Galia: the Georgian mission at the monastery of Panagia Chrysogialiotissa

The Georgian mission at the monastery of Panagia Chrysogialiotissa at Galia is listed by the Department of Antiquities among the foreign missions of 2008, and in 2009 it found four ossuaries in the crypt of the church of Agios Nikolaos^1,2. From 12 September to 8 October 2009, under David Mindorashvili, the team documented the foundations of the church of Agios Nikolaos, defined its construction phases and investigated its crypt; George Gagoshidze studied the church artistically and Tengiz Gabunia drew the plans². The Georgian National Office for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage funded the work². The church measured 11 x 4 m and had two storeys; the ground floor was an arched crypt divided by walls into burial areas, with four ossuaries holding human bones and clay vessels, mainly bowls, dated to the 12th to 15th centuries AD². The annual report reads the crypt as the monks' burial place, noting that earlier investigations of the main church had not located their cemetery².