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and gold lunate hair rings. Similar pieces were found across the six barrows at Martkopi (Figure 7.3(11–12)).
Here one should mention the exquisite gold necklace (Figure 7.3(14, 15)) from Ananauri (Kakheti) Barrow 2, a unique piece found buried in a small pit dug into the floor of the tomb.37 At its centre is a massive gold plate in the shape of a double spiral decorated with an intricate open-work pattern.Three smaller double-spiral pendants twisted from gold wire, and a series of biconical, bobbin-shaped, and tubular beads make up the rest of the necklace. The necklace has no direct analogues, but the bobbin-shaped beads are comparable to those from Martkopi Barrow 4, as well as examples from the Early Dynastic IIIA period in the Royal Cemetery at Ur.38
Not all barrows had numerous or lavish grave goods. At Samgori, for instance, the dead were buried with several ceramic containers, a small bronze dagger, a stone axe, and astragalus bones. In addition to items of precious metals, temporal pendants of animal teeth and tusks also make an appearance for the first time during this period.
Bedeni Barrows
The second and approximately coeval phase of the early barrow period is represented by burials situated in both the high country and the lowlands.The barrows are found in the AlazaniValley, on the Tsalka Plateau, and to the south around Marneuli.39 Bedeni mounds also occur in western Azerbaijan and in Nagorno-Karabakh at Stepanakert. In terms of construction, these mounds are roughly comparable to those of the Martkopi period, though they show a little more variety.There are stone and earthen mounds, and barrows that combine both media in a layered effect.They often cluster in groups. Most Bedeni barrows measure no more than about 15 m in diameter and rise some 3 m above the ground.There are exceptions, of course, most notably Ananauri 3, which was built to a height of 12 m, and Tsnori, which was only 1 m less.
On the whole, the Bedeni communities placed their dead in a more diverse range of burial chambers than did their Martkopi neighbours. Large timber structures constructed in a deep rectangular or square grave pit were popular. The most elaborate examples come from the Bedeni Plateau, where large mounds concealed well-preserved, spacious chambers, whose walls comprised abutting logs positioned upright.40 Aboveground mortuary architecture, built of either stone or wooden logs, was impressive, too, and often furnished with a corridor (dromos). Other tomb types include deep earthen shafts or shallow pits, and the occasional catacomb variety, hewn out of bedrock.
37Miron and Orthmann 1995: fig. 50, 227; Soltes 1999: fig. 13, 140–1.
38Abramishvili 2010: 169.
39Dzhaparidze 1975; 1994: 77.
40Gobedzhishvili 1980.
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Ananauri Barrow 3
The Bedeni period has received an important injection of information through the 2012 excavation of Ananauri Barrow 3, a large tumulus located in the Lagodekhi municipality of eastern Georgia and radiocarbon dated to 2400 BC.41 Spreading across 100 m, the tumulus rises 12 m above the valley floor of the Alazani River. Built with superimposed layers of yellow clay 2–3 m thick and sealed with a stone shell (50–100 cm) in which obsidian fl akes were intentionally (and probably symbolically) embedded, its construction would have required an enormous amount of labour.At its centre, the burial chamber was covered with a matrix of dark grey clay and roofed with a wooden platform (25 x 15 m) built of oak logs (Figure 7.7).Wooden chips were spread across the platform to form a layer up to 20 cm thick, and the whole area was sprinkled with red ochre. Beneath the platform, a large burial pit (15 x 10 m) housed an oak mortuary chamber (L: 9 x W: 6.5 x H: 2.75 m), constructed with walls two layers thick separated with matting.The outer wall comprised logs of oak bonded like a log cabin in the corners, while the interior of the chamber was lined with hewn planks. The roof was supported by three pillars and seven horizontal beams.
Although the burial chamber had been plundered twice, after which the platform collapsed, enough grave goods survive to reflect the wealth it contained.The disarticulated remains of seven individuals lay amid the dismantled parts of two wagons that were fl attened to the floor owing to the roof collapse. Upright planks of wood, probably lined with leather on the outside and held in place with wooden pegs, served as the walls of the wagon bodies. Skilled carpentry is also reflected the wheels, constructed from three planks of wood joined with wooden cleats. Metal rods with a broad disc head were used to secure the wheels to the axle.
Both wagons functioned as hearses. One of the dead was placed on the body of Wagon 1, whereas another lay on the floor beneath it.Wagon 2 had a similar arrangement: two individuals, an adult and a sub-adult, on the wagon, and another individual beneath it. Two deceased, again an adult and a sub-adult, were placed in the north-east part of the chamber.The grave goods included fragments of a wooden armchair, tripod wooden bowls, twenty-three gold jewellery items, beads of carnelian, black onyx and amber, ornamented pottery, flint and obsidian arrowheads, and textile (wool) and leather items. Of the twenty ceramic containers, two are noteworthy: one is a black polished jar with a relief pattern of spirals resembling a stylised face, similar to the vessel from Badaani, whereas the other is an unusual narrow-necked container built from a light and compact grey paste. The exceptional hermetic conditions
41 Makharadze and Murvanidze 2014a; lecture delivered at the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, Makharadze 2015; Makharadze et al. 2016. See also Makharadze and Murvanidze 2014b.
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Figure 7.7. Ananauri Barrow 3 (after Makharadze and Murvanidze 2014a).
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within the barrow also preserved baskets of berries coated in honey and quantities of chestnuts.
Bedeni Barrows
Another well-preserved burial is Bedeni Barrow 5 – a virtually complete log funerary cabin with wooden floor and flat roof (Figure 7.8(1)). Inside the structure, a solid, four-wheeled wooden wagon acted as a hearse and held the remains of a deceased male, who was placed on a litter decorated with gold ornaments. Amongst the items buried with him was a gold double-spiral-headed pin that is a stylistic development from the older bronze pins of the Early Bronze Age (Figure 7.8(4)). Its head is flat and broad, and decorated with two rows of circles and a twist pattern on one side and a meander pattern on the other.Technically, the pin reflects a fairly complicated process, combining the techniques of casting, stamping, and engraving.
In secondary positions along the periphery of the tomb were a woman and a youth.This spatial arrangement, repeated in other burials, has led to suggestions that the society was patriarchal and that the woman and youth either committed suicide or were dispatched upon the death of the elder male.42 Similar explanations of human sacrifice have been offered for the male-female collective burials of the early Yamnaya culture, with the caveat that simultaneous death may have been caused by disease.43 Unfortunately, we have no anthropological analysis of the skeletal remains to indicate trauma. If it could be shown that these instances represent retainer sacrifice or even suttee, they could be added to other wellknown examples from the Near East and Europe.44 While the grave goods of the woman and youth were modest, the principal deceased was lavished with items that included wooden furniture and utensils, fragments of flax and hemp, basketry, and woollen fabrics, felt rugs, fleeces of sacrificed animals, jewellery, finely knapped obsidian and flint arrowheads, and a wide range of pottery. Food items, including meat, wheat, walnut, and chestnuts were also placed in the tomb and some may have been consumed during the funerary rite.
Recent palynological research has shed light on the ‘invisible’ aspects of the Barrow 5 funerary rites.45 A range of medicinal and melliferous plants, such as lime (Tilia) and Plantago, Centaurea, Artemisia, and Achillea, were probably tied and bundled in boxes and baskets (Figure 7.8(3)).While their placement in the tomb could simply have been ornamental, it is also possible that their purpose was folk phytotherapy, namely to provide a healthier afterlife. Honey
42Kushnareva 1997: 92, following Dzhaparidze 1994: 77.
43Mallory 1990: 36.
44A. R. W. Green 1975; Day 1989; M. Green 1998; Frangipane 2001.According to Hughes (1991: 18–24), before human sacrifice is claimed, certain criteria should be met, including a hierarchy of provisions, violence in the secondary burials, and the simultaneity of the deaths.
45Kvavadze et al. 2015.
Figure 7.8. Bedeni Barrow 5 (1) Axionmetric view of Bedeni Barrow 5 (adapted by C. Sagona after Gobedzhishvili 1980); (2) textile fragments; (3) wooden box; (4) gold pin (nos. 2–3 photographs A. Sagona; no. 4 after Carminati 2014).
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