Abstract
The Kelasuri wall is one of the most controversial and mysterious historicalarchitectural monuments of medieval Abkhazia. The most controversial issue is the origin and purpose of the object. The analysis of the literature showed that researchers’ opinions diverge dramatically – for the whole twenty-three centuries, from antiquity to modern times. The exact localization of the Kelasuri wall also remained unclear. Therefore, the main aim of our study was reliable localization of the object by means of GPS-coordinates and plans of the surviving towers. As a result during investigations the wall extent (80 km) was established, exact coordinates were recorded and plans of 208 towers and sites of the walls which remained till 2015 were made. Identifi ed along the river Alxga (Galidzga) 9 towers in its orientation, the layout and the construction technique are completely identical to the towers of the Kelasuri wall that had never been recorded and described. Analysis of the mortar (building mixture), construction techniques, partial excavation and modeling in GIS led to the conclusion that the wall was built in the so-called “Tsebelda period”, i.e. in the period of Late Antiquity to Early Middle Ages. It was concluded that the Kelasuri Wall stretched from the foothills to the sea, but on the Aaldzga river (Galidzga) in the area of the modern city of Ochamchira and the ancient city Gyuenos and not on the Ingur river as previously has been assumed by most researchers, who included into the system all the defensive structure located in Eastern Abkhazia. As a result the conclusion is drawn that the territory fenced with the Kelasuri Wall is a territory of agricultural formation of ancient state of Abkhazia – Apsilia.
Keywords
The Kelasuri Wall, the problems of localization of boundaries, Apsilia, agricultural state, accurate localization
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