Experts discover 2000-yr-old temple remains in Tbilisi

Ancient remains of a temple and a cellar dating back to the 1st millennium BC have been discovered in Georgia’s capital city.

An archaeological team from the Georgian National Museum uncovered the 2,000-year-old remains of a temple and a cellar of the Iberian Kingdom at the Treligorebi settlement on the top of a hill in Tbilisi.

The scientists believed the cellar was most likely part of the temple complex, which was found through aerial photography and Google Earth satellite images.

Remains of an ancient temple of the Iberian Kingdom discovered in Tbilisi. Photo by National Museum of Georgia. 

Currently archeologists are trying to validate their find by conducting trial excavations at the site.

A representative of the National Museum said this discovery was extremely important in terms of studying and reconstructing the history of the development of Georgian qvevri (clay jar) winemaking process.

Laboratory investigations of the residue from discovered qvevri wine vessels may give us information about possible genetic link between the earliest remains of grape seeds found in Kvemo Kartli (in the 6th millennium BC) and the grape residue from the recently discovered wine vessels at the Treligorebi settlement,” said the Museum representative.

The archaeological expedition is being led by Mikheil Abramishvili, curator of the Tbilisi archaeological collections at the Georgian National Museum.