Late Bronze-Early Iron Age Pottery from Doghlauri Burial Ground: Understanding the Transcaucasian Intercultural Relations

The Late Bronze-Early Iron Age (the second half of the 2 nd millennium BCE - the beginning of the 1 st millennium BCE) in the Caucasus and adjoining territories are characterized by a variety of archaeological cultures which are reflected in archaeological artifacts, burial constructions, and burial rites. The Doghlauri burial ground, uncovered during the Georgian National Museum's salvage excavations (directed by Iulon Gagoshidze), is generally regarded as one of the major archaeological sites of that period in the Caucasus region in terms of both size and the sheer quantity of excavated burials. This burial ground is located next to the multi-layered settlement mound of Dedoplis Gora (Aradetis Orgora), where the Georgian-Italian archeological expedition (directed by Iulon Gagoshidze and Elena Rova) revealed a fortification wall and layers strongly synchronous with the burial ground. New data based on radiocarbon and palynological studies, made it possible to determine the chronological framework of the burial ground and the purpose of the inventory, primarily of various types of pottery. The earliest group of pottery belongs to the so-called transitional stage from the Middle Bronze to the Late Bronze Age (circa mid. 15 th century BCE), when the influence of the Kurgan culture of the Middle Bronze Age is still noticeable. The second group (14 th -12 th cc BCE) is characterized by a pottery assemblage widely variable not only in form but also in ornamentation. From the 12 th -11 th cc BCE the typology of pottery changes radically, and this transformation testifies to the social or political upheaval that took place in the Late Bronze-Early Iron Age transition; this is directly reflected in the cultural layers of the nearby fortified settlement. Alongside pottery, numerous metal objects and jewelry from the Late Bronze-Early Iron Age complexes of Doghlauri burial ground share cultural markers that are commonly encountered at contemporary sites in Transcaucasia and its neighboring territories – North Caucasus and Eastern Anatolia.