"Island-like" settlements in the Alazani plain (Georgia, Southern Caucasus): Excavations at Tsiteli Gorebi 5 and Tchiauri 1

Excavations and geoarchaeological research carried out between 2018 and 2022 in the southern part of the Lagodekhi Municipality (Eastern Georgia), along the middle course of the Alazani River, highlighted a distinctive settlement pattern. Small ephemeral single-period sites are clustered on low natural heights rising above the plain, separated by a shifting network of meandering river channels. Excavations at Tsiteli Gorebi 5 (Early Chalcolithic) and Tchiauri 1 (Late Bronze/Early Iron Age), as well as surface investigations and geological soundings/coring carried out throughout the plain indicate that this peculiar organisation represents the adaptation to the local environmental conditions of a periodically flooded plain.