Continuity or change? An analysis of fortified church complexes in Southern Georgia Cover Image

Continuity or change? An analysis of fortified church complexes in Southern Georgia
Continuity or change? An analysis of fortified church complexes in Southern Georgia

Author(s): Vakhtang Licheli, R. Dan, Priscilla Vitolo, Andrea Cesaretti, Tamar Chogovadze, Tornike Chilingarashvili
Subject(s): Middle Ages
Published by: Нижневартовский государственный университет
Keywords: Southern Georgia; Fortified churches; Bronze Age; Iron Age;Middle Ages;

Summary/Abstract: This article describes and discusses a series of archaeological sites. All the sites contain an ancient enclosure built using clearly pre-medieval masonries, inside of which a number of churches have been built. The dates of these fortified structures, usually improperly defined as built using “cyclopean technique”, cannot be established without archaeological excavations. Recent attempts have been made to establish functional continuity between the ancient enclosures and the churches inside them. The goal of this text is to present and discuss these interesting sites and analyse the available data relating to the function of these structures from a diachronic perspective.