Abstract
AbstractThe site of Nokalakevi, in western Georgia, has seen significant excavation since 1973, including, since 2001, a collaborative Anglo-Georgian project. However, the interpretation of the site has largely rested on architectural analysis of standing remains and the relative dating of deposits based on the study of ceramics. Since 2013, the Anglo-Georgian Expedition to Nokalakevi has collected a diverse dataset derived from multiple scientific techniques including optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of ceramics, radiocarbon dating, δ13C and δ15N analysis and 87Sr/86Sr analysis. The full results of these analyses are reported here for the first time along with implications for the interpretation of the archaeology, which include greater detail in the site chronology but also indicators of diet and migration.
Highlights
The ruins in the small village of Nokalakevi in Samegrelo, western Georgia, have attracted scholarly interest since the first half of the 19th century (Dubois de Montpéreux 1839; Everill 2019)
No evidence for settlement during the first three centuries AD – the period after the Mithridatic Wars in which the Kingdom of Colchis itself collapsed and western Georgia fell into the Roman sphere of influence – has been observed, but by the fourth century AD Nokalakevi was the centre of an expanding kingdom, Lazika, which exercised hegemony over the other western Georgian tribes
Everill et al | The recent contribution of scientific techniques to the study of Nokalakevi, Georgia southwest of the site; a bathhouse 35m east of the tunnel, apparently supplied by a cistern constructed up the slope, 50m to its northwest; and a substantial rectangular building near the southeast of the area, which possibly housed the military commanders of the Byzantine and Laz garrison of the sixth century
Summary
Laboratory Palaeodose External gamma- Total dose rate OSL age estimate (years code (Gy) dose rate (Gy/ka) (Gy/ka) before 2015* or 2016**). Based on results from modern piglets (0.70801–0.70809) and a predicted strontium ratio range for Neogene geology (McArthur et al 2012) that extends from approximately 0.7080 to approximately 0.7090, five of these individuals produced results immediately compatible with having been born and raised in or around Nokalakevi (table 5) These are, chronologically: the fourth- to third-century BC adult buried with beads, fine ceramics and a chicken (context 261); an adult burial from Trench A, which was dated by material culture to the Hellenistic period, but for which no radiocarbon date could be established; the child excavated in Trench G in 2018, radiocarbon dated to 610–690 cal. While the data need further refining, through more detailed analysis of bioavailable strontium in the region, this is a hugely important first step for the study of past populations at Nokalakevi and the dataset will continue to grow in the coming years
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