Goderdzi Narimanishvili, Marina Kvatchadze Georgian National museum (Georgia, Tbilisi) Nodar Poporadze, Olga Seskuria Georgian Technical University (Georgia, Tbilisi) White beads of Trialeti Bronze Age Trialeti is one of the historic regions of Georgia. It is located in the central part of South Caucasus, on the high mountain plateau, in the North-East part of Minor Caucasus (Pl. I). The intensive archaeological study of Trialeti has begun from the 30-ies of the XX century under B. Kuftin’s guidance. He studied numerous sites and based on the obtained data developed the periodization and chronology of archaeological sites of Caucasian Bronze Age. Since 1989, archaeological research has been carried out by the Center for Archaeological Research of Georgian National Museum (the head – G. Narimanishvili). This time, the object of our research is the beads made of white mineral. In Trialeti such kind of beads, dated back to the III millennium BC, are confirmed on the Early Bronze Age sites of Kura-Araxes culture1 in Early Bronze Age. They are presented as small size cylinders. Mainly, the beads of the same shapes are found in the assemblages of Middle and Late Bronze Ages2. The white beads discovered at the sites of the first half of the 1st millennium BC are distinguished by the diversity of shapes and ornaments; along with already existing beads of cylindrical shapes, triangular and rhomboid shape artifacts are found. So-called domino-like beads were discovered in the same period. In Trialeti the white colour beads are found on most of these sites3. In the scientific literature is mainly indicated that white beads are made from paste4. Rarely, they are considered to be bone items5. B. Kuftin first described the white beads, including the so-called domino-like items and considered that one of the kinds of talc was used for their manufacture6. Sapar-Kharaba cemetery is one of the most interesting archaeological sites of Trialeti in Late Bronze Age, which dates back to the XV-XIV centuries BC7. The beads made of quartz group 1. Nino Shanshashvili, “Sites of the Kura-Araxes Culture in Trialeti”, in Rescue Archaeology in Georgia: The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and South Caucasian Pipelines, ed. Gela Gamkrelidze (Tbilisi, 2010), 294-297; Lamara Zhorzhikashvili and Elguja Gogadze, Pamyatniki Trialeti v epokhu rannei i sredneu bronzi (Monuments of the Trialeti in the Early and Middle Bronze Age) (Tbilisi, 1974), 36, 39-40. 2. Zhorzhikashvili and Gogadze, Pamyatniki Trialeti, 83-98; Goderdzi Narimanishvili et al “Die Grabungskompanie in Zalka 1990-1992”, Archäclogische Geländearbeiten in Georgien 1989-1992 (2004), 123-128; Goderdzi Narimanishvili, “Saphar-Kharabas samarovani” (Saphar-Kharaba Burial Ground), Dziebani, Journal of the Georgian Archaeology, 17-18 (2006), 92-126. 3. Boris Kuftin, Arkheologicheskie raskopki v Trialeti (Archaeological Excavations in Trialeti) (Tbilisi, 1941), 56-57; Boris Kuftin, Arkheologicheskie raskopki v Tsalke v 1947 godu (Archaeological Excavations in 1947 in the Tsalka district). (Tbilisi, 1948), 10; Medea Menabde and Tsisana Davlianidze, Trialetis samarovnebi (Trialeti Cemeteries) (Tbilisi, 1968); Tsisana Davlianidze, kvemo kartlis kultura dz.ts. I aTastsleulis pirvel nakhevarshi (Lower Kartli (Trialeti) Culture in the Second half of the Ist Millenium BC). (Tbilisi, 1983); Narimanishvili et al, “Die Grabungskompanie in Zalka”, 125-126. 4. Menabde and Davlianidze, Trialetis samarovnebi; Davlianidze, Kvemo Kartli. 5. Vladimer Nikolaishvili and Eduard Gavasheli, Narekvavis arqeologiuri dzeglebi (Narekvavi Archaeological Sites) (Tbilisi, 2007), 39, 173. 6. Kuftin, Trialeti, 56-57. 7. Narimanishvili, “Saphar-Kharaba”, 92-103; Goderdzi Narimanishvili, “Trialeti in the 15th and 14th centu-
92
