Sakdrissi

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Sakdrissi is the name of an early Bronze Age mining area in Georgia that also housed the oldest known gold mine in the world.

Geographical location

Sakdrissi is located in the village of Kazreti near Bolnissi in the south-eastern Georgian region of Lower Kartli .

Finding

The archaeological site was initially known as a copper ore deposit. During excavations in 2005 and 2007, the oldest known gold mine in the world was discovered here in the Kachagiani Hill, which began in the 3rd millennium BC. Is dated. The chronology of the findings in Sakdrissi as a whole ranges from the Neolithic to the Chalcolithic , the Kura-Araxes culture and the Trialeti culture to the Iron Age . The Trialeti culture probably obtained most of the raw material for their numerous objects made of gold from here . A German / Georgian / French team was able to conduct archaeological research here between 2004 and 2013.

The modern gold mining on site initially was in the hands of the Quartzite Ltd . In 2012 the company moved to JSC RMG Copper , both Georgian mining companies.

Monument preservation

The site was developed by the Georgian 2006 National Agency for historic preservation under preservation asked. Since it was in the way of the advancing modern mining industry , this protection was withdrawn again in 2013, whereby corruption is said to have played a role. The Georgian state archaeologists claimed that the archaeological site had been completely excavated if it had not already been destroyed. The result was achieved by laying the excavation cuts where no finds were expected. An assessment by the German / Georgian / French archaeological team in 2014 revealed this manipulation. The Georgian government had always given gold mining priority over monument preservation. Public protests arose in 2014 against the decision of the Georgian government to give up the cultural monument in favor of economic interests, including by NGOs such as the Young Lawyers of Georgia .

This led to negotiations between government agencies and the research group, in which an expert commission with the Bulgarian archaeologist Dimitar Jelev and the German archaeologist Albrecht Jockenhövel was involved. But this turned out to be in vain: As of December 13, 2014, the Kachagiani Hill was cleared by JSC RMG Copper . The archaeological site was destroyed.

literature

  • Thomas Stöllner u. a .: Gold in the Caucasus: New research on gold extraction in the Kura-Araxes Culture of the 4th millennium BC and early 3rd millennium BC . In: Harald Meller , Ernst Pernicka u. R. RIsch: Metals of Power . Conference of the State Museum of Prehistory, Hall 11. 2014, pp. 71–110
  • Thomas Stöllner, Irina Gambaschidze: The Gold Mine of Sakdrisi and early Mining and Metallurgy in Transcaucasus and the Kura-Valley System . In: G. Narimanishvili (Ed.): International Conference: Problems of Early Metal Age Archeology of Caucasus and Anatolia. Proceedings. November 19-23, 2014, pp. 101-124.
  • Thomas Stöllner, Irina Gambaschidze, Andreas Hauptmann, Giorgi Mindiašvili, Giorgi Gogočuri, Gero Steffens: Gold Mining in Southeast Georgia - New Research on Early Bronze Age Mining in Georgia. German Mining Museum Bochum on bergbaumuseum.de
  • Thomas Stöllner: Sakdrissi - the oldest gold mine in the world. Archaeological research in the focus of the public and politics . In: Blickpunkt Archäologie 1/2015, pp. 65–71.
  • Andreas Hauptmann, Moritz Jansen, Thomas Stöllner: The Gold Mine of Sakdrissi: Results and analyzes and a calculation of the prehistoric gold exploitation , Deutsches Bergbaumuseum Bochum and Ruhr-Universität Bochum, July 2013, Online , (PDF).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stöllner: Sakdrissi , p. 65.
  2. ↑ Stöllner: Sakdrissi , p. 65f.
  3. ↑ Stöllner: Sakdrissi , p. 66.
  4. ↑ Stöllner: Sakdrissi , p. 66.
  5. ↑ Stöllner: Sakdrissi , p. 67.

Coordinates: 41 ° 23 ′ 11.6 "  N , 44 ° 23 ′ 36.5"  E