Reconstruction of Late Holocene Paleoenvironmental Conditions of the Shiraki plain – Traces of Early State Formations in the Southern Caucasus

Goal: The study of past environmental changes and their effects on former human societies delivers key information to reconstruct former human-environmental interactions, but also to project future climate changes and their effects on human societies. Our study is focussed on southeastern Georgia (Caucasus region) that experienced long-term environmental changes during the late Holocene.
Our study area represents the semi-arid Shiraki Plain east of the city of Dedoplistskaro. The region is characterized by semiarid climate conditions (annual precipitation <500 mm) and shows an open dry steppic landscape today. Geomorphologically, the Shiraki Plain represents an almost flat area with a size of ca. 100 km2 and an average height of 500-600 m above sea level, surrounded by chains of low mountains ranges. Today there are almost no settlements in the area since it is largely devoid of water resources. However, recent data collected using remote sensing and archaeological investigations delivered evidences of a continuous early human inhabitation of this area, starting from the Paleolithic period and abruptly ending during the Bronze - Early Iron Ages between ca. 3.2 and 2.4 ka. Furthermore, recent archaeological excavations gave even evidence of possible early state formation under favorable paleoenvironmental conditions.
The running study is based on a comprehensive multidisciplinary geoarchaeological approach: Geoarchaeological surveys involving aerial photogrammetric shooting, core drillings and trenches, chronological and sedimentological analyses, hydrological modelling of regional water balances and paleobotanical analyses. The main goal of the project is the diachronic reconstruction of late Holocene paleoenvironmental conditions and prehistoric settlement patterns in the Shiraki region in southeastern Georgia in order to: (i) shed light on significant environmental changes in the region during the last millenia, (ii) identify possible natural and/or anthropogenic drivers of these changes, (iii) identify the response of human societies to these changes, (iv) estimate available natural resources for possible early state formation in this region.

Date: 1 July 2019 - 30 June 2022