Georgia embraced Christianity about the year 330; its conversion is attributed to a holy captive woman, St. Nino. During the next three centuries, Georgia was involved in the conflict between the Byzantine and Persian empires. Lazica on the Black Sea (incorporating the ancient Colchis) became closely bound to Byzantium. Iberia passed under Iranian control, though toward the end of the 5th century a hero arose in the person of King Vakhtang Gorgaslani, a ruler of legendary valour who for a time reasserted Georgia's national sovereignty. The Sasanian monarch Khosrow I (reigned 531-579) abolished the Iberian monarchy, however. For the next three centuries, local authority was exercised by the magnates of each province, vassals successively of Iran, of Byzantium, and, after AD 654, of the Arab caliphs, who established an emirate in T'bilisi.
Toward the end of the 9th century, the Bagratid Ashot I the Great settled at Artanuji in Tao (southwestern Georgia), receiving from the Byzantine emperor the title of kuropalates ("guardian of the palace"). In due course, Ashot profited from the weakness of the Byzantine emperors and the Arab caliphs and set himself up as hereditary prince in Iberia. King Bagrat III (975-1014) later united all the principalities of eastern and western Georgia into one state. T'bilisi, however, was not recovered from the Muslims until 1122, when it fell to King David II Aghmashenebeli ("the Builder"; reigned 1089-1125).
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Bagratid Dynasty, princely and royal dynasty founded in Armenia and Georgia during the 9th century by the Bagratuni family. The Bagratid kings kept Armenia independent of both the Byzantine Empire and the 'Abbasid Caliphate.
With the decline of the previously ruling Mamikonian dynasty, the Bagratids emerged as one of the most powerful noble families in Armenia. The Arabs' choice in 806 of Ashot Bagratuni the Carnivorous to be prince of Armenia made his family the chief power in the land. The Bagratids were more diplomatic than the Mamikonians in their dealings with their foreign overlords. The governor Smbat Ablabas Bagratuni remained loyal to the caliph. The election of Smbat's son Ashot I the Great, who had been accepted as "prince of princes" by the Arabs in 862, to be king of Armenia in 885 was recognized by both the caliph and the Byzantine emperor, and it was he who by his successful defense of his country against local Arab chieftains laid the foundations of a new golden age of Armenian history. Throughout the 10th century, Armenian art and literature flourished. Ashot III ("the Merciful," 952-977) transferred his capital to Ani (near modern Anipemza) and began to transform it into one of the architectural gems of the Middle Ages. Another Bagratid, Adarnase IV, became king of Georgia in 888, and his line ruled there intermittently until 1505. The Bagratids of Ani bore the title of shahanshah ("king of kings"), which was first conferred by the caliph in 922 upon Ashot II the Iron. In 961 Mushegh, the brother of Ashot III, founded the Bagratid kingdom of Kars. By the 11th century, the combined invasions of the Seljuk Turks and Byzantine conquests in the west destroyed what remained of the Bagratids and the Armenian kingdom. |
The zenith of Georgia's power and prestige was reached in the reign (1184-1213) of Queen Tamar, whose realm stretched from Azerbaijan to the borders of Cherkessia, from Erzurum to Ganja (G%onc%o), forming a pan-Caucasian empire, with Shirvan and Trabzon as vassals and allies.
The invasions of Transcaucasia by the Mongols from 1220 onward, however, brought Georgia's golden age to an end. Eastern Georgia was reduced to vassalage under the Mongol il-khans of the line of Hçlegç, while Imereti, as the land to the west of the Suram range was called, remained independent under a separate line of Bagratid rulers.
Ancient Greek legends told of a fabulously wealthy land where Jason and the Argonauts stole the Golden Fleece from King Aietes with the help of his daughter Medea. It was a distant land that was reached by the Black Sea and down the River Phasis. The actual site of this legendary kingdom has never been found but the Greeks must have been greatly impressed by the Colchis region of Georgia, through which the River Phasis (currently the Rioni River) runs, for such stories to have been born.
Geographically, ancient Colchis comprised the land bounded by the Black Sea to the west, the Caucasus Mountains to the north, the Surami Range to the east and the Meskhetian Mountains to the south. In this fertile, sheltered area, Colchian civilization flourished. Their Late Bronze Age (15th to 8th Century BC) saw the development of an expertise in the smelting and casting of metals that began long before this skill was mastered in Europe. Sophisticated farming implements were made and fertile, well-watered lowlands blessed with a mild climate promoted the growth of progressive agricultural techniques.
It is likely that the Golden Fleece existed. Have been observed using sheepskins to trap the fine gold particles in the rivers that flowed from the Caucasus Mountains. The skins would then be dried and beaten to shake out their contents. However, it is debatable as to whether or not the legendary 'wealth' of Colchis referred only to gold. Archaeological evidence dates the earliest Greek imports of painted pottery and amphorae to the end of the 7th Century BC. In exchange, it is thought that Greeks sought the rich natural resources of Colchis including wood and metal ores as well as textiles. Even today, the mountain slopes remain heavily forested and the Ancient Greek writer, Herodotus, referred to the superior quality of Colchian linen.
The site of an ancient temple city, Vani is a city in the Colchis Lowlands located on the western bank of the Sulori River at its confluence with the Rioni River (River Phasis in ancient times). It is best known for the extensive archaeological excavations that have taken place there during the past 100 years. Although only a third of the site has been studied, it has produced an astonishing number of artifacts: Colchian pottery, exquisite golden jewelry unique to Colchis, imported Greek luxury items, graceful bronze sculptures and a vast array of funerary pieces. Its location is on a hill bordered by two ravines and overlooks the plains through which the Rioni River flows. There are beguiling views of the Sulori River Valley with its surrounding hills and the Meskhetian Mountain Range in the background. It is not surprising, therefore, that Ancient Colchians chose this beautiful and strategic location as the political, economic and spiritual center of their community.
The name of this ancient city is still unknown but four distinct stages of uninterrupted occupation have been identified. Artifacts (mainly Colchian pottery) of the first stage, 8th to early 6th Century BC, are relatively few and badly damaged. A sacrificial area was found with clay animal offerings suggesting some importance of Vani over the adjoining areas which yielded no similar findings.
The second stage, early 6th to mid 4th Century BC, reveals many changes. An abundance of artifacts are found including imported Greek painted pottery and new types of pottery for the storage or transportation of cereals, oil and honey as well as the fermentation and storage of wine. Rich burial sites with large quantities of golden jewelry, silver and bronze adornments, pottery and luxury items befitting the status of the deceased indicate that the ruling elite were buried here while poorer graves were found only in the surrounding areas. The site seems to have been dominated by a local aristocracy with a socially stratified, urbanized society.
The Early Hellenistic Period of the mid 4th to the mid 3rd Century BC gave rise to a more marked Greek influence. Stone structures are utilized for the first time and many elements of Greek architecture are used. There is evidence of Greek customs being imitated in their burials and Greek innovations in gold fabrication techniques are observed. However, roof tiles, pottery and coins from Sinope as well as Cappadocian influences on signet rings and other glyptic items indicate an expansion of commercial activity with other areas and coincides with the decline of Attic imports in the Black Sea trade.
The fourth stage is the Late Hellenistic era from the mid 3rd to the mid 1st Century BC when the ancient city was destroyed. In this period, many temples and altars were constructed and enclosed by thick, defensive walls. Buildings were richly decorated with figured capitals, friezes and bronze statues that were probably produced by visiting Greek masters. There is evidence that this city was destroyed twice, the second being the final after which time only limited occupation occurred throughout the subsequent centuries.
About 40 Km to the East of Vani along the Rioni River is Kutaisi, Georgia's second largest city and the most ancient city in the Kingdom of Colchis. It has retained many traits of a medieval town with massive fortress walls and the magnificent 11th Century Church of King Bagrat. The view from atop the old defensive walls behind the church is superb. The Rioni River emerges from the Racha Mountains to meander through the Colchis Lowlands while the Gelati Monastery sits in isolated splendor on a mountain across the river. It was built in the 12th Century by King David the Builder who also founded the adjacent Gelati Academy, an important school of philosophy, where you can still see the stone benches of the students and the Master's seat. King David consolidated Eastern and Western Georgia and his grave is here at the entry gate.
Near to Kutaisi, the Motsameta (Two Martyrs) Church nestles high on a cliff overlooking the Tskhaltsitela Gorge at a bend in the river. It commands a sweeping panorama of the gorge as well as the rocky escarpment of the facing cliffs.
Northwest of Vani is the village of Nokalakevi, known to the Greeks of the 6th Century AD as Archaeopolis. It was the main city of Western Georgia from the 4th to the 8th Century AD and the residence of the kings at that time. Remains of the original walls can be seen running up the mountain and along the cliffs that border the Tekhuri River. In 737-738, the city was destroyed by the Arab general, Mervan ibn-Muhammad, known to Georgians as Mervan the Deaf because he was so oblivious to their pleas for mercy in his rampage throughout Georgia.
Also called LESSER CAUCASUS, range of folded mountains in the southern part of the Caucasus region, connected with the main Caucasus Mountains by means of the Likhsky Mountains, which form the divide between the basins of the Rioni and Kura rivers.To the south the Little Caucasus, which runs northwest-southeast, merges almost imperceptibly with the Armenian Highland, which covers much of the southern part of Armenia and adjacent areas of Turkey and Iran. The western ranges are intensively folded and are much affected by volcanic action; the central and eastern portions are slightly less folded. Few peaks in the range exceed an elevation of 8,000 feet (2,400 m).
The great historic barrier of the Caucasus Mountains rises up across the wide isthmus separating the Black and Caspian seas where Europe and Asia converge. Caucasia, the region including the mountain ranges of the Caucasus, comprises both Transcaucasia and the land north of the Caucasus, known as Ciscaucasia or Northern Caucasia.
The peoples of the region have exhibited an extraordinary ethnic and cultural diversity since early times: the Colchians, for example, as described in the 5th century BC by the Greek historian Herodotus, were black-skinned Egyptians, though their true origin remains unclear. In subsequent centuries, successive waves of peoples migrating across Eurasia added to and were molded by the more established groups in the region. Not surprisingly, a greater variety of different languages are spoken in Caucasia than in any other area of similar size in the world. Ethnic and cultural diversity in Transcaucasia was preserved by the geographic isolation of the many small ethnic groups that settled in the region's inhospitable mountainous terrain.
The southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus are steeper than the northern. The middle of the system is comparatively narrow, but its western and eastern ends have widths of 100 miles or more. The main axis of the system contains Mount Elbrus, which at 18,510 feet (5,642 meters) is the range's tallest peak; Mount Dombay-Ulgen (Dombay-Yolgen; 13,274 feet) in the west; Mounts Shkhara, Dykhtau, and Kazbek, all more than 16,000 feet, in the central region; and Mounts Tebulosmta and Bazardyuzyu, both more than 14,600 feet, in the east. Spurs tonguing north and south from the main axis occasionally reach elevations approaching 10,000 feet. The highest parts carry permanent mountain glaciers, the shrunken remains of Quaternary ice fields and glaciers.
South of the Greater Caucasus, on the Black Sea coast, lies the Kolkhida alluvial plain, the site of ancient Colchis. South of the range on the Caspian side the Shirak Steppe, between the Greater and Lesser Caucasus ranges, falls sharply into the Kura-Aras (Kür-Araz) Lowland, an extensive depression in the center of which the Kura (Kür, or Mtkvari) River receives its major right-bank tributary, the Aras (Araks, or Araz) River. To the northeast the hills of southeastern Kobustan separate the Kura-Aras Lowland from the Abseron Peninsula; and to the extreme southeast the narrow Länkäran Lowland extends to the south between the Caspian Sea and the Talish (Talysh) Mountains, which reach elevations exceeding 8,000 feet.
West of the Kura-Aras Lowland rises the Lesser Caucasus Range, which is extended southward by the Dzhavakhet Range and the Armenian Highland, the latter straddling the frontier with Turkey. East of Lake Sevan in the eastern Lesser Caucasus, the highest peaks rise above 12,000 feet, while Mount Aragats (Alaghez), the highest peak in the range, rises west of the lake to 13,418 feet. From their western sources in the Armenian Highland, the Kura and Aras rivers both flow around the Lesser Caucasus - the Kura to the north of the range and the Aras to the south--before their confluence in the east.
Structurally the Greater Caucasus represents a great anticline (upfold) uplifted at the margin of the Alpine geosyncline about 25 million years ago and subsequently altered by fresh cycles of erosion and uplift. Hard, crystalline, metamorphosed rocks such as schists and gneisses, as well as granites that predate the Jurassic Period (i.e., older than 208 million years), have been exposed at the core of the western sector, while softer, clayey schists and sandstones of Early and Middle Jurassic origin (from 208 to 163 million years ago) have emerged in the east. The spurs of the Greater Caucasus are composed of younger limestones, sandstones, and marls. The Greater Caucasus is a zone of crustal instability, as evidenced by several extinct volcanoes (e.g., Mount Elbrus) and the earthquakes, often locally disastrous, that disturb the area.
The Kolkhida and Kura-Aras lowlands are both structural depressions linked to the Alpine geosyncline; the former is related to the formation of the Black Sea, the latter to that of the Caspian. In Kolkhida the overall surface of deposits laid down less than 25 million years ago is broken, at the foot of the mountains, by the protrusion of slightly older sedimentary rocks. Younger rocks also underlie the Kura-Aras Lowland.
The structures of the Lesser Caucasus, of the Talish Mountains, and of the Dzhavakhet-Armenian ranges likewise originated from folds uplifted from the Alpine geosyncline. While the western sector of the Lesser Caucasus and the Talish in the far southeast are formed chiefly from deposits laid down about 50 million years ago in the downwarp episode of the geosyncline, the central and eastern sectors of the Lesser Caucasus consist of sedimentary strata intruded in places with volcanic rock that are at least twice as old. Geologically recent volcanism and contact metamorphism (the intrusion of molten material and its effects on preexisting strata) have everywhere played a great role in shaping the landscape. The folded base of the Dzhavakhet Range and of the Armenian Highland, for example, is masked by volcanic debris from eruptions that occurred in the Tertiary and Quaternary periods (i.e., the past 66.4 million years), but to the east much older rocks emerge between the middle course of the Aras and the latitude of Lake Sevan.
Lake Sevan in the eastern Lesser Caucasus is the largest lake of Transcaucasia; its overflow drains into the Hrazdan River, a tributary of the Aras. The higher elevations of the Greater Caucasus contain numerous small mountain lakes, while a number of saltwater lakes occur in the arid regions of northeastern Transcaucasia.
The Greater Caucasus has more than 2,000 glaciers, which occupy only a tiny fraction of its total area. Some seven-tenths of them occur on the cooler northern face, with a concentration on the higher central slopes. The largest - notably Dykhsu, Bezengi, and Karaugom glaciers on the northern face and Lekzyr and Tsanner glaciers in western Georgia - are often seven miles or so long. The desolate flanks of Mount Elbrus are streaked by many glaciers.
Kolkhida has a humid subtropical climate with mild winters, hot and humid summers, and a relatively large annual rainfall of 47 to 71 inches (1,200 to 1,800 millimeters). In the southeast the climate of the Länkäran Lowland is also humid subtropical but with a dry season at the start of the summer; and the Kura-Aras Lowland has a dry subtropical climate (annual rainfall of 8 to 16 inches that is lower in the east) with mild winters and hot summers. The Middle Aras Trough in the Armenian Highland has a climate similar to that of the lowland downstream but not as warm.
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