Interview with the owner of "Family Cellar Iliaseuli" - Ilia Kenchadze
"...at least take a look at our cellar..."
It's not just a cellar anymore, it's a space like no other. The interest in such spaces is growing amazingly!
"I agree with you, I have never seen anything like this. On what basis did you create all this?"
"Let me start by saying that since childhood, I have been friends with the Rioni River, which flows just half a kilometer from my house. Youthful hunting, fishing, mining, swimming, roasting stolen roasting ear, and youthful frolics are all associated with the Rioni and its surroundings. To this day, the love and affection for the Rioni is still with me and will follow me until the end of my life.
May 2020 is coming up. There is a pandemic and I have more opportunities to be friendly with the Rioni. Before the spring floods start, I try to scout its coastline in detail. On the fourth of May, I find a fragment of the bone of some animal, in connection with which I have the feeling that it might be a canine of some extinct species. I google it, go to Wikipedia, and some data matches my imagination. In light of the above, I think that if this fragment is indeed washed by the river from the ancient layers, there must be other fragments scattered there. I go back in two hours and begin a thorough reconnaissance of the target area.
To my delight, I soon find a fragment of a cattle skull and a damaged lower jaw with a tooth protruding from it. I look at the toothpick and can easily see that it belongs to a grass-grazing cattle, cow, or bull. The visual presentation of the bones makes me think that they must belong to the ancient period and may be part of a prehistoric dwelling, against which the researcher's instinct awakens forcefully in me... I already visit the Rioni beach every day and look for traces of ancient habitation..."
"Why does this cause interest? Who are you by profession?"
"...I am a historian by profession, and it is logical that I am inclined to search for antiquities, but it seems that at some point in a person's life, something happens that you have never thought about, and the involvement in which is more a decision of the Supreme, than of the person himself. I emphasize that this discovery, which fundamentally changed the present and future of my life, belongs to this category of cases.
The more I searched and found, the more questions arose. The need to deepen the field knowledge was on the agenda. I was familiar with Georgian and Russian language literature, watched scientific documentaries and gradually gained knowledge on how to distinguish artifacts from geofacts. (The process of deepening knowledge continues today, which is a great pleasure). The experience made me so sharp that I was able to recognize an artifact among millions of stones.
As a result of the classification of the traced artifacts, I came to the conclusion that their creator, the ancient Tsesigorians (Tsesigori is a toponym of the hill at the embankment of Rioni River, where they lived) with their local culture, belonged to the ancient civilization and did not represent only a social association engaged in primary farming. It is more likely that for them farming was a way to provide daily food, and the main direction was the mining and metallurgical activity.
You will see and hear the rest at the Iliaseuli Cellar...."
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