Drone survey reveals secrets of 3000-year-old ‘mega fortress’ in Caucasus
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Dmanisis Gora was built sometime between 1500BC and 500BC. A new drone survey has revealed that a 3000-year-old fortress in the Caucasus mountains is almost “40 times larger” than previously thought, reshaping our understanding of Bronze Age settlements in eastern Europe.
![[Photo of 1km long outer fortification wall with power line poles nearby for scale]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/08/10/low-res-28.jpg)
The “mega fortress” called Dmanisis Gora was built sometime between 1500BC and 500BC in the Caucasus region, on the boundary between Europe, the Eurasian Steppe, and the Middle East. The region has a long history of being at the cultural crossroads of distinctive communities.
![[Structures in the outer settlement with 1km long fortification wall visible in upper left]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/08/10/low-res-27.jpg)
“Dmanisis Gora isn’t just a significant find for the southern Caucasus region, it has a broader significance for the diversity in the structure of large-scale settlements,” Nathaniel Erb-Satullo from Cranfield University, who was involved with the survey, said.
Excavations first began in 2023 at a fortified section between two deep gorges in the region, but a subsequent visit in autumn when the summer grasses had died revealed it could be much larger than originally thought. Researchers then found remains of additional fortifications and other structures outside the area of the inner fortress.
When they found it impossible to get a sense of the site’s enormity from the ground, they used a drone to survey and map the region’s human-made features. “The drone took nearly 11,000 pictures, which were knitted together using advanced software to produce high-resolution digital elevation models and orthophotos – composite pictures that show every point as if you were looking straight down,” Dr Erb-Satullo said.
