2013-2015 Activities of the Georgian-Italian Shida Kartli Archaeological Project at Aradetis Orgora (Georgia)

The paper presents the results of three seasons of excavations at Aradetis Orgora in the Kura River valley (Georgia). The site consists of three different mounds and an adjacent cemetery; it was occupied from the late prehistory to the Early Medieval period. Work hitherto concentrated on the Main Mound, where excavations were carried out in three different areas (Fields A, B, and C). Field C is devoted to the continuing investigation of the palatial building of the Late Hellenistic/Early Imperial period, which occupies the present top of the mound, while Fields A and B, located on its opposite slopes, have the aim to clarify the site's pre-classical sequence of occupation. The excavation produced important results not only concerning the Kura-Araxes and the Late Bronze/Early Iron periods, which represent the main phases in the site's history, but also concerning less well known occupational phases (e.g. the Middle Bronze and the Later Early Bronze).