Dedoplis Mindori
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Shida Kartli, Georgia
| Dedoplis Mindori | |
|---|---|
| Native name დედოფლის მინდორი (Georgian) | |
  Location of Dedoplis Mindori in Georgia | |
| Location | Kareli Municipality Shida Kartli, Georgia |
| Coordinates | 42°02′49″N 43°51′38″E / 42.046850°N 43.860486°E |
| Type | Archaeological |
| Designated | 2007 |
Dedoplis Mindori (Georgian: დედოფლის მინდორი, romanized: dedoplis mindori, literally, "the queen's meadow") is an archaeological site in Georgia's east-central region of Shida Kartli, at the confluence of eastern and western Prone, tributaries of the Kura. A multi-layer site, it has yielded some Acheulean and Mousterian stone tools, burials from the Late Bronze to the Iron ages, and several settlements and burials from the Classical Antiquity and Middle Ages. Of particular importance is a substantial complex of what once were religious buildings, dated to the 2nd–1st century BC, and inscribed on the list of the Immovable Cultural Monuments of National Significance.[1] The Dedoplis Mindori plain is adjoined by a group of mounds, known as Aradetis Orgora, where archaeological finds span several periods of local culture sequence, from the Chalcolithic to the Early Middle Ages.[2]
Dedoplis Mindori is a gently sloping plain at the confluence of eastern and western Prone, tributaries of the Kura, occupying an area of approximately 25 km2, some 3 km west of the village of Aradeti, Kareli Municipality. At its southern edge, where the river Ptsa joins the Kura near the village of Doghlauri, there is Aradetis Orgora, a group of three mounds, the dominant of which is known as Dedoplis Gora ("the queen's hill") and rises to 34 m above the river. A series of archaeological reconnaissance surveys explored both the plain and mounds in the 1950s and 1960s, but systematic archaeological study of the area was undertaken under the direction of Iulon Gagoshidze from 1972 to 1982. The excavations revealed an extensive complex of religious buildings at Dedoplis Mindori and a palace complex at Dedoplis Gora. Digs at Aradetis Orgora are ongoing, as part of the Georgian–Italian Shida Kartli Archaeological Project, a collaboration of the Georgian National Museum and Ca' Foscari University of Venice launched in 2009.[3]
The Dedoplis Mindori sanctuary is unknown from written history. According to its excavator, Iulon Gagoshidze, it might have served as one of the principal pre-Christian shrines, and probably a royal one, of the ancient kingdom of Kartli, known to the Classical world as Iberia. The temples are dated by archaeologists to the 2nd–1st century BC.[4][5] In the later 1st century AD, the complex was destroyed by fire. This dating is supported by combined archaeological evidence from a palace complex at nearby Dedoplis Gora: pottery, imported bronze-ware from the Roman Empire, and the radiocarbon analysis of grain stores. Arrowheads found in the destruction deposits suggest the fire was the result of a military conflict.[6]