Archaeology at the Frontiers : Investigations at Rabati, Southern Caucasus and Evidence of Cultural Memory
Abstract
Recent archaeological investigations at the ancient frontier fortress of Rabati, in south-west Georgia, were conducted as a collaborative research project involving archaeologists from the University of Melbourne and the Georgian National Museum (GAIA project). Rabati was occupied for millennia (from the Chalcolithic onwards). From the first three seasons (2016, 2018, and 2019), it has become clear that significant Early Kurgan remains capped most of the summit of the site. Levels with distinctive Bedeni vessels and a range of contemporary local domestic wares, pits, hints of a textile industry, and some traces of architecture seal over underlying Early Bronze Age, Kura-Araxes levels. The Early Bronze Age deposits include massive architecture rarely seen in Kura-Araxes settlements. Some finds suggest that the core population was stable with long-held traditions surviving into the Bedeni phase of the Early Kurgan period, yet open to new influences infiltrating this highland region.
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