samtavro I–IV: Samtavro I comprises the Freidrich Bayern campaigns (1871–8), carried out under the auspices of the Austrian Archaeological Institute, and those of Ernest Chantre, who followed Bayern in 1879; Samtavro II, M. M. Ivashenko and Sandro Kalandadze’s expedition (1938–61); Samtavro III, the Mtskheta Institute investigations (1976–86, 2000, 2002) led by Andrea Apakhidze; Samtavro IV, the joint Georgian National Museum and University of Melbourne campaign (2008–10). For full references to the Samtavro campaigns, see Sagona et al. 2010. See also Abramishvili 2003 for the Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age transition, and Sadradze 1997 for the Bronze Age.

418 From Fortresses to Fragmentation

and female), and collective burials are rare.The tomb assemblages at Samtavro do not reveal any wealth differentiation. Grave goods comprised metal tools and weapons, jewellery and ceramics.There does, however, appear to be gender differentiation.Tombs with male skeletons invariably had weapons and also remnants of the funerary feast, which consisted of bones of domestic animals (cattle, sheep, goats and pigs), as well as those of wild game (deer and wild pigs). Tortoise shells were also discovered in some graves. Female tombs, on the other hand, had mostly jewellery.

Treligorebi, another large cemetery on the outskirts of modern Tbilisi, is located to the south of Samtavro in a strategic position where the Kura River meanders, emerging from the mountains onto the plains of the central south Caucasus. Treligorebi is an extensive site, stretching about 1.5 km along an elevated ridge overlooking the Kura River. Communities in the area buried their dead there for about a millennium, from the tail end of the Middle Bronze Age Trialeti barrow culture onwards. Then came a change in burial customs. At the end of the fourteenth, or early thirteenth century, rectangular pit graves lined with stone slabs were used. About 100 of these burials have been excavated and some are distinguished by the high quality of grave goods – well-crafted ceramics, bronze and iron weapons, bronze belts, and objects made of faience and semi-precious stones. According to Rostom Abramishvili, the Treligorebi tombs belong to the so-called Samtavro culture.

Around the end of the eighth century BC, a totally different burial tradition was ushered in at Treligorebi and throughout much of Georgia.This new practice is best represented by two rich cremation burials. The architecture of both tombs comprised a wooden mortuary chamber with a fl at roof. One tomb, the smaller one, covered an area of 42 m2.Although it had been robbed in antiquity, the excavator found, amongst other items, a bull-shaped ceramic vessel, a bowl carved from alabaster with a handle in the form of a sheep’s head, and gold beads.The larger chamber had walls 4 m high and covered an area of 70 m2. Its assemblage includes 100 zoomorphic rhyta – mainly sheep, though bulls are well represented too – made from well-levigated grey-black clay. Both types had plump, almost spherical bodies supported by short thick legs set firmly on the ground. Sheep are sometimes decorated with vertical fluting, probably representing fleece, whereas bulls had grooved patterns of oblique lines. Another distinctive vessel is a black ceramic container, acutely biconical in shape and decorated all over with rows of hatched triangles, either upright or pendant from a line; for added contrast the geometric pattern is filled with a white paste. Noteworthy bronze objects include a statuette on a pedestal, and standards with attachments in the form of horse heads and other creatures. No less significant are fourteen wood-decorated horse harnesses. Large numbers of carnelian and faience beads, and bronze and iron objects were also recovered.