During the cleaning of the reservoir, in 2001 at the monastery of St. John the Baptist in the Gareja desert, some metal objects have been discovered. These are two brass plates, a stand of candlestick, and the part of a brass lamp and an iron scissors.

The brass plates (17^th-18^th cc.) are marked by the features characteristic in general for the different variations of the medieval metal plates in Georgia. At the same time, no exact parallel can be found among the material know to day. One of the plates bear engraved inscription given in Mkhedruli script and mentioning the donor Ksenephore Tumanishvili.

It can be presumed that newly discovered plates were produced locally. Although the possibility of their deposition in the monastery of St. John the Baptist as a donation can not be excluded. According to the archival data there existed a great number of silver and brass vessel in the major monasteries of the Gareja desert by the 18^th-19^th cc.

There are engraved inscriptions in Mkhedruli script on the both sides of a candlestick support (17^th-18^th cc.) mentioning the name of the donor – king Teimuraz, and the craftsman – Narimant Osepha. Teimuraz can be identified with the King of Kartli and Kakheti Teimuraz II (1733-1762) whose donations to Gareja monasteries are well known (Institute of Manuscripts in Tbilisi, Doc. Qd-2795, Ad-737). It might be possible that the donation was made during the visit of the King to the Gareja as a pilgrim, which can be confirmed by his inscription in the diakonikon of the main church of the Udabno monastery. As for the craftsman mentioned in the second inscription, the documents on the history of Tbilisi containing the data concerning the functioning of the metal workshops seem noteworthy. Accordingly, it is not excluded that Osepha was active in one of these local workshops.