Brili
Oni Municipality

Brili is a multilayered archaeological site situated in Oni Municipality, 11 km north of the village of Gebi, in the Rioni river gorge. Remains of a medieval settlement, a fortress-tower and a church are preserved at the site. Archaeological excavations carried out in 1939-1961 (G. Gobejishvili), have revealed remains of 18th c. BC – 4th c. AD dwelling structures, cemeteries and a metal manufacture remains.
In each of the 18th - 14th cc. BC pit-burials and stone cists, one or two deceased were buried with pressed extremities. Burial inventory found in the graves included: shaft-hole-butted axes, open-socked spears, leaf-shaped daggers, zoomorphic figurines, various pins, oval temple pendants, open-worked pendants, metal art products: axes decorated with stylized image of a sheep’s head, a paired bear figurine, etc.
Among the items found in the graves of the 13th – 8th cc. BC there were bronze Colchian axes, wide-edged daggers, rectangular buckles, twisted neck rings, a sickle, a hoe, metal and clay vessels, figurines of a ram, a dog and a serpent.
The graves of the classical (the 6th c. BC – 4th c. AD) contained: gold and silver arches, earrings with beams, bronze open-worked pendants, amber and glass beads, scarabeoids decorated with Egyptian hieroglyphs, etc.

G. Gobejishvili, Archaeological excavations in Soviet Georgia, Tbilisi, 1952.