Archaeologists Find 3000-Year-Old ‘Mega-Fortress’ 40 Years Bigger Than Expected

When Georgian archaeologists excavated the 3,000-year-old fort, they worked in tall summer grass. But when he returned in autumn, he found that the plants had hidden something strange.

Using drone technology, researchers in the UK, Georgia, and the US have mapped Dmanisis Gora, a Bronze Age “mega-fort” in the Caucasus Mountains, and found that the complex is 40 times larger than previously reported. Their research, detailed in a January 8 study published in the journal The pastit can provide insight into the development and urbanization of ancient cities around the world.

“The use of drones has allowed us to understand the significance of the site and document it in ways that would not have been possible on the ground,” said Nathaniel Erb-Satullo of the Cranfield Forensic Institute, who participated in the study. at Cranfield University words. “Dmanisis Gora is not only an important part of the South Caucasus region, but it has a great significance for the diversity of the main settlements and their architecture.”

The Caucasus is a region that includes parts of Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, and is a historical crossroads of many cultures, including indigenous peoples. Large defensive cities began to develop in the southern Caucasus region between 1500 and 500 BCE, according to the study.

Erb-Satullo and his co-director, Dimitri Jachvliani from the Georgian National Museum and a collaborator of the study, began to explore Dmanisis Gora in 2018. After the first test excavations, the team returned to realize that the autumnal site had revealed additional walls of fortifications and stone pillars. and the inner fortress that he had already recognized. The building was apparently much larger than they thought—but they found it impossible to record its size from the ground.

“That’s what led to the idea of ​​using a drone to survey the area from the air,” Erb-Satullo said. The researchers used a drone to take about 11,000 photos of the site, which they combined to create digital elevations and orthophotos: aerial photographs designed to calculate features such as the angle from which the photo was taken.

“These documents allowed us to identify the visual features and create accurate maps of all the defensive walls, tombs, garden structures, and other stones within the outer settlement,” added Erb-Satullo. “The results of the survey revealed that the site was 40 times larger than previously thought, including an outer area protected by a 1km long wall.” One kilometer is approximately 0.62 miles.

Erb-Satullo and her colleagues then compared the orthophotos with Cold War-era spy satellite images downloaded in 2013 to analyze how the landscape had changed over the past five decades, highlighting the encroachment of modern agriculture.

Although modern growth threatens the area, the researchers think that thousands of years ago, Dmanisis Gora itself grew into a town “due to its association with nomadic shepherd groups,” Erb-Satullo explained. “Its biggest stability may be expanding and contracting over time,” he added.

Now, the team hopes to use the newly collected data to further investigate areas such as population density and population, livestock management, and agriculture.

Finally, the drone map of Dmanisis Gora highlights the main fortress, as well as the extensive Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age groups. It is another example of spy satellite images that don’t lend themselves to archaeologists decades after the photos were taken.