Guide
Okumuşlar, formerly Boselt, is a village attached to central Artvin, and there is a good deal scattered across its territory: a castle, a church, and the remains of an old town called the city of Sarbiyet. In a hamlet between the villages of Agillar and Okumuşlar is a monastic group found by local people, consisting of a refectory, the remains of a church, two chapels and a great many further building remains that will not come to light until excavation is carried out. Nearby stand Boselt and Ustemel, one a castle and the other a watchtower. The area was registered as a conservation site in 1996.
Research continued here and at nearby Sakura until 1999, and it established three building periods, the earliest of which can be put at the middle or second half of the ninth century. That fits the period of the monastery named in the Grigolhauslao manuscript, and taken together with the site's position, plan type, construction features and wall technique — and with the name of Sarbet or Sarbiyet — the suggestion is that this may be the Satberdi monastery, sought for more than a century.
