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Document Details : Title: The Gadachrili Gora Regional Archaeological Project Subtitle: 2016 Preliminary Report Author(s): BATIUK, Stephen D. , JALABADZE, Mindia , GRAHAM, Andrew , KORIDZE, Irakli , ABU JAYYAB, Khaled , SAVULOV, Cristina Journal: Anatolica Volume: 43 Date: 2017 Pages: 173-202 DOI: 10.2143/ANA.43.0.3262800 Abstract : The Caucasus has long been seen by western scholars as marginal to developments in the Near East. However, recent discoveries in the region have rapidly and significantly begun to show that the Caucasus was much more deeply integrated into the Near Eastern world in ways that are yet to be explored. In regard to the Neolithic period, studies in Georgia have the potential to contribute significantly to our overall understanding of the Neolithic process of the Near East, examining the development of different horticultural and agricultural products that will eventually comprise of the ‘Neolithic package’ and the evolution between human groups and their environment during the Holocene period of the greater Near East. Because of this geographical situation, the excavations of Gadachrili Gora and Shulaveris Gora (Kvemo Kartli Region) offer new opportunities to contribute to the debate on the neolithisation of the Caucasus, focusing on the of understanding of the development of the Shulaveri-Shomu Culture, its settlement organization and economy, and its relationship to other late Neolithic cultures in the greater Near East. Since 2006, a team of researchers from the Georgian National Museum, working in close collaboration with international colleagues, has been engaged in archaeological investigations at the site of Gadachrili Gora, which revealed the exceptionally well-preserved remains of a succession of settlements spanning the terminal parts of the Neolithic Period (ca. 6000-5000 BC). This preliminary report provides an introductory background to the Neolithic Shomu-Shulaveris Culture of eastern Transcaucasia and describes the result of the initial season of the joint Canadian-Georgian initiative: The Gadachrili Gora Regional Archaeological Project (GRAPE). |
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