The Markula hillfort

An unknown ensemble of architectural remains was found on two plateausin the village of Markula in the Ochamchira district, Abkhazia, in 2013. To obtain new dataand clarify dating, excavations were launched at the site in 2014. Analysis of the ceramicmaterials conducted in 2014-2016 provided a preliminary conclusion that the churchexisted from the 4th to the 14th centuries, while the hillfort itself, most likely, had existedbefore the church was constructed, probably, back in the Classical antiquity. The tasksof the anthropological study was to assess preservation conditions of the bones, identifytheir age and sex, evaluate prevalence of pathologic features, determine the minimumnumber of individuals in collective graves and study the mobility rate on the basis of thestable isotope study of the tooth tissue. Interestingly, the group of the burials examineddid not include children. The average mortality rate in the group with predominantly maleburials is 36,6 years. Preliminary conclusions point to a stocky build as a distinctive featureof the local population at the early stages of the ensemble existence, and to presenceof non-locals among the elite representatives honored to be buried within the churchcompound in the later period.