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General Info
Site ID
Ar/PS
Site Name
Poloz-Sar Fortress
Site Type
Fortress
Landscape
Poloz-Sar
Periodization
Late Bronze
UTM Zone
38T
UTM Easting
436888
UTM Northing
4507971
Elevation
2,439m
Association

Like Ashot-Yerkat and Top-Kar, Poloz-Sar (plate IIId) is a small fortified outpost located in the Pambak hills. It lies 2.8km northeast (bearing 55°) of Gegharot fortress. The site overlooks a tributary of the Kasakh river and a pass through the mountains that until the second half of the 20th century was the primary route north to the Lori valley (map quad E5e).

Topography

This small fortress was built atop a high conical peak at an elevation of 2400m. The citadel is largely denuded bedrock, but a small terrace on the northwestern side of the hill and a broad flat area on the east side of the peak appear to have retained soil cover and perhaps intact deposits.

General Description

Poloz-Sar is circumscribed by two concentric rings of stone masonry walls that remain largely visible on the surface (map 30, 40). Both are irregular cyclopean curvilinear constructions made of shaped basalt medium to large blocks. The walls range between 1.95 and 2.15m in width. The gateway into the site is not visible from the surface so it is not possible at present to define the route up to and through the site.

Features & Materials

Very few surface materials (n=9) were found at Poloz-Sar (fig. VI.31).

A single small (2x2m) test sounding on the eastern terrace of the site did not yield evidence of well-preserved occupation levels. Furthermore, material densities were quite low with only 25 ceramic sherds encountered in the 1.5m deep trench. However, the diagnostic materials that were recovered were almost exclusively Late Bronze Age in date (excepting a single medieval sherd), indicating close contemporaneity with Gegharot fortress.

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