Uncovering a 3000-Year-Old Surprise: The Colossal 'Mega-Fortress' That Dwarfed Expectations
Archaeologists stumbling upon a 3000-year-old fortress in Georgia discovered something astounding when they returned in the fall. The tall summer grass concealed an immense surprise: Dmanisis Gora, a Bronze Age "mega-fortress," sprawled vastly beyond their initial estimates.
Using cutting-edge drone technology, a team of researchers from the U.K., Georgia, and the U.S. embarked on an ambitious project to map Dmanisis Gora in the Caucasus mountains. Their findings, published in the journal Antiquity, suggested the fortress was a staggering 40 times larger than previously thought.
Nathaniel Erb-Satullo, a researcher from the Cranfield Forensic Institute, and his co-director Dimitri Jachvliani from the Georgian National Museum, spearheaded the investigation. Initial test excavations in the summer revealed only a small inner fortress. But when they returned in the fall, the autumn landscape unveiled an entire world of fortification walls, stone structures, and graves beyond their expectations.
Erb-Satullo had an idea. He suggested using a drone to capture high-resolution aerial photographs, creating digital elevation models and orthophotos to map the site with unprecedented accuracy. The researchers flew the drone over Dmanisis Gora, taking almost 11,000 pictures. These images were pieced together to create incredibly detailed maps, revealing the true extent of the fortress and its surrounding settlement.
The results were jaw-dropping. The outer settlement, previously undetected, was defended by a 1 km-long fortification wall. Modern agriculture had encroached on parts of the site, but the researchers hypothesized that thousands of years ago, the site underwent impressive urban growth due to interactions with mobile pastoral groups.
Throughout history, Dmanisis Gora has served as a crossroad of various cultures, including local populations. Fortress settlements began developing in the Southern Caucasus region between 1500 and 500 BCE, the study revealed.
Researchers hope to investigate further, using the newly collected data to explore population density, livestock movements, and agricultural practices. The drone mapping of Dmanisis Gora has shone a light on not only this remarkable fortress but also on broader patterns of Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age societies.
Declassified Cold War-era spy satellite imagery continues to prove invaluable to archaeologists, thus far serving as a valuable tool in unlocking the secrets of ancient civilizations.
[1] The drone technology helped reveal subtle topographic features, allowing for the creation of precise maps of fortification walls, graves, field systems, and other structures within the outer settlement.[3] Comparison between the drone imagery and Cold War-era spy satellite declassified in 2013 provided insights into which areas of the site were damaged by modern agriculture and helped trace the site's evolution over time.[5] The drone mapping provided a significant case study for investigating ancient urbanism and population dynamics, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of ancient societies.
In the future, this groundbreaking use of drone technology in archaeology could potentially revolutionize how we explore and map ancient sites. Furthermore, advances in science and technology may lead to even more sophisticated drones, allowing us to uncover even more details about long-lost civilizations.
