Prehistoric Georgia

The Paleolithic era in Georgia ( Georgian პალეოლითის ეპოქა საქართველოში ) (Ancient Stone Age) - the first historical period of the Stone Age from the beginning of the use of stone tools by hominids (genus homo ) (about 2.6 million years ago) ^{[1] [2] [3]} to the emergence of human agriculture in about 10 millennium BC. e. ^{[2] [3] [4]} . Highlighted in 1865 by John Lebbock . Paleolithic - the era of the existence of fossil humans, as well as fossils, now extinct species of animals. It occupies a large part (about 99%) of the human existence ^[3] and coincides with two large geological epochs of the Cenozoic era - the Pliocene and the Pleistocene .

The Paleolithic era plays an important role in the history of Georgia . To date, over 400 monuments of this era have been discovered and studied in Georgia . In Georgia, there are 6 areas of distribution of monuments of the Paleolithic era :
I. The Black Sea Strip of Georgia - 200 Monuments
II. The basin of the rivers Rioni - Kvirila - 100 monuments; 15 monuments of different sections of the Acheulean era ; moustier - 61 monument; Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic - 23; cave settlements - Dzhruchula, Ortvala-Klde, Sakazhia, Bronze cave, etc .; 20 - Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic time (Sagvardzhile, Chahati, Sakajia, Dzuzuana, Guardzhilas-Klde, etc.)
III. The left bank of the Kura River, within the historical Dvaletiya - modern South Ossetia - 60 monuments; multilayer cave settlements of the Kudarsky and Tsonskaya groups, where the cultural layers of the Middle Aeshelian time were also revealed
IV. Lowlands of the right bank of the Kura River within the historical Kvemo Kartli
V. Javakheti Highlands - 15 Monuments
VI. Ioro - Alazani interfluve - 34 monuments ^[5]

Due to the geographical location, some regions are better studied than others, in particular, the Black Sea, Dvaletiya and Riono - Kviril interfluves are relatively well studied, and the low mountains of the right bank of the Kura River within the historical Kvemo-Kartli and Javakheti highlands are not well studied. The earliest monuments of Georgia, Yashthva and Byrkh , dating back to the early Ashel era, are located on the territory of Abkhazia . ^[6] In the Black Sea zone there is the largest ^[7] number of Paleolithic monuments. ^[5] In the Acheulean monuments of the Black Sea region and the Riono-Kvirilsky basin, many stone tools were found, but few manual ones were cut. Consequently, in the era of Ashel in Western Georgia there were few handhelds, and in Eastern Georgia there were many.

Early Paleolithic Monuments

Dmanisi settlement

Dmanisi settlement is a city in Georgia. It appeared around the VI century BC. e. From the 11th century Dmanisi was owned by Arabs, then Seljuk Turks, expelled in 1123 by David IV the Builder . The heyday of the city fell on the XII - XIII centuries .

After the defeat of Timur at the end of the XIV century, the city ​​fell into decay. By the end of the XVI century it turned into a village, and by the middle of the XVIII century it became depopulated.

Excavations of the settlement have been carried out since 1936 .

Revealed city walls, gates, numerous buildings. On the territory of Dmanisi were discovered the remains of the first Europeans - Zezva and Mzii.

Volcanic sands and lacustrine deposits up to 2.5 m thick were found over the dolerite lavas of the Dmanisi Plateau. Elephants , rhinos , kabaloid horses , wolves , bears , lynxes , leopards , deer , roe deer , fossil goats , primitive bulls and animals were found in the Dmanisi fauna of the Paleolithic era. hamsters , and the remains of a large bird, presumably from the ostrich order. Dmanisi lake sediments, faunal remains, and stone objects date back to 0.53 ± 0.20 Ma BC. e. ^[five]

The Dmanisi settlement gained the greatest fame after the discovery of Homo georgicus , (Russian: Georgian Man), which died out about 2 million years ago as a species of people.

Yashtukh Workshop

The Yashtukh workshop-workshop is a group of monuments of the early Aashelian period at an altitude of 80-140 m above sea level, 2 km from the city of Sukhumi . The Yashtukh site is the largest monument of the era of the ancient Paleolithic of Georgia, the entire group consisting of 30 monuments occupies 70 hectares. ^[eight]

N. 3. Berdzenishvili ( ნიკოლოზ ბერძენიშვილი ), noted that the main centers of life of prehistoric man were the hilly foothills of the southern (Bzyb-Kodori) spurs of the Caucasian ridge . ^[9]

Bubas Klde

Bubas-Klde (also Tsonskaya cave ) - a cave of the Middle Ashel era, at an altitude of 2150 m, in the Java municipality . Plants were found in the cave - pine (Pinus), spruce (Pisea), tsiga (Tsyga), beech (Fagus), alder (Alnua), hornbeam (Betula) and many fern spores; animals - lizards , bats , foxes , wolves , cave bears and lions , leopards , hare , porcupine , Little Asian hamster , bush vole , jerboa , wild boar , red deer , roe deer , wild ram , Caucasian tour and primeval bison . Feathered - Alpine jackdaw , Ular and bearded lamb . The cave bear owns more than 90% of all bones studied. ^[five]

It is known that the main tools of the inhabitants of Bubas Klde were hand choppers and rough choppers. Archaeologists have also discovered many scraping and cutting objects, but other tools were found in small numbers.

Kudaro I

Kudaro I is a cave of the Middle Ashel era, at an altitude of 1580-1600 m, in the Java municipality , extremely close to the Tsonskaya cave. Both caves belong to the same historical period. In Kudaro I, the remains of macaques and the only tooth of the archanthropus in South Ossetia were discovered ^[10] .

Monuments of the Middle Paleolithic Age

The remains of Neanderthals were found in the caves of Dzhruchul, Bronze, in layer 3a of the cave in the Lower Cretaceous limestones on the left bank of the Tskhaltsitela River ^[11] , in the cave site of Sakazhia (Western Georgia) ^[12] .

Tsopsky settlement

Tsopskoe settlement is a settlement of primitive people in the fissure of the marble-like limestone mountain in the Marneuli municipality, at an altitude of 180-200 m from the river. The remains of 11 animals were discovered in the Tsopsky cave - woolly rhinoceros , fossil horse , fossil donkey , bezoar goat , pika , etc. 2800 objects were found in Tsopi. ^[13] Nuclei - 99, flakes - 1848, finished tools - 952. ^[13]

Tsutsvatsky cave complex

Tsutsvatsky cave complex - a cave complex consisting of 15 caves, is located near the village of Tsutsvati ( Tkibulsky municipality ( ka: ტყიბულის მუნიციპალიტეტი ). In 5 caves (Bronze Cave, Double Grotto, Bizonova, Medvezhya and Upper Caves ) the Middle Paleolithic period was discovered) Mziuri - layers of the Upper Paleolithic era.In the Tsutsvatsky complex found gophers , Asia Minor hamsters , gerbils , porcupines , wolves , jackals , cave bears , lynxes , cave lions , horses , giant deer , red deer , chamois , West Caucasian goats , primitive bison , etc. According to A. K. Vekua, the tsutsvatsky complex indicates that the elephants did not enter the Transcaucasus in the Pleistocene ^[14] , since no traces of the mammoth faunal complex were found on the territory of the complex at all. the stone industry from early to late moustier.The most notable cave of the entire complex is the Upper Cave, which was the venue for religious ceremonies of the Mousterians. Offerings of parts of the carcasses of dead animals, most often cave bears, were common in caves of Switzerland, Germany and others. ^[15]

Upper Paleolithic

In the cave Dzudzuana (Dzudzuana Cave) near the city of Chiatura was discovered man-made flax thread, 35 thousand years old ^[16] . Most of the genome of two inhabitants of the Dzuzuan cave, who lived 26 thousand liters. n., is deeply connected with the postglacial West European hunter-gatherers from the Willabruna cluster. Mitochondrial haplogroups U6 and N have been determined ^[17] .

A tooth from the Bondi Cave was found in the Vb layer, which dates from 21.5-24.6 thousand years ago. A fragment of the lower jaw from Davis-Hvreli is at least 10 thousand years younger ^[18] . In the palynological material of the Upper Paleolithic layers of the Bondi cave, micro residues of flax and wool fibers were found ^[19] .

In the cave of Sakazhia in the vicinity of Kutaisi, flint guns of the gravette type were found. In the late Paleolithic inhabitant of the Georgian cave Satsurbliya ^[20] , who lived 13.3 thousand years ago, a Y-chromosome haplogroup J and mitochondrial haplogroup K3 were found ^[21] . The Upper Paleolithic also includes finds from the caves of Devis Khvreli, Samertskhle Klde, Sagvarjile, Dzudzuana, Gvarjilas Klde, etc.

The Paleolithic in Georgia, as in the Middle East, ended about 12-10 thousand years ago and was replaced by the Mesolithic . It was at this time that the climate and landscape of the Caucasus, close to modern.

The Y-chromosome haplogroup J2a and mitochondrial haplogroup H13c were found in the limestone hunter from the karst grotto Kotias Klde in the limestones of the Mandaeti plateau, which lived 9,529–9,895 thousand years ago, ^[21] . His relatives with an ancestor of 10,800 years now make up half of IJ in Georgia. ^[22]

Signs of the Neolithic - the transition from hunting and gathering to early farming and cattle breeding are manifested in Georgia from at least 5000 BC. e. Early Neolithic monuments were found mainly in the west of Georgia: Hutsubani, Anaseuli, Kistriki, Kobuleti , Tetramitsa, Apiancha, Makhvilauri, Kotias-Klde, Paluri and several others. In 5 thousand BC. e. the Kura River basin (Mtkvari) was also stably settled. Settlements such as Tsopi , Aruchlo ^[23] and Sadakhlo along the banks of the Kura River in eastern Georgia are distinguished by a long-term cultural tradition, distinctive architecture and developed craftsmanship of stone processing. Most of these monuments belong to the flourishing at the end of the Neolithic and in the Eneolithic archaeological culture of Shulaveri-Shomu . The radiocarbon dating of the monuments of this culture shows that its earliest settlements date from the end of 6th - the beginning of 5th millennium BC. e. ^[24]

The culture of Zioni-Tsopi-Ginchi is a culture of the early and middle Eneolithic of the South Caucasus. Also known as 'Zioni Culture' and 'Zion Culture'. The culture is named after the settlements of Sioni ( Marneuli municipality ) and Tsopi in Georgia, and the Ginchi in the Shamil region , Dagestan. It dates from the beginning of V millennium BC.

Leylatepinskaya culture of the ancient Caucasus could be synchronous to the late stage of the culture of Sioni-Tsopi-Ginchi. An important settlement of the Leilatepins culture is located in Berkildeebi in Georgia. Up to 25% of the ceramic vessels found in the Leylatepinsky settlements in the steppe zone of Transcaucasia are the dishes of Zioni-tsopi culture. ^[25]

In the mountains of eastern Anatolia and the South Caucasus, the simultaneous presence of animals that could be domesticated and wild cereals made it possible to create the oldest examples of agrarian society (farmers and cattle breeders). In this sense, the region of Anatolia and the South Caucasus is considered one of the "cradles of civilization." ^[26]

It is estimated that in the last quarter of 4 thousand BC. e. the entire region was populated by people allegedly associated with the Hurrians . Over the next 2 millennia (the period of chalcolithic ), the region was relatively homogeneous culturally and possibly ethnically.

In the period of about 3400-2000. BC e. the Kuro-Araq culture arises, as the name implies, centered in the basins of the Kura and Araks rivers. Its economy was mainly based on cattle and sheep breeding. Significant cultural achievements are associated with culture. Social organization was based on chiefdoms . In the burial mounds of the leaders, gold and silver items with elegant finishes were found. On some vessels, ritual scenes are engraved with signs of the influence of Middle Eastern cults. This large and prosperous culture maintained contact with the more developed Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia . Around 2300 BC e. it declines and breaks up into a number of regional cultures. One of the earliest successors is the Bedeni culture in eastern Georgia.

By the end of 3 thousand BC. e. evidence of significant economic development, expanding trade between tribes. In the west of Georgia in 1600-700 BC. e. there was a Colchis culture (a Koban culture existed similar to it in the neighborhood), and in the east of Georgia, the trialet barrow culture reached its peak around 1500 BC. e. Toward the end of 2 thousand BC. e. iron processing appears in the South Caucasus, and soon an authentic Iron Age sets in, when a large number of iron tools and weapons appear, much better quality than the previous bronze ones. In most of the Middle East, the Iron Age came later, only in the 10th-9th centuries. BC e. ^[26]

During this period, according to linguists, protocartel unity fell apart into several branches. The first to separate the Svan language in northwest Georgia around the 19th century. BC e., then, about 8 in. BC Oe., the Zansk language was separated, on the basis of which the Mingrelian and Laz languages later arose. From linguistic data it can be seen that the earliest Georgian (Kartvelian) ethnos consisted of 4 related tribes: actually Georgians (“cards”), Zans ( Mingrelians and Lazs , Kolkhs ), and Svans . ^[26]