Nazarlebi – Forschungsgeschichte
Expansion of the first exploration section (2017)
The ruin has been named Nazarlebi after the neighbouring Nazarlebi Mountains. In a test cut in 1991, B. Maisuradze and G. Mindiashvili had found pottery there that they dated to the 13th-11th centuries BC (Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age). A sondage by A. Furtwängler's team in 1997 had yielded only two sherds, which were described as inconclusive. In 2007-8, in connection with a spa excavation in the plain directly below Nazarlebi, further sondages were made in the rampart complex by V. Varazashvili. Within the framework of a first excavation campaign in autumn 2017, made possible by a start-up grant from the German Oriental Society, an area on the eastern edge of the upper rampart ring was chosen as the excavation area, where work had already been carried out earlier.
The second excavation campaign was preceded by an international workshop, which took place in Halle in May 2018 (see Workshop).