Humans have been engaged in brutal conflicts for thousands of years. Throughout history, society has developed increasingly sophisticated offensive tools, which have led to advancements in defensive tools as well. As violence became more common, settlements were fortified to protect both their inhabitants and private property. The key to effective protection is selecting a strategic location for these sites.
Dmanisis Gora is a site located in a gorge between mountains in the Caucasus region, which includes parts of Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. This area has historically served as a crossroads of various cultures. Between 1500 and 500 BC, communities in this region began to fortify their settlements and develop further.
Researchers from multiple universities and museums started excavating Dmanisis Gora a few years ago. They were surprised by the site’s enormous size, which they’ve since dubbed a 3,000-year-old “mega-fortress.”
A Mega-Fortress 40 Times Larger Than Previously Thought
Dmanisi is a town in Southwestern Georgia in Eastern Europe with a population of just over 2,500. It’s home to the notable historical site of Dmanisi, where archeologists have found hominid remains dating back 1.8 million years and evidence indicating that the area has been inhabited since the Bronze Age.
With this background in mind, researchers began excavating adjacent to the current town and discovered evidence of a site that suggested a fortress had once existed.
The fortress featured an inner fortification, naturally defended on the southern and western sides by a cliff. The remaining sections were secured by a wall, an outer area, and a second wall. Remarkably, the fortress had a third wall situated far from the second, encompassing a wide expanse.
The site was large and clearly defined, but archeologists were surprised by the distance between the outermost wall and the second wall of the inner fortress. Recent studies by Cranfield University and Cambridge University in the United Kingdom revealed the presence of various stone structures in this space.
These structures weren’t visible from the ground, so researchers used drones to assess the site’s scale. The team used a DJI Phantom drone, which offers positional accuracy of less than 1 inch and ultra-high-resolution images, and captured nearly 11,000 photographs. The images were then processed with software that accounts for the terrain’s elevation.
Below is a comprehensive visual representation of the findings:
“These datasets enabled us to identify subtle topographic features and create accurate maps of all the fortification walls, graves, field systems, and other stone structures within the outer settlement,” researcher Nathaniel Erb-Satullo explains. He further notes, “The results of this survey showed that the site was more than 40 times larger than originally thought, including a large outer settlement defended by a [0.60-mile-long] fortification wall.”
Erb-Satullo mentions that the expansive outer settlement, protected by the outermost wall, wasn’t visible from the ground. The team is continuing its work at the site, where it has uncovered tens of thousands of ceramic fragments, artifacts, and animal bones. These discoveries offer valuable insights into the societies of the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age.
“Dmanisis Gora isn’t just a significant find for the Southern Caucasus region, but has a broader significance for the diversity in the structure of large-scale settlements and their formation processes. We hypothesize that Dmanisis Gora expanded because of its interactions with mobile pastoral groups, and its large outer settlement may have expanded and contracted seasonally,” Erb-Satullo adds.
To understand the 3,000-year-old mega-fortress, it was crucial that the new images were cross-checked with Cold War satellite photographs, which were declassified in 2013. The recent study has allowed researchers to examine how modern agriculture has encroached on the site and influenced its evolution. It’s also allowed them to distinguish recent elements from older ones to avoid “contaminating” the original material.
It’s certainly surprising that archeologists continue to discover massive structures like Dmanisis Gora, with a 0.6-mile-long wall. However, there’s still work to be done. The next objective is to study the agricultural practices, population density, and livestock movements in the area. Researchers will also have to determine whether permanent residents lived in the area between the outermost and inner walls, where a political or administrative apparatus may have existed.
Image | Nathaniel Erb-Satullo
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