The Huns, invading through Dariali Gorge on the modern-day border between Russia and Georgia in AD 395 and 515, spread terror across the late antique world. Was this the prelude to the apocalypse? Prophecies foresaw a future Hunnic onslaught, via the same mountain pass, bringing about the end of the world. Humanity's fate depended on a gated barrier deep in Europe's highest and most forbidding mountain chain.Centuries before the emergence of such apocalyptic beliefs, the gorge had reached world fame. It was the target of a planned military expedition by the Emperor Nero. Chained to the dramatic sheer cliffs, framing the narrow passage, the mythical fire-thief Prometheus suffered severe punishment, his liver devoured by an eagle. It was known under multiple names, most commonly the Caspian or Alan Gates.Featuring in the works of literary giants, no other mountain pass in the ancient and medieval world matches Dariali's fame. Yet little was known about the materiality of this mythical place. A team of archaeologists has now shed much new light on the major gorge-blocking fort and a barrier wall on a steep rocky ridge further north. The walls still standing today were built around the time of the first major Hunnic invasion in the late fourth century – when the Caucasus defences feature increasingly prominently in negotiations between the Great Powers of Persia and Rome. In its endeavour to strongly fortify the strategic mountain pass through the Central Caucasus, the workforce erased most traces of earlier occupation. The Persian-built bastion saw heavy occupation for 600 years. Its multi-faith medieval garrison controlled Trans-Caucasian traffic. Everyday objects and human remains reveal harsh living conditions and close connections to the Muslim South, as well as the steppe world of the north. The Caspian Gates explains how a highly strategic rock has played a pivotal role in world history from Classical Antiquity into the twentieth century.
Author(s): Eberhard W. Sauer
Series: British Institute of Persian Studies Archaeological Monographs
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 1051
Cover
Book title
Copyright
Contents
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Section A: Preliminaries
Chapter 1. Introduction
1.1. Summary
1.2. Geography
1.3. Site chronology
1.4. Ethnic/political terms
1.5. Technical notes
Section B: Excavations and survey
Chapter 2. Late antique buildings occupied to the Late Middle Ages: life over one millennium on Dariali Fort (Trench F)
2.1. Introduction
2.2. The late antique fort walls and intramural life (late fourth to mid-seventh centuries AD/Phase 3)
2.3. Mid-seventh/early eighth-century power
vacuum (Phase 4)
2.4. The early medieval zenith of activity (eighth to tenth/eleventh centuries AD/Phase 5)
2.5. The late medieval Georgian castle and
renewed activity between the thirteenth to fifteenth
centuries AD (Phase 6b)
2.6. Gunmen’s backyard: modern activity in the west of the fort (Phase 7b)
Chapter 3. Towering over the northern approaches: late antique buildings, medieval food storage and modern military (Trench Q)
3.1. Introduction
3.2. The late antique fort walls and intramural
life (late fourth to mid-seventh centuries
AD/Phase 3)
3.3. The seventh to early eighth century: plus
ça change, plus c’est la même chose: political
upheaval and archaeological continuity
(Phase 4)
3.4. Resurgence: dry-stone building boom and
life from the eighth to the tenth/eleventh
centuries (Phase 5)
3.5. A derelict backyard in the medieval castle
(Phases 5b–6b)
3.6. Attempting to halt Soviet aggression
(Phase 7b)
Chapter 4. Barrier, bastion and aqueduct: sondages and surveys on and around Dariali Fort (Trenches L, X and O)
4.1. A tower at the southern approaches to the
Dariali Fort: Trench L (Phases 3–5)
4.2. Buried beyond reach: in search of the
earliest occupation debris at the base of Dariali
Fort’s steep western cliffs: Trench X (Phases
5–7)
4.3. A modern military shelter: Trench O
(Phase 7b)
4.4. A gated road-blocking wall west of the fort
(Phases 3a–5b/c?)
4.5. Vital water supply: piped water from the
mountains above and staircase to the river
below (Phase 3a–d?)
Chapter 5. Extramural areas south of the fort: two-and-a-half millennia of traffic and two millennia of food production in the shadow of the rock (Trenches P and M)
5.1. Trench P: 2,500-year-old campfires to medieval gardening and modern shelters at the base of the tower-crowned rock (Phases 2a–7b)
5.2. Extramural food production throughout the
first millennium: Trench M (Phases 2b–5)
Chapter 6. Dariali early medieval cemetery (Trenches E, G and AB): Eberhard W. Sauer, Anthi Tiliakou, Catherine Shupe, Annamaria Diana, Elena Kranioti and Konstantin Pitskhelauri
6.1. Introduction
6.2. Garden plots or arable fields? Pre-cemetery activity in the area of Trenches E, G and AB (Phases 2/3–5)
6.3. Trench E: collective graves of the first phase (5a–b) of the cemetery
6.4. Trench G: individual adult, adolescent and
child graves of the cemetery’s later phase (5b–c)
6.5. Trench AB: individual child graves of the
cemetery’s later phase (5c)
6.6. Burials beyond our trenches (Phase 5b–c)
6.7. The chronology of the cemetery (Phase 5)
6.8. The early medieval cemetery and the
religion of the garrison (Phase 5)
6.9. The early medieval cemetery, the ethnicity
of the garrison and its connections to the
outside world (Phase 5)
Chapter 7. The Caspian Gates? Bakht’ari fortified ridge: first line of defence and northernmost barrier (Trench Y/Phase 3)
Chapter 8. Medieval Gveleti Fort: valley-blocking cliff-top bastion and royal refuge from the Mongols (Trenches C, D, N, U, V and W)
8.1. Introduction
8.2. Living on top of the cliff-edge in early
modern times: Trench C (Phase 7a)
8.3. Trench D: early medieval to early modern
occupation of Gveleti Fort (Phases 5–7a)
8.4. Trench N: early modern housing
next to the lower fort’s stone tower
(Phase 7a)
8.5. Trench U: activity at the approaches to the
upper fort in the era of royal residency
(Phase 6b)
8.6. Trench V: medieval occupation south-west
of the church (Phase 6a)
8.7. Trench W: a late medieval stone house
(Phase 6b)?
8.8. The history of Gveleti Fort (Phases 5–7)
Chapter 9. Elusive migration-era burials and enigmatic stone cairns: fieldwork near Gveleti Cemetery and in the Amali Valley (Trenches A, B, H, I, J, K, R, S, T, Z and AA)
9.1. In search of Gveleti Cemetery (Phases 3–7)
9.2. The enigmatic Amali Cairns and the
power of nature: Trenches Z and AA
Chapter 10. Landscape investigations in the Dariali Pass: Kristen Hopper, Dan Lawrence, Lisa Snape, Lana Chologauri, Seth M.N. Priestman, Lyudmila Shumilovskikh, Konstantin Pitskhelauri and Graham Philip
10.1. Introduction
10.2. Landscape investigations in Khevi
10.3. The landscape survey in Khevi
10.4. Archaeological and historical landscapes
of Khevi
10.5. Terrace field systems
10.6. Discussion
10.7. Dariali Pass Survey Site Gazetteer
10.8. Sedimentary descriptions from terrace
field investigations
Section C: Specialist contributions: finds, building materials, biological and environmental evidence and scientific dating
Chapter 11. Provisioning and supply across an ancient frontier: the late antique and medieval ceramic sequence from the Dariali Gorge in the High Caucasus: Seth M.N. Priestman
11.1. Introduction
11.2. Phase distribution and changing assemblage composition
11.3. Chronological development of
the assemblage
11.4. Other changes in assemblage composition
11.5. Other assemblages
11.6. Discussion
11.7. Class catalogue
11.8. Vessel types
11.9. Petrographic analysis and raw material provenance: Enrica Bonato and Seth M.N. Priestman
11.10. Residue analysis of cooking pots by GCMS: Ben Stern and Seth M.N. Priestman
11.11. Context dating from ceramic finds
Chapter 12. Fragment of a ceramic vessel with an ancient Georgian inscription discovered at Dariali Fort: George Gagoshidze
Chapter 13. Vessel glass from the Dariali Fort: Fiona Anne Mowat
13.1. The assemblage from Dariali
13.2. Methodology
13.3. Fabric classes
13.4. Chemical analysis
13.5. Site phasing and vessel circulation
13.6. Glass recycling, cullet and trade at Dariali
13.7. Descriptive catalogue by fabric type
13.8. Conclusion
Chapter 14. Report of chemical compositional characterisation of glass fragments excavated from Dariali Fort (Georgia) by non-destructive X-ray fluorescence analysis: Yoshinari Abe and Ryuji Shikaku
14.1. Materials and methods
14.2. Results and discussion
14.3. Conclusion
Chapter 15. The small objects and other finds: Lana Chologauri, Ana Gabunia, Fiona Anne Mowat, Seth M.N. Priestman, Eberhard W. Sauer and St John Simpson, with an appendix by Scott Stetkiewicz
15.1. Introduction
15.2. Finds from the Dariali and Gveleti Forts
and extramural areas
15.3. Finds from the cemetery
15.4. Conclusion
15.5. Appendix: Slag from the Dariali Fort: Scott Stetkiewicz
Chapter 16. The sword from Grave G9 in the cemetery south of Dariali Fort: analytical and technological study and assessment: Brian Gilmour
16.1. Introduction and preliminary description
16.2. Analysis and technology of the sword blade
16.3. Discussion and conclusion
Chapter 17. Ceramic building materials from Dariali Fort: Seth M.N. Priestman
Chapter 18. Mortars from Dariali Fort and nearby fortifications: J. Riley Snyder and Martina Astolfi
18.1. Introduction
18.2. Materials and methods
18.3. Results
18.4. Discussion
18.5. Conclusion
Chapter 19. Human skeletal remains: Anthi Tiliakou, Catherine Shupe, Elena Kranioti and Annamaria Diana
19.1. Introduction
19.2. Methodology
19.3. Taphonomy and state of preservation
19.4. Biological sex, age, ancestry and stature
19.5. Non-metric traits
19.6. Dentition
19.7. Dental attrition
19.8. Palaeopathology
19.9. Dental Enamel Hypoplasia (DEH)
19.10. Caries, Dental calculus, Periodontitis,
Periapical cavities and Ante-mortem Tooth loss
19.11. Osteoarthritis (OA)
19.12. Periostitis/Chronic Periostitis
19.13. Entheseal changes
19.14. Trauma
19.15. Conclusion
Chapter 20. Dariali Cemetery stable isotope analysis: Catriona Pickard
20.1. Isotope analysis
20.2. Materials and methods
20.3. Results and discussion
20.4. Conclusion
Chapter 21. Herding and hunting in the highlands from the Sasanian to late medieval periods
21.1. The archaeozoology of the Dariali Gorge: Marjan Mashkour, Sarieh Amiri, Homa Fathi, Roya Khazaeli, Karyne Debue, Delphine Decruyenaere, Sanaz Beizaee Doost, Benoît Clavel, Safoora Kamjan, Rusudan Jajanidze and Eberhard W. Sauer
21.2. Fish remains: Valentin Radu and Eberhard W. Sauer
21.3. Microvertebrates: Emmanuelle Stoetzel, Lyudmila Shumilovskikh, Karyne Debue, Michel Lemoine and Marjan Mashkour
Chapter 22. Plant remains: Lyudmila Shumilovskikh and Imogen Poole
22.1. Charcoal: Imogen Poole and Lyudmila Shumilovskikh
22.2. Archaeobotany: Lyudmila Shumilovskikh
22.3. Vegetation history: Lyudmila Shumilovskikh
Chapter 23. Archaeomagnetic studies of features excavated in Dariali Gorge: Cathy M. Batt, David P. Greenwood and Tehreem Kainaat
23.1. Abstract
23.2. Introduction
23.3. Background
23.4. Archaeomagnetic sampling in the field
23.5. Archaeomagnetic measurements
23.6. Results
23.7. Interpretation of the archaeomagnetic
results and comparison with the global
geomagnetic field model
23.8. Previous archaeomagnetic studies in the region
23.9. Summary and conclusion
23.10. Further work
Chapter 24. Luminescence dating and micromorphological assessment: Lisa Snape and Ian Bailiff
24.1. Introduction
24.2. Field observations
24.3. Discussion
Section D: History
Chapter 25. The history of the Dariali Gorge
25.1. Prehistoric colonisation, Cimmerian invasion and the earliest visits to Dariali Rock (third millennium to third century BC/up to Phase 2a)
25.2. From obscurity to world-fame: Iberians,
Iranians and Romans in the Dariali Gorge (Phase
2b: second century BC to fourth century AD)
25.3. The late antique fort (Phase 3)
25.4. Power vacuum: mid-seventh century
collapse of Sasanian rule to eighth-century
Islamic conquest (Phase 4)
25.5. The gates and their garrison in the Early
Middle Ages (Phase 5)
25.6. Abandonment and resurgence: Dariali
and Gveleti Forts in the High and Late Middle
Ages (Phase 6a–b: eleventh to late fourteenth or
fifteenth centuries)
25.7. End of the Middle Ages to Soviet Invasion:
Dariali Gorge in the second half of the First
Millennium (Phase 7)
Section E: Appendices and Conclusion: Appendices. Landslides, the location of the gates and imperial landscapes: notes on historical geography
I. A hostile environment: landslides and their effect on settlement patterns in the gorge
II. Where were the gates? A French eyewitness to
the narrowness of the gorge
III. Investigations of ancient canal systems in Central and Eastern Georgia: Kristen Hopper, Dan Lawrence, Konstantin Pitskhelauri and Graham Philip
Conclusion
Acknowledgements & the history of the Dariali Gorge (in Georgian)/წინასიტყვაობა და დარიალის ხეობის ისტორია ანტიკურ ხანაში Abridged and translated by Davit Naskidashvili/დავით ნასყიდაშვილი
დარიალის ხეობის ისტორია ანტიკურ ხანაში: ახალი ტერიტორიების ათვისება პრეისტორიულ ხანაში,
სკვითების შემოსევა და დარიალის უღელტეხილის უძველესი
სტუმრები
Bibliography
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