Unusual burials were discovered by a joint team of Polish and Georgian archaeologists that conducted excavations on the Beshtasheni burial site, south-eastern Georgia. This season over 16 graves were excavated, dating back to Late Bronze and Early Iron Age.

The Georgian-Polish Archaeological Expedition in Beshtasheni consisted of archaeologists from Institute of Archaeology of University of Warsaw and Georgian National Museum. The discovered graves are dated between 13th and 6th century BC. Most of them were covered with either a stone or dirt mound, either large stone slabs. Most extraordinary was a double burial of a man and a woman that were found decapitated within the grave.

The man was between 19-25 years old and the woman between 17-25 years old at the time of death. The woman’s skeleton had two bronze points within the skeleton, which probably were the direct cause of her death. Beside them the buried had an iron dagger, as bronze pin with geometrical motifs and a couple of clay vessels.

Another grave contained only a head of a woman, possible between 17-25 at time of death. The skull was placed on a flat clay plate surrounded by other small vessels, beads and small metal objects. The last ones are hard to identify at present, due to their poor condition.

Largest of the graves contained a burial of a man placed in foetal position. He was equipped with a dagger measuring nearly half a metre in length. The weapon was decorated with depictions of deers and horses. Other finds include a set of bronze arrows and iron, a horn, animal bones, and a pin decorated with geometrical motifs. Additionally a whole pig was placed in the corner of the grave.

(after Nauka w Polsce, Dimitri Narimanisvhili & Katarzyna Pawłowska)