Natsargora

an ash heap in Shida-Kartli, near Tskhinvali (Iuzhnaia Osetiia AO), containing the remains of an ancient material culture. The lowest layer (first half of the third millennium B.C.) corresponds to the culture of the Kuro-Araksian Aeneolithic. Black polished pottery, stone casting molds, and other objects have been found in the second layer (mid-second millennium B.C.). In the upper and thickest layer (second half of the second and early first millennium B.C.) the remains of several cultic structures have been discovered, in which were found clay vessels, idols, figurines of bulls, ritual clay “loaves,” casting molds, and other artifacts. Natsargora was both a settlement and a place of worship. Remains of this type are also known in eastern Georgia.