 It was unearthed by an archaeological expedition from the Georgian National Museum working at Nekresi between 1984 and 1993 and identified by its excavator, Levan Chilashvili, as a Zoroastrian fire-temple.In 2004, another team suggested that the temple was aligned with the summer and winter solstices and it might have incorporated elements of solar worship.Alternatively, Guram Kipiani argues that the spatial organization of the building is not compatible with that of a fire-temple and theorizes that the complex was in fact a Manichean shrine.