The Shatberdi Monastery against the Background of the most recent Discoveries

Abstract

The Shatberdi Monastery is located in Tao-Klarjeti, a historical province of Georgia (Artvin province, Turkey). The monastery was an important center of literary activity. In the Middle Ages it maintained close contacts with religious and literary centers of the Christian East. Several valuable manuscripts of the 9th-10th centuries were produced in the Shatberdi monastery. The issue of the localization of this monastery has not been resolved until recently. Based on the results of the recent studies, ruined monastic constructions in vicinity of the village of Boselta (the recent village of Okumushlar) are considered to have belonged to the Shatberdi monastery. The paper concerns significance of Shatberdi monastery. In addition to the issue of localization of the monastery, important artefacts related to it are discussed: A sketch of a lapidary inscription preserved in the archives of a Georgian scientist Ekvtime Takaishvili, where Bagrat Kurapalat and Queen Mariam are mentioned and the connection with the Shatberdi monastery; The opinion is expressed that the inscription mentions King Bagrat IV Kurapalat of United Georgia and the King’s mother, Queen Mariam.

Antefix preserved in the Georgian National Museum with an inscription and an image of a bird, about which there are different opinions of researchers, including in palaeography, the place where the antefix was found and the connection with the Shatberdi monastery. There is an opinion that Antefix was found in the territory of the Shatberdi monastery and it may have belonged to the main temple of the monastery. The opinion about the date of the inscription on it is contemporaneous with the construction of the monastery.

The only ornamented, stone decoration of the monastery temple that was discovered in 2015 and preliminary information about the sole lapidary inscription that has survived from the monastery, and which was discovered in 2019, is given.