In order to better understand the technology of ancient firing installations recovered in archaeological contexts in the Shida Kartli region, M. Aquilano, D. Darejanashvili, and L. Gervasi decided to try to produce modern replicas of EBA (Kura-Araxes) and LBA hearths/fireplaces discovered at Aradetis Orgora and other archaeological sites of the region (e.g. Natsargora, Kvatskhela, etc.) and to use them in controlled conditions and with different types of fuel. As for the LBA firing installation in particular, one main issue was to understand the function of the recurring preparation of alternating layers of pebbles, pottery sherds and clay which is typical of the LBA installations discovered in 2014 and 2015 at Aradetis Orgora. For producing the replicas, we decided to use clay from a place next to the site (Doghlauri village), since this area is rather rich in clay; in fact, all around, down to 60 cm, a thick clay layer is present. We first sieved the clay and we added water to it, leaving it to rest for three days, so that it could absorb the water; during this period, we covered the paste with a tent and uncovered it every day for one hour. After three days we added sand and quartz (mineral tempers) and barley straw (vegetal temper) to the paste and mixed it for a long time using feet and hands, and constantly adding water. The preparation process was long because the clay from this area is already mineralised by natural minerals (this is the reason why its colour is whitish); for this reason the clay gets dry sooner compared to other varieties of clay. For the experiment we used two different types of fabric: for the Kura-Araxes hearth we added more sand and quartz (temper 1) to the clay, while for the Late Bronze hearth we didn’t add much sand and we didn’t mix quartz into it (temper 2).
    The next step consisted of making the object (hearth/fireplace). At first we tried to produce a hearth simulating the fixed hearths with inner projections typical of the Kura-Araxes period in the Shida Kartli region (Fig. 25). When we finished making it we left it dry in a closed environment, in order to avoid that it could be damaged from wind or intense sun. We then tried to fire it in an open fire, using pine wood as fuel, but when the fire reached 700 degrees the artefact exploded. We concluded that the hearth should not have been fired separately, but should have maybe been placed directly into its final destination, into a cavity dug into the soil, when it had reached "leather hardness", and not when it was completely dry, and then fire should have been lit directly into it, and the firing process should have been more gradual, with temperature increasing day after day of a few degrees.
    We also tried to replicate a Late Bronze fireplace (Fig. 26). First we constructed a soil platform, and delimited it with stones and bricks. We then built the fireplace on it, by using a layer of large pebbles from the Aradetis Orgora site as a base. Over the large pebbles we built the slightly raised fireplace's walls using the prepared clay; then we plastered its base with the same clay. On this thin clay layer we fixed a first layer of medium-sized pebbles; we coated the surface of this again with clay. On this clay plaster we laid a layer of pottery sherds; over the sherds, we laid another layer of clay, to be used as firing surface.
    We left the fireplace dry for three days in a covered environment, in order to avoid that it got exposed to direct sun. We then lit a fire inside it. On the first day we used pinecones, straw, wood and animal dung collected on the Aradetis Orgora mound as fuel. We reached a temperature of 860 degrees (measured by thermocouple). During the experiment we were not able to maintain a stable temperature till the moment when fire transformed into embers (where we could maintain a stable temperature of 650-660 degrees); after this, we successfully fired in the fireplace a small pot made by us using the same clay of the fireplace sides (temper 2). On the next day, we repeated the experiment by using straw, dung and wood; we reached 780-800 degrees, but it was difficult to maintain a stable temperature. In particular, dung maintained the fire for a longer time than the remaining fuels, but it could not maintain a higher and stable temperature. When we repeated the experiment for the third time, we could reach a maximum of 830 degree, and we also managed to reach a stable temperature by using a wooden log with a diameter of ca 15-20 cm. We tried to fire in the fireplace another small pot made by us with a different clay mixture, namely the same used for the Kura-Araxes hearth (temper 1): the pot crashed like the Kura-Araxes hearth. We also burnt some animal bones in the fire, in order to understand how their colour and structure were modified depending on their location within the fireplace.
    After terminating the fire, we measured how long it took to the firing surface to get cold: we could thus ascertain that even after 17 hours it was still hot, most probably due to the presence of the sherds and pebbles layers below it, although this point needs to be further confirmed by comparing its temperature with that of a simple clay surface without pebbles and sherds preparation.
    Before concluding the experiment, we collected samples of pure clay, a sample of clay prepared and mixed by us, fragments of the Kura-Araxes hearth, two fragments of the LB fireplace (one very close, and one less close to the fire), fragments of the firing surface, several pot sherds and pebbles, and pieces of the fired pot (to compare the difference between the fragments of hearth and the fired pot) for future laboratory analyses.