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Dariali: The 'Caspian Gates' in the Caucasus from Antiquity to the Age of the Huns and the Middle Ages - The Joint Georgian-British Dariali Gorge Excavations and Surveys 2013-2016 (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R2,237
Discovery Miles 22 370
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Dariali: The 'Caspian Gates' in the Caucasus from Antiquity to the Age of the Huns and the Middle Ages - The Joint Georgian-British Dariali Gorge Excavations and Surveys 2013-2016 (Hardcover)
Series: British Institute of Persian Studies Archaeological Monograph Series, 6
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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The Huns, invading through Dariali Gorge on the modern-day border
between Russia and Georgia in AD 395 and 515, spread terror across
the late antique world. Was this the prelude to the apocalypse?
Prophecies foresaw a future Hunnic onslaught, via the same mountain
pass, bringing about the end of the world. Humanity's fate depended
on a gated barrier deep in Europe's highest and most forbidding
mountain chain. Centuries before the emergence of such apocalyptic
beliefs, the gorge had reached world fame. It was the target of a
planned military expedition by the Emperor Nero. Chained to the
dramatic sheer cliffs, framing the narrow passage, the mythical
fire-thief Prometheus suffered severe punishment, his liver
devoured by an eagle. It was known under multiple names, most
commonly the Caspian or Alan Gates. Featuring in the works of
literary giants, no other mountain pass in the ancient and medieval
world matches Dariali's fame. Yet little was known about the
materiality of this mythical place. A team of archaeologists has
now shed much new light on the major gorge-blocking fort and a
barrier wall on a steep rocky ridge further north. The walls still
standing today were built around the time of the first major Hunnic
invasion in the late fourth century - when the Caucasus defences
feature increasingly prominently in negotiations between the Great
Powers of Persia and Rome. In its endeavour to strongly fortify the
strategic mountain pass through the Central Caucasus, the workforce
erased most traces of earlier occupation. The Persian-built bastion
saw heavy occupation for 600 years. Its multi-faith medieval
garrison controlled Trans-Caucasian traffic. Everyday objects and
human remains reveal harsh living conditions and close connections
to the Muslim South, as well as the steppe world of the north. The
Caspian Gates explains how a highly strategic rock has played a
pivotal role in world history from Classical Antiquity into the
twentieth century.
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