Abstract
One of the tasks of the joint Russian-Abkhazian Markul Archaeological Mission of the Institute of Archaeology RAS and Abkhaz Institute for Humanitarian Research ANA is to compile an Inventory of Late Antique and Medieval churches in Abkhazia. Ttwo temples in village Chkhortol (Tkvarchel District) were investigated. One of them, in the center of the village – the Church of St. George offi cially dates back to the 19th century. However, the recent study revealed a number of marks that suggest that the temple belongs to an earlier epoch or it was built on the remains of an older temple. Another church is located in the northern mountainous part of the village. It has a well-preserved north wall, which allows one to record many architectural details. According to complex data (the form of apse, the presence of complex pilasters and analysis of the solution), this temple can be tentatively attributed to traditional early medieval buildings by the period of the Abkhazian Kingdom’s formation in the 8th – 11th centuries.
Keywords
Абхазия, раннесредневековые храмы, Ткварчалский район, село Чхортол, базилики.
Adzinba, I.Ye. 1958: Arkhitekturnyye pamyatniki Abkhazii [Architectural Sites of Abkhazia]. Sukhumi.
Khvistani, R.G. 2009: Materialy k khristianskoy arkheologii Gruzii. [Materials on the Christian archaeology of Georgia.]. Tbilisi.
Trebeleva, G.V. 2019: Great Abkhazian (Kelasur) wall: research results. Moscow.
Trebeleva, G.V., Yurkov, G.Yu. 2015: Po Velikoy Abkhazskoy (Kelasurskoy) stene: ot r. Kelasur do r. Ulys i problema vostochnogo kontsa [Along the Great Abkhazian (Kelasurian) wall: from r. Kelasur to the river Ulyse and the problem of the eastern end] Problemy istorii, filologii i kul’tury [Journal of Historical, Philological and Cultural studies] 1, 365–383.