a distinguished warrior's burial from dmanisi

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A DISTINGUISHED WARRIOR'S BURIAL FROM DMANISI 78

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Journal "Museum". №2, 2015:The region of Dmanisi is famous for its multitude and diversity of historical monuments. Dozens of archaeological sites from various periods have been discovered and studied in the area, many of which were uncovered in the process of new constructions.

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Page 1: A Distinguished Warrior's Burial From Dmanisi

A DiSTiNGUiShED WArriOr'S bUriAL FrOM DMANiSi

78

Page 2: A Distinguished Warrior's Burial From Dmanisi

GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM 79

The region of Dmanisi is famous for its multitude and diversity of historical monuments. Dozens of archaeological sites from various periods have been discovered and studied in the area, many of which were uncovered in the process of new constructions.

i n October 2014, when the Silknet Company was digging a trench for laying a fiber-optic cable at

the Ortsklebi locality near the village of Gantiadi in the Bolnisi Municipali-ty, the workers came across boulders and fragments of clay pottery. Digging was temporarily suspended and the Georgian National Museum's Dmanisi museum-reserve team began archaeo-logical excavations.

As a result the archaeologists establi-shed that the boulders covered a burial site. An iron spearhead, clay pottery and the remains of cattle indicated that

a burial ceremony had been carried out in this site, then found a burial pit 2.5 meters long, wider at the western end and narrower at the eastern end.

The grave was that of a distingui-shed warrior from the 8th–7th c BC. He was buried in the western part of the pit, apparently on a bed, with his upper and lower extremities folded, lying on the right side, the head facing the east. On the floor behind the head there were four pieces of clay pottery – two jugs, a pot with a mesh filter on one side, and a small pot. In front of his face was a mug with handles. There was also a bronze item made of two small ornate pipes and two rings and round bronze shin guard holders, a lar-ge iron knife, a small iron dagger, agate and cornelian beads of various shapes, three cowry shells and a bell-shaped shell. Such shells are not typical for the Caucasus and would have been brou-ght to the region.

Clayware discovered in the burial was made on a potter's wheel and fi-red, resulting in shades of black or grey. All were decorated with designs in re-lief or incised lines. Of special note was a wide-mouthed pot with two handles, a kettle-like spout and a mesh-like filter in it. This type of ceramic object is rare-ly found in burial sites from this period in Georgia.

Among the metal items were iron combat weapons, bronze shin guard holders and an item made of two small pipes and two rings. Shin guard hol-ders kept the shin guards on a warrior’s legs. Similar rings have been discove-red in other cemeteries, usually near the lower extremities of the deceased or on their ankles. The item made of two small pipes and two rings is in-teresting, as the pipes are decorated and the bronze rings, with a rhom-bic section, are open-ended. Almost identical items have been discovered in the Mashavera Gorge cemetery of the same period and, as a rule, in the graves of distinguished warriors, riders and wealthy women.

aRchaEOlOgY > Kakha Kakhiani