The temple on the southern part of the central terrace, 200 meters away from the city gate, that was destroyed the most during the invasion of the city in the 1st century BC must have been of special importance. It is clearly demonstrated by the temple inventory, which consists of unique Hellenistic period bronze plastic art specimens discovered on the temple's territory and hoarded in its surroundings. The complex is called a “temple with mosaic floor” because its floor was paved with white and rosy pebbles, fragments of which have survived to the present. This intricate architectural complex consisted of a sanctuary for the god of wine-making and viticulture and a monumental colonnaded altar, its capitals adorned with figures; the altar had ritual ditches and sacrificial holes. 

The archeological excavations began in the south-western part of the central terrace 1966 when during the works of widening of the existing road the remains of a sandstone wall were found. The first archeological campaign in this section brought to the light the altar where the big fragment of the so-called mosaic floor was fallen, the iron head of buttering ram. The most important artifacts defining the function of the building, namely, the famous statuette of Nike and bronze appliqués decorating the bronze ritual object, the fragments of Colchian pithos and about 40 amphoras, were found 1967. Other parts of the temple complex, namely chamber partially destroyed and distinguished by another type of altar, remains of a colonnaded altar marked by figured Corinthian capitals and ritual pits and channel were discovered  during the excavations carried out 1969-71 and 1976-79. All excavations in the area of this temple were lead by Rusudan Puturidze. 

In 2007, the Vani expedition of the Georgian National Museum discovered an outstanding group of bronze and iron objects on the central terrace, close to the so-called mosaic-floored temple. The hoarded objects represent specimens of the Hellenistic art and have no parallels elsewhere. They had been presumably placed in a specially arranged pit dug into the foundation of a collapsed defensive wall in the mid-1st century B.C. when the city was under attack in order to hide them away.

The items from hoard find closest functional and stylistic parallels with artefacts found in the so-called mosaic-floored temple. The items of the hoard brought to light must have been inventory of the so-called mosaic-floored temple in ancient Vani, or offerings. The temple stood some 50 m from the place of the burial of the hoard. In its ruins items similar to those of the hoard were found, for example, bronze covers of the kline legs. Similar is the choice of themes as well: on the one hand, Nike – goddess of victory, descending from heaven and images of Dionysus and his circle, on the other hand, Ganymede connecting heavenly and earthly worlds and a lamp depicting the triumph of Dionysus over Indians.

The Georgian National Museum collaborated with the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) in New York on the treatment and technical study of the lamps. A technical analysis revealed that the lamps were made of lead-tin bronze with a range of compositions using different lost wax methods. 

The CNR ISPC team with the technologies at their disposal worked synergistically to document the site by integrating various survey techniques so as to make the most of their potential to obtain the greatest completeness of information. For the survey of the temple, surveys were carried out by topographical and photogrammetric laser scans. In this way a digital model of the site was obtained which could best reproduce its morphological and colorimetric characteristics.

For a correct integration of the data obtained from the various survey techniques used, targets were positioned, i.e. common control points, which were placed both on the ground and on the surfaces of the temple. These were therefore measured through the use of a total station (topographical instrument capable of detecting angles and distances) in order to obtain the spatial coordinates of the site.

At the same time a laser scanner survey was carried out which returned an accurate point cloud and subsequently a three-dimensional model of the architecture. In order to complete the acquisition of areas inaccessible from the ground, and to obtain a photo-realistic coloring of the model (texturing), the survey was integrated with aerial photogrammetry using a drone.

In order to produce a reliable, consistent and transparent Hypothesis of the so-called mosaic floored temple, all the historical and archaeological sources have been collected and reviewed. 

The Extended Matrix approach, developed by the DHiLab of the CNR ISPC is used (http://osiris.itabc.cnr.it/extendedmatrix/). The Extended Matrix (EM) is a formal language with which to keep track of virtual reconstruction processes. It is intended to be used by archaeologists and heritage specialists to document in a robust way their scientific activities. The EM has allowed to record the sources used and the processes of analysis and synthesis that have led from scientific evidence to virtual reconstruction. 

Finally, the schematic reconstructive model has been designed using the software Blender which guaranteed a complete integration with the EM workflow and tools.