David Berikashvili (University of Georgia), Uncovering Samshvilde: Commerce and Conflict in the Medieval Caucasus. Co-sponsored by the Harvard University Program on Georgian Studies, the Mashtots Chair in Armenian Studies, and the Committee on Archeology.

Located in the southern Caucasus, the city of Samshvilde was an important stronghold and lively commercial and industrial city connected with the Silk Road. By the end of the tenth century, Samshvilde became the capital of the Armenian Kings of Tashir-Dzoraget, and was part of the Kingdom of Georgia from 1064 onward when it became the main fortress and the political-economic center of the region. Located on a rocky river promontory between the Khrami and Chivchava rivers, the ruins of the city are at least 2.5 km long and 400 meters wide, containing a fortified citadel, water cisterns, baths, cemeteries, palaces, and the ruins of several churches including Sioni Church, with inscriptions dating its construction to the eighth century CE. Unlike many other settlements of this period, Samshvilde was largely abandoned by the end of the eighteenth century, and today the site is overgrown with trees and surprisingly well-preserved. Drawing upon more than a decade of archaeological excavations, historic literature, comparative art history, and geophysical surveys of the site, this talk will illustrate how the interdisciplinary study of Samshvilde helps us better understand regional trade along the northern branch of the Silk Road, how various ethnic groups and cultures interacted there, and how this site shaped the history of Georgia and the medieval Caucasus more broadly.