Tagiloni Treasure
Tagiloni Treasure was discovered in the village of Tagiloni and its surrounding arreas (Gali Municipality).
- An archaeological monument of the 11th–10th centuries BC. It was discovered in the village of Tagiloni, on the right bank of the Enguri River. A bronze cauldron contained a double copper mold for casting a Colchian axe, a fragment of a similar mold, a large bronze segmented weapon, a Colchian axe, and a fragment of a plate.
- Part of the inventory of a luxurious grave of a male of the 1st–2nd centuries was discovered by chance in 1930, on the right bank of the Enguri River, near the village of Tagiloni. Among the discovered items were parts of a chain mail shirt and helmet, gold scabbards of a sword, a gold necklace for a belt or horse's bridle, a deer's head from a gold ritual statue, 14 silver vessels and their fragments (cylindrical, hemispherical and egg-shaped cups, two-handled bowls, a saucer, fragments of trays and etc.). The silver vessels have Hellenistic-Roman characteristics and are most likely Roman provincial products of the early imperial period (1st century) and are similar to the vessels of the Boscoreale and Hildesheim hoards, while most of the gold objects of the Tagilon treasure are richly decorated with colored stones. Similar gold objects are known from earlier Sarmatian tombs in the North Caucasus and the Kuban region. The presence of horse harness and armor in the Tagilon treasure point to its relation to the Sarmatian world.
The tomb discovered in Tagiloni most likely belongs to a representative of the upper class of a socially differentiated society and may reflect the movement of cultural elements and close contacts between tribes, which is assumed by ancient written sources in the territory of Western Georgia in the 1st century.
Both treasures of the Tagiloni treasure are preserved in the Dadiani Palace Museum.
Literature: ქორიძე დ., კოლხური კულტურის ისტორიისათვის, თბ., 1965; Амиранашвили А. И., Новая находка в низовьях р. Ингура, Тфл., 1935; Иессен А. А., К вопросу о древнейшей металлургии меди на Кавказе, «Известия Гос. Академии истории материальной культуры», 1935, в. 120.
I. Gagoshidze
