Tuff stuff: altar screen from an archaeological expedition in Georgia

In excavation expeditions in Georgia, a 10^th-11^th century altar screen panel was discovered. It is a stone screen panel from Svetitskhoveli and the Bolnisi temple in the city of Mtskheta. Mtskheta was the previous capital of Georgia, before Tbiisi, and is less than an hour’s drive from the current capital.

The altar screen is made of green tuff and is 51 cm thick, 60 cm wide, and 80 cm high.

Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. The ejected ash is compacted into a solid rock in a process called consolidation. Rock that contains greater than 50% tuff is considered tuffaceous.

Tuff is a relatively soft rock, so it has been used for construction since ancient times. Since it is common in Italy, the Romans used it often for construction. The Rapa Nui people of the Pacific Islands used it to make most of the moai statues on Easter Island.

Tuff can be classified as either sedimentary or igneous rocks. They are usually studied in the context of igneous petrology, although they are sometimes described using sedimentological terms.

The altar screen is on display from 6 March to 6 April 2017, in the Georgian National Museum’s Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts in their exhibition "Masterpieces from Museum of Fine Arts Collection."

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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