Early Bronze Age Graves at Doghlauri (Georgia): Results of the 2012-2015 Salvage Excavations

The cemetery of Doghlauri, which is part of the important multiperiod site of Aradetis Orgora in the Shida Kartli region of Georgia, was investigated in 2012-2015 in the framework of a salvage excavation, which brought to the light more than 400 graves. The material from the 67 Early Bronze graves was fully processed in the course of the 2017 field campaign of the "Georgian-Italian Shida Kartli Archaeological Project". It mainly consists of pottery vessels, but includes a significant component of personal ornaments and other small finds in metal and stone. The paper presents an overview of the finds, discusses the chronology of the Doghlauri graves, and draws some preliminary conclusions about the burial customs of the Aradetis Orgora Kura-Araxes population in the framework of the funerary evidence from Shida Kartli and, more in general, from the area of distribution of the Kura-Araxes culture.