Archaeological excavations of three sections of the inner areas of the fort of Apsaros were conducted by the Gonio-Apsaros archaeological expedition of the Cultural Heritage Preservation Agency of Adjara in 2014. Remains of several buildings were unearthed in the Roman cultural levels. Artifacts from these layers reflect a Roman presence in the area from the second half of the 1st to the end of the 3rd century AD....
The Roman fort of Apsaros in Gonio (Adjara, Georgia) still holds answers to many issues connected with the Roman military presence on the Chorokhi river in ancient Colchis. In 2014, a Polish team joined the Georgian expedition to carry out excavation in two sectors directly east of the centrally located principia. The sites were chosen based on a study of the results of geophysical prospection carried out in 2012. Two phases, dated to the early and late Roman periods respectively, were recorded. The early Roman architecture was interpreted as part of the installations and structures of a large bathhouse (
balneae
), including a mosaic floor in one of the rooms. The building was destroyed at least twice, most likely in a catastrophic fire. The article discusses the stratigraphy and the dating of the early Roman
balneae
based on glass artifacts and coins....