Iulon Gagoshidze
Iulon Gagoshidze is a Georgian archaeologist, scholar and politician who served as the State Minister for Diaspora Issues in the Government of Georgia from November 2007 to December 2009, when he was moved to lead the recently created Archeological Research Center at the President's Administration. As a scholar, Gagoshidze is chiefly known for his excavations at Dedoplis Mindori and studies of the Achaemenid relics in Georgia.Biography
Gagoshidze was born in 1935 in Tbilisi, then-Soviet Georgia. He graduated from Tbilisi State University in 1958 and obtained a PhD degree in 1985. Beginning in 1968, Gagoshidze has led various archaeological expeditions to Israel, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Georgia's Ksani river valley, Samadlo, Dedoplistsqaro and other localities. In 1991 he served as the head of local administration of Mtskheta. Later, from 2004 to 2005, he was a member of Tbilisi City Council. From 2007 to 2009, Gagoshidze was a minister for Diaspora Issues in the Mikheil Saakashvili administration.
