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Along the lower course of the Rioni and several minor rivers, more than 70 settlement mounds (local name: Dikhagudzuba) have been identified by field surveys and remote sensing techniques. They give evidence of a formerly densely populated landscape in the coastal lowlands on the Colchian plain (western Georgia) and have been dated to the Bronze Age. As yet, limited information is available on their internal architecture, the chronology of the different layers and their palaeoenvironmental context. Based on archaeological sources, remote sensing measurements of three mounds and sediment cores from one mound and its closer surroundings, our study presents a review of the relevant literature and reveals the internal structure, distribution and spatial extent of the mounds. Geochemical and sedimentological analyses of element contents (X‐ray fluorescence) and granulometry helped to identify different stratigraphical layers and differentiate between natural facies and anthropogenic deposits; using the Structure‐from‐Motion technique the mounds' dimensions were calculated. The studied settlement mounds had relatively small dimension (varying from 30 to 100 m in diameter) and were similar in their stratigraphy. Measurement of elements that can identify types of human activity, notably metals and phosphorus, suggest changing intensities of human occupation, pastoral agriculture and metalworking through the occupation sequence. According to the 14C chronology, the formation of the settlements occurred during the first half of the second millennium B.C., which confirms the archaeological interpretation of their Bronze Age origin. The narrow age difference between the lowermost and uppermost anthropogenic layers indicates an intentional construction of the mounds, rather than a successive accumulation of construction debris due to the disintegration of loam bricks by weathering. Therefore, they are indeed mounds and not tells. It is most likely that the characteristic circular moats that surround them were the source of their construction material. Fluvial and alluvial processes in a warm and humid climate dominated the environment of the mounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the southernmost part of the Colchian plain (Georgia), the Supsa and Rioni rivers represent important catchments for reconstructing Holocene landscape changes. Using granulometric methods, geochemical analyses and radiocarbon dating, we demonstrate that significant palaeoenvironmental changes have taken place in the surroundings of the Supsa fan since at least 4000 BCE. The initial foothill fan accumulation was prolonged by delta plain progradation. Due to continued fluvial sediment supply, mainly from the Rioni, the lagoon silted up and extended peat bogs formed east of the beach ridge complex. The Supsa fan first prograded northwards (since the third millennium BCE) and later shifted westwards, eventually following an avulsion of the Rioni. While Supsa deposits remain limited to the area of the fan and the modern estuary, the alluvial fines of the Rioni dominate the surrounding areas. The relative sea-level (RSL) index points of the region suggest a gradual RSL rise from ∼-9 m between 4000 and 3500 BCE to -3 / -2 m below the modern sea level in the second half of the first millennium BCE, the period during which Greek colonization and Colchian settlements are attested by archaeological remains. Kurzfassung: Im südlichsten Teil der kolchischen Tiefebene (Georgien) stellen die Einzugsgebiete von Rioni und Supsa wichtige Areale zur Rekonstruktion des holozänen Landschaftswandels dar. Mittels granulometrischer und geochemischer Analysen sowie Radiokohlenstoffdatierungen lässt sich der signifikante Landschaftswandel im Bereich des Supsa-Schwemmfächers seit etwa 4000 v. Chr. nachweisen. Das Areal wurde von einer Sandbarre vom offenen Meer getrennt, hinter der sich große Stillwasserbereiche bildeten. Der anhaltende fluviale Sedimenteintrag, hauptsächlich durch den Rioni, begünstigte die allmähliche Verlandung und die Entstehung von Torfmooren. Gleichzeitig baute sich – zunächst nach Norden (etwa ab dem 3. Jahrtausend v. Chr.) und später durch den Rioni nach Westen abgelenkt – der Schwemmfächer des Supsa vor. Während sich die Supsa-Ablagerungen im Wesentlichen auf den Schwemmfächer und die aktuelle Mündung beschränken, dominieren die feinkörnigen Ablagerungen des Rioni die Umgebung. Die Indexpunkte für den relativen Meeresspiegel deuten auf einen anhaltenden Anstieg des Meeres hin, ausgehend von etwa -9 m unter dem heutigen Niveau um 4000 bis 3500 v. Chr. auf -3 bis -2 m in der zweiten Hälfte des 1. Jahrtausends v. Chr. Für den letztgenannten Zeitraum sind kolchische und griechische Siedlungen durch archäologische Funde in der Umgebung der Supsa-Mündung belegt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]