Nikoloz Tushabramishvili

Ilia State University | ISU · College of Arts and Sciences

In 2021 a basalt tablet bearing an inscription in unknown script was discovered nearby Bashplemi Lake (Dmanisi municipality, Georgia). This booksized tablet bears 60 signs, 39 of them are different. The archaeological context of the finding may be dated back to the Late Bronze/Early Iron Ages. The basalt seems to be of local origin, the signs have...

Archaeological and archaeogenetic studies have highlighted the pivotal role of the Caucasus region throughout prehistory, serving as a central hub for cultural, technological, and linguistic innovations. However, despite its dynamic history, the critical area between the Greater and Lesser Caucasus mountain ranges, mainly corresponding to modern-da...

In Georgia, a strong foundation for scientific study of this period was developed in 1930-ies. Since then more than 500 Paleolithic sites were identified The frequency of paleolithic sites on the territory of Georgia was determined by geographic position of Georgia itself, as it is situated at the crossroads of Africa, Asia and Europe According to...

The nature and timing of the shift from the Late Middle Paleolithic (LMP) to the Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP) varied geographically, temporally, and substantively across the Near East and Eurasia; however, the result of this process was the archaeological disappearance of Middle Paleolithic technologies across the length and breadth of their geogr...

The paper presents the newly established radiocarbon dates of the Late Upper Palaeolithic (LUP) settlement in Gvardjilas Klde in the Imereti region in Georgia. The analysed samples were collected by Stefan Krukowski in 1916 during his fieldwork in the cave. Krukowski identified two separate UP cultural horizons. The older one was connected with wha...

Authors constructing hypothesis on importance of specific type of neanderthal ancestry to avoid COVID-19 damaging impact.

Recent surveys and the researches of the Lower Paleolithic of Georgia demonstrate that the territory of Georgia was much more intensively occupied by the humans than it was known before. The Lower Paleolithic sites and the stone materials were discovered in Eastern Georgia and Western Georgia, as well. Recently discovered sites differ from the befo...

The late Pleistocene expansion of anatomically modern humans (AMHs) into Eurasia and the concurrent demise of the Neanderthals appears to be a complex and regionally variable process. The southern Caucasus region, with its rich cave-sites, has recently provided important results regarding this process. In this paper we report on the results of fiel...

Current Middle & Upper Palaeolithic research in the southern Caucasus - Volume 76 Issue 294 - Nicholaz Tushabramishvili, Daniel S. Adler, Ofer Bar-Yosef, Anna Belfer-Cohen

This paper presents an overview of the work carried out over the last decade on the Middle Palaeolithic of Georgia by a Georgian-French team, co-directed by the national Museums of Georgia and France. Since 2000, the importance of several Middle Palaeolithic key sites in the Rioni-Kvririla Basin (western Georgia) has been highlighted by this collab...

Ortvale Klde is a key cave site which provides detailed archaeological and chronological information about Middle and Upper Palaeolithic occupation in the southern Caucasus, and the timing of the Middle–Upper Palaeolithic transition in this region. Excavations have mostly focused on the southern chamber, and an extensive dating programme suggests t...

JGCP 610 First Plenary Conference and Field Trip, Tbilisi, Geo1gia, 12-19 October 2013 PALEOLITHIC OF GEORGIA Tushabramishvili, N. Ilia State University, Institute of Earth Sciences, Centre for Reasearches of Archaeology, Paleoenvironment and Biodiversity, 77, Nutsubidze str., Tbilisi, Georgia, 0177, nikoloz_ tushabramishvili@iliauni.edu .ge Keyw...

The goal of our project is research into the evolutionary history of Neanderthals in the Caucasus, their replacement by Anatomically Modern Humans, and how much natural catastrnphes, namely earthquakes, might have influenced this process. We may have found evidence of Pleistocene paleo-earthquakes in some caves of western Georgia (1Jpper Imereti re...

The territory o f Georgia (South Caucasus ) is a crossroads between Europe and Asia, which is surrounded by the Great and Lesser Caucasian Ranges and the Black and the Caspian Seas. The most of the territories of Georgia were intensively occupied by the humans during the Middle Pleistocene and Late Pleistocene. The region was a geographic “deadlock...

: In our article we deal with three Upper Paleolithic cave sites, which are located in Upper Imereti region just in few km from each other (2–6 km). These are already well-known sites - Ortvala Klde, Dzudzuana Cave and newly discovered Bondi Cave. The landscapes, where these caves are situated, are the similar. All of them are located in parallel g...

The Bondi Cave sequence A new sequence containing human remains from a previously unstudied cave, Bondi Cave, has been discovered in Georgia, with deposits dating to the Caucasian Upper Pleistocene. This site lies in the basin of Rioni-Kvirila Rivers, in the Imereti region of north-western Georgia. The site has yielded a long sequence with human oc...

Middle Palaeolithic blade industries have been known for many years from the southern part of the Great Caucasus. Recently published technological studies demonstrate strong affi nities between the laminar assemblages from Djruchula Cave (Republic of Georgia) and those from several Near Eastern Early Middle Paleolithic sites. A series of new thermo...

This paper considers the recent radiometric dating (14C-AMS, TL, ESR) of 76 late Middle and early Upper Paleolithic samples from Ortvale Klde Rockshelter, located in the Republic of Georgia. We present a critical evaluation of each date based on its stratigraphic and archaeological context, its pretreatment and contamination history, and its result...

Eieven samples from Upper Paleolithic layers of karst cave Bondi have been investigated by the method of palynological analysis. The pollen and spore content there turned out to be very scarce, however, non-pollen fossils (=non-pollen palynomorphs) were represented better. In the lower layers many flax and wool fibers were found. High quantities of...

The cave of Tsona is located at the foot of the Great Caucasus, on southern slope, in the area of Djava in Shida Kartli (Central Georgia). This cave is in a high altitude area (2100 m) and it has yielded two levels related to Acheulian. Their date is not known and they has been estimated on archaeological bases (end of Acheulian or Upper Acheulian)...

Georgia yielded numerous Middle Paleolithic sites dated of the end of Middle Pleistocene and Upper Pleistocene, located at the foot of the Great Caucasus barrier. Several cultural groups are based on local technical trends or on behaviours coming from other areas (Near-East, Zagros, Eastern Europe). One of these, named Djruchula- Koudaro, groups si...

The Middle Paleolithic blade phenomenon is now acknowledged as part of Middle Paleolithic technological variability. These blade assemblages are now largely documented and well dated in some areas such as the Levant and Northwestern Europe, while in other regions, they are only briefly reported. In the Southern Caucasus, Middle Paleolithic blade as...

Occupying an intermediate position between Africa, Asia, and Europe the southern Caucasus has represented a northern geographic terminus for major expansions and migrations of human populations, both Archaic and Modern, throughout much of prehistory. During the Middle Palaeolithic, the high elevations and glaciated passes of the Caucasus served as...