Archaeologists are unearthing evidence of long-term human occupation in the mountains of the Republic of Georgia. A new paper published in the journal Antiquity reports on eight years of digging on the Javakheti Plateau, one of the least-explored regions in the South Caucasus.
Since 2017, researchers from the Samtskhe-Javakheti Project (SJP) have identified around 168 archaeological sites in the highlands of southern Georgia dating from the Bronze Age to medieval times. They have uncovered remains of stone-built fortifications, settlements and large burial grounds.
Before setting foot on many sites, the team used remote sensing, which helps identify traces of buried structures and landscape features such as ancient walls and enclosures. Once potential sites were identified, they created digital maps of how settlements were distributed to understand more about how people moved across the land and adapted to the harsh environment.
Notable sites
After extensive mapping across the plateau, they chose the most prominent sites, including Baraleti Natsargora, a large mound known as the Hill of Ashes, and Meghreki Fortress.
The team then spent several years covering the terrain on foot, digging at numerous locations and recording everything they found right down to the smallest piece of pottery. There was a wealth of fascinating findings.
At Baraleti, they found several layers of ash and stone, which suggests people kept returning to this spot for thousands of years, possibly to rebuild their homes or fortify their defenses. The fact that they kept coming back here suggests it was an important place.
Symbols of the past
They also recovered a bronze disk here with sun-like patterns. Similar objects have been found at other sites in southern Georgia and are often associated with burials, particularly female graves.
During excavations at Meghreki Fortress, researchers found colorful clay plaques in numerous homes. These may have been used for rituals or to show off a family’s high status.
As the team explains in their paper, these artifacts could reveal more about the culture and belief systems of people who lived on the plateau. “The study of symbolic artifacts such as solar disks and decorated plaques promises to deepen our understanding of belief systems and identity markers in protohistoric communities.”
Other notable findings across the many sites include massive perimeter walls and ancient storage areas. These structures suggest the region may have been a hub of activity rather than an isolated outpost.
“The SJP highlights a landscape structured by recurrent settlement patterns, resource exploitation and symbolic practices, an arena of mobility and negotiation rather than isolation,” they explained.
One of the project’s next stages is to use radiocarbon dating to pin down precise timelines for the layers of occupation.
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Publication details
Roberto Dan et al, Layers of stone and ash: new perspectives from the Samtskhe-Javakheti archaeological project, Antiquity (2026). DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2026.10331
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