Mutso

The separately protected medieval fortified settlement of Mutso occupies the rocky slope above the modern village. The form მუცო is used for the village in Georgian municipal legislation. In a 2008 archaeological study, Ivane Tsiklauri headed the section on the site მიცუ (იგივე მუცო), meaning “Mitsu (the same as Mutso)”, documenting მიცუ as an alternative Georgian form. Mutso lies in the Ardoti River valley, on a tributary of the Argun, approximately 11 to 12 km (6.8 to 7.5 mi) from Shatili. Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century accounts distinguished the fortified complex on the upper slope from a smaller settlement of the same name at its foot. The lower settlement lay south of the fortified complex and, in the late 19th century, formed part of the Ardoti community in the Tionety uezd of the Tiflis Governorate. The Geographical and Statistical Dictionary of the Russian Empire recorded 98 inhabitants in 17 households in 1867.