New Archaeological Discoveries in Eastern Colchis

Abstract

In 1875, the correspondence of the great Georgian writer and public figure Akaki Tsereteli's brother, Davit Tsereteli, was printed in “Droeba” under the pseudonym "Skhvitoreli", in which he informed the readers that during the excavation of the foundation of the house on the southern slope of the Todadze Fortress, a certain Zabakhidze found a tomb in which gold items were found and they he sold to local Armenians and Jews. Davit Tsereteli also names musical instruments, which were found in the same tomb and notes that they were very similar to " military orchestra plates". Exactly two such pairs of bronze plates were discoviered at Modinakhe in the 1970s during the archaeological excavations led by J. Nadiradze. It was these accidental discoveries that became the prerequisite for conducting archaeological excavations in these places in 2022.
Keywords: Colchis. Archaeology. Imereti. Todadze Fortress