ArChAEOLOGiCAL ExCAvATiONS iN ArMAzTSiKhEaRchaEOlOgY > Vakhtang NikolaishviliThe Kartli (Iberia) royal residence of Armaztsikhe (4th century BC 4th -5th centuries AD) is described in Georgian and foreign written sources, but most information has come from artifacts found in archaeological excavations.

the first archaeological excavations in Armaztsikhe were conducted in 1889, led by Ilia Chavchavadze with the participation of Ekvtime Takaishvili. Along with other items, a piece of polychrome painting was discovered a frag-ment of a 1st century fresco. In the 1940s discoveries included a royal palace, a fortification system, a bath dating to the first centuries AD, a tomb and a sarcophagus containing an excep-tional number of objects.

In 1993-1998, archaeologist unearthed a 2nd 3rd century temple with a wine cellar containing 20 tons of wine, two Roman baths and epigraphic inscriptions in Ancient Greek describing the building activities of Kartli's (Iberia) kings du-ring the period.

Archaeological digs in Armaztsikhe resumed in 2011 when the monument was declared a reserve. In 2012-2014, four sto-rage areas were discovered west of the temple's wine cellar. All of them were linked by passages to the temple. Fifty-five stone treatment tools included pickaxes, picks, hammers, pegs, cru-shers, crow-bars, etc that were commonly used. Bronze items included the leg of an armchair and a fragment of an arm-rest, the leg of a marble bed with images of lions, discovered earlier. These objects would have been imported by Romans.

To the west of the royal palace on the second terrace, hou-ses from two building periods were identified. Two buildings on the upper layer were constructed with rubble masonry and cut stones, then covered with flat incised roof tiles. Ob-jects found there mainly included ceramics and materials from the 4th and 5th cc. Mud houses made up the second layer.

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Bricks laid on top of a stone foundation and covered with roof tiles painted with red pigment. They are set up at the same level, built using the same technology, and are approximately the same size (35-40 sq.m.). They are connected by passages and, naturally, were once functional. Ceramic items dating back to the 2nd-3rd centu-ries, as well as glass and bone items including a bone stylus used to write on waxed tablets were discovered inside the houses. This indicates that penmanship was developed at the royal court. North of the royal palace an original drainage was unearthed, built beneath the settlement re-mains, and apparently installed to drain rainwa-ter flow away from the main buildings (possibly the royal palace). In one of the buildings on top of the drainage, architectural details were dis-covered (a calf protoma, images of bull heads, part of a column cap, and a fragment of a frieze). These details may be parts of the decoration of a same building and date to the 1st century BC.

Most objects recently discovered in Armaztsi-khe seem to have been produced locally while some were clearly imported. This once again in-dicates that the Kartli (Iberia) Kingdom had con-tacts with other countries of the ancient world and, especially, with the strong Roman state.

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