Archaeological Excavations at Irmis Rka: An Investigation of a Multi-Layered Settlement in Southwest Georgia

Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

List of Contributors

Introduction: Historical and geographical settings of the region

The site description

Excavations at the Irmis Rka Settlement

Excavation of lower debris: Pits

Excavation of the hill slope

Radiocarbon dates

Pottery Assemblage

Artefact Collections

Lithic Assemblage from the Irmis Rka Settlement (Nikiloz Tskvitinidze)

Bone tools from the Irmis Rka Settlement (Mariam Eloshvili)

Zooarchaeological materials from the Irmis Rka settlement (Nikoloz Vanishvili)

Palynology of organic remains obtained from the archaeological deposits and ceramic vessels of the Irmis Rka Settlement (Eliso Kvavadze and Maia Chichinadze)

Preliminary report of the archaeobotanical study of the Irmis Rka settlement (Nana Rusishvili)

Conclusions

Bibliography

About the Author

Gia Chilingarashvili is a PhD candidate at Tbilisi State University and a researcher at the O. Lortkipanidze Archaeological Institute of the Georgian National Museum. With 12 years experience in international archaeological expeditions and projects, her main field of study is late prehistoric cultures in the Caucasus region. She has directed excavations at the Irmis Rka settlement for four seasons. She has published several articles independently and with co-authors in Georgian and English.

Levan Losaberidze is an archaeologist and rock art researcher with a Master's degree in archaeology. With over 10 years of experience in archaeological fieldwork and various investigations, his main interests lie in landscape archaeology, rock art, and Neolithic-Bronze Age archaeological cultures in the South Caucasus. He has been fully involved in the Irmis Rka project for four years both in the fieldwork and post-excavation studies. In general, he has published several international peer-reviewed papers about various topics of his interests.