ABSTRACT

The interpretation of a number of previously excavated Classical period archaeological sites has advanced our understanding of the formation processes of cultural landscapes in Iberia (east Georgia). In the 1950s, remnants of fortifications discovered in the close vicinity of the modern village of Tsitsamuri (east Georgia) were identified as part of the defensive system of Seusamora, one of the two fortified cities of Iberia mentioned by Strabo. Archaeological sites with different functions subsequently uncovered in the vicinity were also linked with Seusamora. According to the archaeological record, this fortified city with its agricultural lands played an important role in the socio-cultural life of Hellenistic Iberia. However, ancient Georgian written sources do not provide any information about Seusamora itself. The written records mention another contemporary fortified city, Armaztsikhe, referred to as Harmozice by Strabo, and highlight its significance while neglecting Seusamora. It is probable that this fortified settlement lost its importance in the Roman and early medieval periods, but its agricultural lands remained vital. As a result, Seusamora appears to have been subordinate to the newly developed polis of Mtskheta, which became the capital of Iberia in Roman times.

This paper adopts a landscape archaeology approach that is innovative for Georgian archaeology, and aims to define a provisional model of the sequence of the development and decline of the Seusamora settlement, and to bring to light the natural and cultural prerequisites that stimulated the changing configurations of settlement networks through time. The reconstruction of natural and cultural landscape history deals with the integration of human perceptions, written records and cultural factors rebuilt from the artefacts and their natural counterparts. This approach revealed the Seusamora settlement system and its spatial and temporal changes in diverse chronological, environmental and social frameworks.

KEYWORDS

cultural landscape, settlement system, field system, tile, Seusamora

INTRODUCTION

Studies of the origin, development and decline of past human settlement are of great importance in archaeology. From prehistoric times, humans tried to adjust their dwellings to their environment. Presumably, at an early stage of human development, adaptation was more instinctive than cognitive.