პირველი საუკუნის წარჩინებულის ყოფა ქართლის სამეფოში

At the beginning of the 1st century BCE, the Near East experienced significant political changes that also played a major role in the history of the local populations of ancient Georgia. The most important among these developments was the strengthening of the Kingdoms of Pontus and neighboring Armenia. Early in his reign, Mithridates VI Eupator, king of Pontus, annexed the northern Black Sea coast, Colchis, and “Lesser Armenia” into his kingdom. He then launched a campaign to establish dominance across all of Asia Minor. However, the growing power of Pontus and Armenia faced strong opposition from Rome. This led to a long and intense struggle for control in the region, which also involved the countries of the South Caucasus. Kartli (also known as Caucasian Iberia, in eastern Georgia) and Colchis became part
of Rome’s political interests. Rome had several reasons to try to control the South Caucasus. The region was important for blocking the movement of nomadic tribes from the north by securing the mountain passes of the Caucasus. It also had value as a possible trade route to the Far East, which made it even more attractive to the Romans. The first Roman legions arrived in Georgia in 65 BCE, led by the general Pompey. He managed to bring Iberia under Roman control, but Rome’s political influence in the region did not last very long.
In the 1 st - 2 nd centuries CE, the Kingdom of Kartli (Caucasian Iberia) significantly strengthened and consolidated its power. Favorable external political conditions supported this rise - particularly the weakening of its powerful southern neighbor, Armenia, and the ongoing conflict between Rome and Parthia. At the same time, Kartli’s growing presence on the international stage, the expansion of its borders, and the wealth gained through successful military campaigns contributed to the advancement of the kingdom’s economic life. The strength of Kartli (Iberia) during the early centuries of the Common Era is clearly reflected in its material culture and epigraphic monuments, which vividly illustrate the flourishing of the kingdom’s social and economic life.
The palace must have been built at the turn of the 2nd to 1st centuries BCE and was destroyed at the end of the 1st century CE as a result of a powerful earthquake, which also caused a fire.
The ruins of the two or three-storey palace-walls and of the tile roof, which has turned into a pumice-like substance because of the heat, have preserved the rooms on the ground floor and everything that survived from the fire here untouched. There are quite a number of finds that were not damaged, since the temperature was not too high near the floor: not only metal, stone, clay and glass items have survived, but also organic material - wood and bone ware, fruit-stones, walnuts, grains and even some cloth as well. That is the reason why the material excavated in the complex at Dedoplis Gora is so rich and varied, sometimes even unexpected - pieces of furniture, dishes, weapons and tools, food items, and so on. This archaeological material gives us a unique opportunity to look into the everyday life of an
Iberian nobleman, and to discuss his economy, entertainment, education, religion, internal and foreign relations, clothes and armour. Thus it lets us illuminate many details of everyday life, which would have been difficult to discuss even with the help of written sources. In short, it gives us an opportunity to carry out ethnological research into 1 st c. Iberia. This is supported not only by the abundance and variety of archaeological artifacts but also by the different functions of the uncovered rooms.