CLAY IMPRINTS OF TSIKHIAGORA

Abstract

The research is dedicated to clay pieces with seal imprints found in the Thikhiagora Temple. The Thikhiagora Temple complex is located 40-45 km. northwest of Tbilisi on the right bank of the River Mtkvari near the village of Kavtisxevi (Eastern Georgia) Excavations carried out in the area revealed that Thikhiagora is a burial mould-like hill with the following characteristics: height – 12 m, space-40mX100m.
The large temple complex surrounded by a wall with towers and outposts was built On the hill at the end of the IV and the beginning of the II century B.C. It consists of a temple, a granary, a wine cellar, a bakery, a refectory and dwell-ing buildings.
The variety of forms and subjects of the clay imprints of Tsikiagora, and the style and manner of expression reflect the influence of the cultures of Achae-menid Iran and the Middle East as well as that of Greece. In many cases peculi-arity of pictures and the manner and style of their performance having no ana-logues among the known fine art pieces suggest the possibility of their local origin.
In the account of 1986 Tsikiagora fieldwork archaeologist Giorgi Tskitish-vili considers the fragments of clay imprint as a part of The wall plastering. In the same year excavations were carried out in the northeast corner of the burnt down Auxiliary room No 10, in which thick ruined debris of approx. 3 meters completely covered the stone layer of the wall. Considering the fact that clay imprints had been previously found in this area the ruined mass was cleaned with extreme care. Crockery fragments of different size were found at approxi-mately 3 meters above the floor level. This made the professionals involved in the excavation think that the earthenware had been brought down from the sec-ond floor by the collapsed roofing between the storeys. And as most of the frag-ments represent parts of special vessels for keeping cheese it is supposed that the upper space must have once been a store-room. A big piece of plastering with an imprint of four girders on the reverse was found almost stuck to the eastern wall of the auxiliary room No 10. We say “stuck” because the space between the piece and the wall with its obverse side the imprint was considered to have fallen from the ceiling. The main pieces found on the floor along the wall plinths are considered to have been part of the decoration of the wall and the ceiling plastering, which according to Mr. Tskitishvili must have rimed the ceiling. Each group clay fragments found in the ruined matter has imprints of the same seal differing from those of the others. Fragments of clay imprints found in the wine cellar covered lips of large wine vessels, which allows us to define them as a bullas. The clay fragments with imprints found in the auxiliary room 21 are also considered to be door-locking bullas.
No proof of clay imprints has been recorded in chronologically synchro-nous monuments of Georgia (Samadlo, Nastakisi). However lots of clay im-prints have been found in the Dedoflis Gora materials, chronologically belong-ing to the after Tsikhiagora period and are considered bullas by those having excavated the place.
Our presumption is that some of the Tsikhiagora clay imprints represent bullas, whereas others belong to part of the ceiling plastering. The great majority of bullas was found in the auxiliary room 10, the upper floor of which is thought to have been a store-room because of the amount of fragments of clay earthen-ware found there. It is also obvious that a large number of bullas there has been preserved by the fire at the time.
According to the cultural layer the clay imprints of Tsikhiagora were dated by the II century B.C.