Excavations uncover four ossuaries at Georgian monastery

FOUR OSSUARIES were found during excavations at the church of Ayios Nikolaos, on the site of the 10th century Georgian Monastery, at Gialia village in Paphos, which have been completed, the Department of Antiquities said.

Inside the ossuaries archaeologists found the bones spread irregularly around the site, along with a large number of clay vessels.

Moveable finds, which mainly consisted of bowls, date to various periods between the 12th and 15th  centuries AD.

Excavations, which were conducted under the direction of Dr David Mindorashvili, began on September 12 and ended on October 8, and were funded by the Georgian National Office for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage. The church was studied from an artistic point of view by George Gagoshidze and the architectural plans were conducted by Tengiz Gabunia.

Investigations at this site focused on documenting the foundations of the church of Ayios Nikolaos, which once belonged to the monastery.

The church was once a two-storey building. The ground floor functioned as a crypt which was roofed with an arch and divided by walls in the areas where burials were made.

During previous seasons archaeologists could not locate the monks’ cemetery, which was an integral part of the monastic complex. As this year’s investigations have shown, the Monastery’s monks were buried in the ground floor, in the crypt of the church of Agios Nikolaos.

Due to the size of the area excavation will continue in 2010. A thorough investigation of the church and the moveable finds will highlight the close links between Cyprus and Georgia, concerning both the religious sphere and the cultural-educational one, the Antiquities Department said.

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