Highland Fortress Complexes and Riverine Borders in Samtskhejavakheti, Southwest Georgia

Abstract

abstract:During extensive field surveys by the authors in southwest Georgia, more than 30 megalithic fortress complexes were recorded. A subset is situated at intervals along the ridges of the study region’s two major rivers, the Kura and the Paravani; significantly, each complex in this group overlooks a confluence between one of these rivers and a tributary. For anyone entering into the gorges along those tributaries, the fortresses across the rivers—with their walls of massive stones and near-unreachable settings—must have made an impressive sight. In combinations that also included fortresses in the mountains, they appear to have formed borders around arable plateaus. Those borders were reinforced by the wide and fast-flowing Kura and Paravani themselves, representing physical and, arguably, symbolic barriers to crossing up to the highlands. Architecture, the local knowledge of the builders, terrain, and human imagination all combined to form strong borders in this historically much-contested place.