Bronze Age settlement mounds on the Colchian plain at the Black Sea coast of Georgia: A geoarchaeological perspective

Abstract

Situated between the Enguri and Khobistskali rivers, more than 30 settlement mounds (locally named Dikhagudzuba) provide evidence for a relatively densely populated landscape in the coastal lowlands of western Georgia during the Bronze Age. Compared to older mounds in eastern Georgia and other regions, these mounds differ not only in age but also in their average size and spatial distribution. Based on the interpretation of nine sediment cores, drone survey and structure‐from‐motion photogrammetry techniques, our study aims at (i) establishing a chronostratigraphic framework for the mounds based on 14C dating; (ii) reconstructing possible phases and gaps in human occupation; (iii) determining potential source areas of the mounds’ construction material; and (iv) identifying the environmental conditions at the time of their use. The three investigated mounds are similar in dimension and stratigraphy. Anthropogenic layers could clearly be identified and separated from the natural alluvial deposits below. According to the 14C age estimates, the mounds date to the first half of the 2nd millennium B.C.; this confirms the archaeological interpretation of their Bronze Age origin. While only one construction phase is assumed for two of the mounds, stratigraphic analysis suggests a successive enlargement of a third mound over at least 470 years. Paleoenvironmental conditions in the vicinity of the mounds were dominated by swampy, fluvial (channel) to alluvial (overbank) processes, as attested by river‐bank deposits and floodplain alluvium.

The Bronze Age occupation of the Black Sea coast of Georgia—New insights from settlement mounds of the Colchian plain

“…These conclusions correlate well with the geoarchaeological research on three settlement mounds that were recently studied by scientists from the Ilia State University (Tbilisi, Georgia) and the University of Cologne (Germany) (Laermanns et al, 2018b). The results indicate that the mounds of the Colchian plain were intentionally accumulated rather than passively evolved.…”

“…For the first time, this study offers a comprehensive summary of the Georgian literature on the Colchian Dikhagudzuba mounds. It supplies additional information about the mounds' internal structure, spatial extent and distribution to the first research results of Laermanns et al (2018b). By using vibracores taken on the top, the slope, and in the direct vicinity of one of the studied mounds and granulometrical and geochemical analyses, different stratigraphic layers were determined.…”

“…Although an estimation of the mounds' occupation history remains challenging, their initial construction could be dated to the first half of the second millennium B.C. in the Early Bronze Age (Laermanns et al, 2018b).…”

Coastal lowland and floodplain evolution along the lower reaches of the Supsa River (western Georgia)

“…People spread from the foothills into the plain where the oldest settlement sites of Ontsakoshia (Janelidze and Tatashidze, 2010) and Ispani (Connor et al, 2007;de Klerk et al, 2009) date back to the transition between the Chalcolithic and the early Bronze Age in the mid-third millennium BCE. Since the early Bronze Age settlement mounds in the northern part of the Colchis have yielded evidence for the evolving Colchian culture (Lordkipanidze, 1991;Sens, 2009;Laermanns et al, 2017b). The region experienced its heyday between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE under the Kingdom of Colchis -a time of intensive trade contact with (mainly Milesian) Greek merchants, who had founded several colonies along the Colchian Black Sea coast (Sens, 2009;Gamkrelidze, 2012).…”

“…the area between the rivers Supsa and Enguri, Fig. 1) for palaeoenvironmental and geoarchaeological studies has been shown only in the very recent past by elucidating the mid-Holocene to late Holocene development of the Rioni delta (Laermanns et al, 2017a) and presenting new data on the evolution of Bronze Age settlements (Laermanns et al, 2017b).…”