Résumé en anglais

Ancient settlements, along with other data represent the most valuable source for the investigation of the culture and mode of life of the rural population of the Black Sea Colchian littoral. As it is generally known, beginning from the second half of the 3rd millennium up to the end of the 1st millennium, the main settlement type of the Colchian Black Sea littoral was so-called dikha gudzuba - an artificial hill made mostly at interfluves.
Each hill, with the area ranging from 1000 m2 to 2000 m2, was surrounded by a ditch and a wooden fence, acquiring thus the characteristics of a strongly fortified settlement. The settlement had a "nest shape" and architecture of felled-tree type constructions. The dwelling-hills belonged to single families. From the economic point, differentiation of branches is already evident in the Late Bronze - Early Iron Ages. Individual hills were excavated, where the leading branches of economy, such as husbandry, cattle-breeding, metallurgy and potting were attested.
Ethnographic data from the same region of Western Georgia play a major role in undertaking proper analysis of the phenomenon of the dwelling-hills, for they shed light on archaeological finds.
The traditional farming units - so-called agvarta settlements, situated in wooded areas and belonging to a single family, occasionally survived in the coastal line of Colchis up to the 1920s. The ancient dwelling-hills - dikha gudzuba, reconstructed almost in their initial appearance - with a ditch and wooden fence, compact design of felled-tree constructions of various purposes - were mainly used for agvarta in marshlands.
The leading branch of economic in foggy woods was so-called "forest cattle-breeding" with specialization in dairy products and cheese-making, while mixed type farming and husbandry prevailed in other districts.
In terms of topography and settlement shape, fortification and architectural characteristics genetic links of agvarta and the ancient dwelling-hills are traceable. Agvarta appears to be an echoe remain of the dwelling-hill, being a product of uninterrupted cultural and historical continuity. The cited conclusion is somehow corroborated by the well-known assumption of N. Berdzenishvili, that the name for dwelling-hill (gora) is derived from the word denoting family (gvari). Therefore, the semantics of agvarta can be formulated as a dwelling-hill of a single family.
As dikha gudzuba and agvarta were single family habitations, they should be considered as primordial form of monogenetic village, its echoe surviving in the names of polygenetic villages of the Black Sea Colchian coast (cf. Sabukio - Bukia family dwelling area, Sakorkio - Korkia family dwelling area, etc.).
Dikha gudzuba and agvarta reveal identical characteristics. They constitute a phenomenon of the same ethnoculture, confirming once more the fact of continuous inhabitation of the eastern Black Sea littoral by the Georgian ethnos.