Elena Rova

Ca' Foscari University of Venice

Associate Professor of "Archaeology and Art History of Ancient Western Asia and of the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean"

PhD

Venice/Italy

erova@unive.it

Multidisciplinary research carried out since 2023 by a joint team of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Ilia State University of Tbilisi and Gardabani local Museum in the framework of the GIGAP project in the southern part of the Gardabani district revealed the presence, in the region, of at least 33 kurgan fields, many of which were previously unknown, and none of which has been excavated thus far. The paper will describe their distribution on the territory, their connections with the natural environment and with other types of archaeological sites, their overall state of preservation and the potential risks posed to them by modern anthropic activities, and comment on their possible date(s). It will also illustrate dimensions, shape, materials and building techniques and other features of the individual barrows, their mutual relations, the presence of possible auxiliary features and/or later interventions, in the perspective of progressing from the study of the individual funerary monuments to the analysis of Kurgan Fields as places of repeated commemoration and collective interaction beyond the burial event itself. Special attention will be paid to methodological issues, and especially to the different contributions offered by non-invasive methods (remote-sensing, drone footage from different altitudes, photogrammetry, pedestrian survey, geophysical prospections, geochemical analyses), their advantages and their limits compared to traditional excavation and to micro-archaeological techniques. Comparative evidence from other regions of the Southern Caucasus and elsewhere will also be considered in the discussion. The analysis will focus particularly on the site of Gardabani Kurgan Field, which with 67 identified barrows represents the largest site of this kind in the investigated area. As far as possible, the results of the forthcoming summer 2026 field season of the GIGAP project will also be included in the presentation.

Kurgan, landscape archaeology, survey, remote sensing, non destructive investigations