The Georgians

Georgia:

Evidence for the earliest occupation of the territory of present day Georgia goes back to c. 1.8 million years ago, as evident from the excavations of Dmanisi in the south-eastern part of the country. This is the oldest evidence of humans anywhere in the world outside Africa. Later prehistoric remains (Acheulian, Mousterian and the Upper Palaeolithic) are known from numerous cave and open-air sites in Georgia.

The earliest agricultural Neolithic occupation is dated sometime between 6000 and 5000 BC. In around ca. 6000–4200 B.C the Shulaveri-Shomu, thought to be one of the earliest known Neolithic cultures, and other Neolithic/Chalcolithic cultures of the Southern Caucasus use local obsidian for tools, raise animals such as cattle and pigs, and grow crops, including grapes.

Shulaveri-Shomu culture is a Late Neolithic/Eneolithic culture that existed on the territory of present-day Georgia, Azerbaijan and the Armenian Highlands. Numerous excavations in tell settlements of the “Sulaveri-Somutepe-Group” have been conducted since the 1960s. It begins after the 8.2 kiloyear event which was a sudden decrease in global temperatures starting ca. 6200 BC and which lasted for about two to four centuries, and is thought to be a critical element in identifying the origins of both the Georgian and Armenian peoples.

In the 1970s, archaeological excavations revealed a number of ancient settlements that included houses with galleries, carbon-dated to the 5th millennium BC in the Imiris-gora region of Eastern Georgia. These dwellings were circular or oval in plan, a characteristic feature being the central pier and chimney. These features were used and further developed in building Georgian dwellings and houses of the ‘Darbazi’ type.

Darbazi (from Persian: darvāze‎, “gate”) is a term used in Georgia to describe a chamber with a distinctive “swallow dome”-type roof structure found in the traditional domestic architecture of Asia Minor and the South Caucasus. The central feature is a pyramidal vault (gvirgvini), supported on pillars and constructed of a stepped series of hewn logs and beams, with a central opening at the top which serves as a window and smoke flue.

The Roman authority Vitruvius (1st century BC) includes in his De architectura a description of a Colchian dwelling, the ancient prototype of a darbazi. Such lantern roofs are called harazashen or glkhatun in Armenia, kirlangiç kubbe or kirlangiç ortu in Turkey, and karadam in Azerbaijan.

The darbazi house, with local variations, continued to be constructed into the 20th century in Georgia. It occurs extensively in the provinces of Kartli, Kakheti, and Samtskhe-Javakheti. These houses are often supported at its underground base by finely carved beams and pillars. Of particular care is the solid wooden upright known as the deda-bodzi (“mother-pillar”) that takes the weight of the corbelled roofing.

The darbazi form might have influenced the early Christian architecture of Georgia, for the ancient rotund and octagonal Christian structures—widespread in Italy, Syria, and elsewhere—never attained popularity in Georgia.

Many of the characteristic traits of the Shulaverian material culture (circular mudbrick architecture, pottery decorated by plastic design, anthropomorphic female figurines, obsidian industry with an emphasys on production of long prismatic blades) are believed to have their origin in the Near Eastern Neolithic (Hassuna, Halaf).

Shulaveri culture predates the Kura-Araxes culture and surrounding areas, which is assigned to the period of ca. 4000 – 2200 BC, and had close relation with the middle Bronze Age culture called Trialeti culture (ca. 3000 – 1500 BC). The Sioni culture of Eastern Georgia possibly represents a transition from the Shulaveri to the Kura-Arax cultural complex.

The Kura Araxes culture, or the early trans-Caucasian culture, has been thought to coincide with the appearance of the Bronze Age in the southern Caucasus. Recent discoveries from Areni-1Cave in the Vayots Dzor region of Armenia demonstrate that the origin of the distinctive Kura–Araxes artifactassemblage lies in the Late Chalcolithic of the late 5th to early 4th millennia BC.

The results of excavations undertaken at Areni-1Cave extend the date for the first appearance of KA-type artifact assemblages to 4100–3800 BC. The Kura–Araxes culture existed until about 2000 BC, which has traditionally been regarded as the date of its end, but it may have disappeared as early as 2600 or 2700 BC.

The earliest evidence for this culture is found on the Ararat plain; thence it spread to Georgia by 3000 BC (but never reaching Colchis), and during the next millennium it proceeded westward to the Erzurum plain, southwest to Cilicia, and to the southeast into an area below the Urmia basin and Lake Van, and finally down to the borders of present day Syria. Altogether, the early Trans-Caucasian culture, at its greatest spread, enveloped a vast area approximately 1,000 km by 500 km.

In its earliest phase, metal was scant, but it would later display “a precocious metallurgical development which strongly influenced surrounding regions”. They worked copper, arsenic, silver, gold, tin, and bronze. Their metal goods were widely distributed, recorded in the Volga, Dnieper and Don-Donets systems in the north, into Syria and Palestine in the south, and west into Anatolia.

Kura–Araxes artifacts are known not only from thesouthern Caucasus but also from sites in Anatolia, Iran, and the Levant. Kura–Araxes artifacts have been found on Uruk and Ninevite sites in Mesopotamia and the Levant suggesting both trade and possibly population movement to those locations from the southern Caucasus during the Early Bronze Age.

Hurrian and Urartian elements are quite probable, as are Northeast Caucasian ones. Some authors subsume Hurrians and Urartians under Northeast Caucasian as well as part of the Alarodian theory. The presence of Kartvelian languages was also highly probable. Influences of Semitic languages and Indo-European languages are also highly possible, though the presence of the languages on the lands of the Kura–Araxes culture is more controversial.

The Maykop culture (also spelled Maikop), ca. 3700 BC—2500 BC, was a major Bronze Age archaeological culture in the Western Caucasus region of Southern Russia. Because of its burial practices, it is in terms of the Kurgan hypothesis of Marija Gimbutas seen as an Indo-European intrusion from the Pontic steppe into the Caucasus.

However, J.P.Mallory point out that: «… where the evidence for barrows is found, it is precisely in regions which later demonstrate the presence of non-Indo-European populations.»

The culture has been described as, at the very least, a “kurganized” local culture with strong ethnic and linguistic links to the descendants of the Proto-Indo-Europeans. It has been linked to the Lower Mikhaylovka group and Kemi Oba culture, and more distantly, to the Globular Amphora and Corded Ware cultures, if only in an economic sense.

However, J.P.Mallory point out that: «Such a theory, it must be emphasized, is highly speculative and controversial although there is a recognition that this culture may be a product of at least two traditions: the local steppe tradition embraced in the Novosvobodna culture and foreign elements from south of the Caucasus which can be charted through imports in both regions.»

While the Shulaveri Shomu, Sioni and Kura Araxes culture can be seen as an early representant for the Northeast Caucasian, or Nakh, language, which developed from the Hurrian and Urartian languages, or the Alaroidinan language, the Maykop culture can be seen as an early representant of the Southwest Caucasian language, which is connected with the Anatolian Hattian culture.

The Trialeti culture, named after Trialeti region of Georgia, is attributed to the first part of the 2nd millennium BC. In the late 3rd millennium BC. settlements of the Kura-Araxes culture began to be replaced by early Trialeti culture sites. The Trialeti culture was a second culture to appear in Georgia, after the Shulaveri-Shomu culture which existed from 6000 to 4000 BC. The Trialeti culture shows close ties with the highly-developed cultures of the ancient world, particularly with the Aegean, but also with cultures to the south, such as probably the Sumerians and their Akkadian conquerors.

The Trialeti culture was known for its particular form of burial. The elite were interred in large, very rich burials under earth and stone mounds, which sometimes contained four-wheeled carts. Also there were many gold objects found in the graves. These gold objects were similar to those found in Iran and Iraq. They also worked tin and arsenic. This form of burial in a tumulus or “kurgan”, along with wheeled vehicles, is the same as that of the Kurgan culture which has been associated with the speakers of the Caucasian language.

In fact, the black burnished pottery of especially early Trialeti kurgans is similar to Kura-Araxes pottery. In a historical context, their impressive accumulation of wealth in burial kurgans, like that of other associated and nearby cultures with similar burial practices, is particularly noteworthy. This practice was probably a result of influence from the older civilizations to the south in the Fertile Crescent.

Archaeological excavations have brought to light the remains of settlements at Beshtasheni and Ozni (4th–3rd millennium BC), and barrow burials (carbon dated to the 2nd millennium BC) in the province of Trialeti, at Tsalka (Eastern Georgia). Together, they testify to an advanced and well-developed culture of building and architecture.

Diauehi, a tribal union of early-Georgians, first appear in written history in the 12th century BC. Archaeological finds and references in ancient sources reveal elements of early political and state formations characterized by advanced metallurgy and goldsmith techniques that date back to the 7th century BC and beyond.

The Kingdom of Diauehi (Diauhi or Diaokhi; “the Land of the Sons of Diau”) was an ancient monarchy emerged as a tribal union of early-Georgians in 12th century BC, in the post-Hittite period. It was located in northeastern Asia Minor, mentioned in the Urartian inscriptions. It is usually (though not always) identified with Daiaeni of the Yonjalu inscription of the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser I’s third year (1118 BC).

Although the exact geographic extent of Diauehi is still unclear, many scholars place it in the Pasinler Plain in today’s northeastern Turkey, while others locate it in the Turkish-Georgian marshlands as it follows the Kura River. Most probably, the core of the Diauehi lands may have extended from the headwaters of the Euphrates into the river valleys of Çoruh to Oltu. The Urartian sources speak of Diauehi’s three key cities – Zua, Ultu and Sasilu; Zua is frequently identified with Zivin Kale and Ultu is probably modern Oltu, while Sasilu is sometimes linked to the early medieval Georgian toponym Sasire, near Tortomi (present-day Tortum, Turkey).

Kartvelian tribe, the Daiaeni, figures prominently in Assyrian records. Tiglath-Pilesar I twice crossed the Taurus range (circa 1114 B.C., circa 1112 B.C.) to combat the 23 kings of the Nairi, one of whom was Asia (Sieni), king of the Daiaeni. Several centuries, later, Shalmaneser III (859-824 B.C.) laid waste to the lands of the Daiaeni and sacked the Urartian royal city of Arzaškun as well (Ananias of Širak, 1992, p. 205n). Urartian records refer to these people as Diaueḫe (Diau-ḫe), which appears to be “a patronymic or dynastic name meaning ‘son of Diau,’ the presumed founder of the dynasty that ruled the people-state” (Ananias of Širak, 1992, p. 206n).

The Daiaeni had migrated further north by this time, occupying territories between the Araxes river and Lake Çildir, with their capital at Sasilu (Arsis). King Utupursi of the Daiaeni opposed the Urartian kings Menua (circa 810-circa 780 B.C.) and Argisti (circa 780-circa 756 B.C.)

This federation was powerful enough to counter the Assyrian forays, although in 1112 BC its king Sien was defeated and taken prisoner by Tiglath-Pileser I. In 845 BC, Shalmaneser III finally subdued Diauehi and downgraded its king Asia to a client ruler.

In the early 8th century, Diauehi became the target of the newly emerged regional power of Urartu. Both Menuas (810-785 BC) and Argishtis I (785-763 BC) campaigned against the Diauehi king Utupurshi, annexing his southernmost possessions and forcing him to pay tribute, which included copper, silver and gold.

Extremely declined in these wars, Diauehi was finally destroyed by the blow from Colchians (another Georgian tribes) in the west. It seems to have happened in the 760s BC, when the last recorded account about Diauehi dates from.

Between 2100 and 750 BC, the area survived the invasions by the Hittites, Urartians, Medes, Proto-Persians and Cimmerians. At the same period, the ethnic unity of Proto-Kartvelians broke up into several branches, among them Svans, Zans/Chans and East-Kartvelians. That finally led to the formation of modern Kartvelian languages: Georgian (originating from East Kartvelian vernaculars), Svan, Megrelian and Laz (the latter two originating from Zan dialects).

By that time Svans were dominant in modern Svaneti and Abkhazia, Zans inhabited modern Georgian province of Samegrelo, while East-Kartvelians formed the majority in modern eastern Georgia. As a result of cultural and geographic delimitation, two core areas of future Georgian culture and statehood formed in western and eastern Georgia by the end of the 8th century BC. The first two Georgian states emerged in the west known as the Kingdom of Colchis and in the east as the Kingdom of Iberia.

Caucasian Iberians:

Caucasian Iberians was a Greco-Roman designation for ancient Georgians or Kartvelians who inhabited the east and southeast of the Transcaucasus region in prehistoric and historic times.

Ancient Iberians are identified as modern eastern Georgians who have originated from the early Georgian state of Caucasian Iberia. In southwest, Iberians extended into Anatolia, inhabiting interior lands beside Colchians, who lived along the littoral area.

Caucasian Iberians should not be confused with the ancient inhabitants of the Roman Hispania, the Iberians of the Iberian Peninsula, or today’s Spanish and Portuguese who are also referred to as Iberians.

The area was inhabited in earliest times by several relative tribes, such as Karts, Saspers, Taochi, Tibareni, Tabal, Misimians, Apsilae, Melanchlaeni, Machelones, Marres, Chalybes, Gelonians, Gugars, and Zydretae, som of whom were North, and som were South (Iberian or Karvelian) Caucasian.

It may be possible to trace the presence of Caucasian Iberians in the region for several millennia. The Iberian tribes were an indigenous people of the Caucasus region, united by a common language, the ancestor of the Ibero-Caucasian language group.

There are multiple theories regarding the origin of the name Iberian; one of the most commonplace is that it is derived from the tribe of Tibareni in the classical period, and possibly also from the even earlier state of Tabal, known from the annals of the Assyrian Kings).

The name Iberian in its own right appears in ancient Greek authors who identified early Georgian (Kartvelian) tribes as Iberoi, as well as in the annals of the Roman Plutarch. The Iberians called their kingdom Kartli, and their nation Kartlians.

Karts were an eastern Georgian tribe. They were known throughout the ancient Greco-Roman world as Ibers, Iberians or Iberoi, or the Eastern Iberians for differentiating them from Iberians, who inhabited the Iberian Peninsula.

Karts spoke early form of the Georgian language, which had already split from other Kartvelian languages, namely the Svan and Zan languages. Karts inhabited the eastern and southeastern Caucasian lands from the most ancient times. Their name Karts is a neologism, coined by historians from the name Kartli, which is the rough approximation of land extent they inhabited.

The Kartvelian languages are a language family native to the Caucasus and spoken primarily in Georgia, with large groups of native speakers in Russia, the United States, the European Union, Israel, and northeastern parts of Turkey.

There are approximately 5.2 million speakers of this language family worldwide. It is not known to be related to any other language family, making it one of the world’s primary language families.

Kartli is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari (Kura), on which Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial role in the ethnic and political consolidation of the Georgians in the Middle Ages.

Kartli had no strictly defined boundaries and they significantly fluctuated in the course of history. After the partition of the kingdom of Georgia in the 15th century, Kartli became a separate kingdom with its capital at Tbilisi. The historical lands of Kartli are currently divided among several administrative regions of Georgia.

One of the Iberian tribes of Mtskheta (the future capital of the Iberian kingdom) dominated the early Iberian kingdom. The Mtskheta tribe was later ruled by a prince locally known as mamasakhlisi (“the father of the household” in Georgian).

The Georgian chronicle Kartlis Tskhovreba (“History of Kartli”) claims that a Persian general Azo of Alexander’s army massacred a local ruling family and conquered the area, until being defeated at the end of the 4th century BC by Prince Pharnavaz, who was at that time a local chief. Victorious in the power struggle Pharnavaz became the first king of Iberia (c. 302-c. 237 BC).

Driving back an invasion, he subjugated the neighbouring areas, including a significant part of the western Georgian state of Colchis (locally known as Egrisi). Pharnavaz then focused on social projects, including the citadel of the capitol, the Armaztsikhe, and the idol of the god Armazi (derived from the Iranian god Ahura-Mazda).

Armazi was, according to the medieval Georgian chronicles, the supreme deity in a pre-Christian pantheon of ancient Georgians of Kartli (Iberia of the Classical sources).

Georgian literary tradition credits the first king of Kartli, Parnavaz (assumed to have reigned c. 302-237 BC), with the raising of the idol Armazi – reputedly named after him – on a mountain at his capital, and the construction of a similarly named fortress.

The 9th/10th century hagiographic work Life of Nino describes the statue of Armazi as “a man of bronze standing; attached to his body was a golden suit of chain-armour, on his head a strong helmet; for eyes he had emeralds and beryls, in his hands he held a sabre glittering like lighting, and it turned in his hands.”

The same account asserts that its subject, a 4th-century female baptizer of Georgians Saint Nino, witnessed the celebration of a great feast of dedication for the idol, and as she began praying, by the grace of Jesus the idol was burnt by lightning.

Beyond the medieval Georgian annals, and the toponym Armazi which has survived to this day, we lack contemporary records about pagan Georgian pantheon. However, the word “Armazi” itself suggests a connection to the Iranian and/or Anatolian cultures. Modern scholars are divided as to the origin of Armazi. It would appear to be connected to the Zoroastrian supreme god Ahura Mazdā (Middle Persian Ohrmazd, Armenian Aramazd) and contemporary archaeological evidence does suggest the penetration of Zoroastrianism in ancient Georgia.

On the other hand, the Georgian historian, Giorgi Melikishvili, has advanced a theory identifying Armazi as the local variant of Arma, the god of the moon in the Hittite mythology. Interestingly, Academician Ivane Javakhishvili has earlier demonstrated that early Georgians venerated the moon as their chief deity, and this cult subsequently fused with the Christian St. George, which has been regarded as Georgia’s patron saint since the Middle Ages. Thus, Armazi might well have been a syncretic deity representing a combination of local Georgian, Iranian, and Anatolian elements.

Aramazd is the principal deity in Armenia’s pre-Christian pantheon. He displaced Vanatur at the top of the pantheon after interaction with the Persians led to the Armenians’ identifying the Zoroastrians’ Ahura Mazda as their prime deity. Aramazd was considered the father of all gods and goddesses, the creator of heaven and earth. The first two letters in his name – AR – are the Indo-European root for sun, light, and life.

Aramazd was the source of earth’s fertility, making it fruitful and bountiful. The celebration in his honor was called Amanor, or New Year, which was celebrated on March 21 in the old Armenian calendar (also the Spring equinox). Aramazd was a syncretic deity, a combination of the autochthonous Armenian legendary figure Ara and the Iranic Ahura Mazda. In the Hellinistic period Aramazd in Armenia was compared with Greek Zeus.

Pharnavaz also reformed the Georgian written language, and created a new system of administration, subdividing the country in several counties called saeristavos. His successors managed to gain control over the mountainous passes of the Caucasus, with the Daryal (also known as the Iberian Gates) being the most important of them.

The first literary source in a Kartvelian language (the inscription of Abba Antoni, composed in ancient Georgian script at the Georgian monastery near Bethlehem) dates back to 440 AD.

The toponym “Kartli” first emerges in written accounts in the 5th-century Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik, the earliest surviving piece of Georgian literature. According to the medieval Georgian Chronicles, Kartli derives its name from Kartlos, the mythic Georgian ethnarch, who built a city on the Mtkvari; it was called Kartli (probably at the latter-day Armazi), a name which generalized to the country ruled by Kartlos and his progeny.

Kartlos, introduced in the medieval Georgian Chronicles (Kartlis Cxovreba), presumably recorded from oral tradition by Leonti Mroveli in the 11th century, seems to be a medieval contrivance and his being the eponymous founder of Kartli is not convincing.

The legend has it that he was a son of Targamos and, thus, brother of Haos, Movakos, Lekos, Heros, Kavkasos, and Egros from whom other Caucasian peoples took their origin. Kartlos united his people to become their chieftain and founded the city of Kartli.

The sons of Kartlos are listed as: Mtskhetos, Gardabos, Kakhos, Kukhos, Gachios, Uphlos, Odzrkhos, Javakhos, the respective eponymous founders of Mtskheta, Gardabani, Kakheti, Kukheti, Gachiani, Uplistsikhe, Odzrkhe, and Javakheti.

The medieval chronicler characteristically renders this name with the Greek nominative suffix –ος (os), as Stephen H. Rapp of Georgia State University (Atlanta) assumes, “in order to impart the account with a sense of antiquity”.

Professor Giorgi Melikishvili has linked the toponym Kartli with a word karta, found in Mingrelian (a Kartvelian sister language of Georgian) and in some western Georgian dialects and meaning “a cattle pen” or “an enclosed place”.

The root kar occurs in numerous placenames across Georgia and, in the view of Melikishvili, displays semantic similarity with the Indo-European prototype; cf. Germanic gardaz (“enclosure”, “garden”), Lithuanian gardas (“enclosure”, “hurdle”, “cattle pen”), Old Slavic gradu (“garden”, also “city”), and Hittite gurtas (“fortress”).

The formation of Kartli and its people, the Kartveli is poorly documented. The infiltration of several ancient, chiefly Anatolian, tribes into the territory of modern-day Georgia and their fusion with the autochthons played a decisive role in this process. This might have been reflected in the story of Arian-Kartli, the semi-legendary place of the aboriginal Georgian habitat found in the early medieval chronicle Conversion of Kartli.

Arian Kartli was a country claimed by the medieval Georgian chronicle “The Conversion of Kartli” to be the earlier homeland of the Georgians of Kartli (Iberia, central and eastern Georgia).

The Georgian Chronicles relate the apocryphal story of Alexander the Great’s campaign into inner Georgia. Alexander reportedly brought Azoy (Azo), the son of the unnamed “king of Arian-Kartli”, together with followers, to Mtskheta, principal city of Kartli, and charged him with the administration of Kartli in his absence.

The 11th-century Georgian monk Arsen, the author of metaphrastical reduction of “The life of St. Nino” and tutor of King David IV of Georgia, comments on this passage: “We, Georgians, are descendants of the newcomers from Arian-Kartli, we speak their language and all the kings of Kartli are descendents of their kings”.

The identification of a polity medieval Georgian writers called Arian Kartli remains problematic. It seems to have preceded the Near Eastern conquests of Alexander the Great, but the precise location of this “kingdom”, the date of its foundation, and the identity of its rulers cannot be determined by means of surviving documentary evidence. The word “Aryan” (Noble) comes from the ancient Indian language called Sanskrit suggesting the connection to Indo-Aryans.

Classical sources scholars have inferred that Arian Kartli/Aryan Kartli and lay within the orbit of Achaemenid Empire. Herodotus’ list of the Achaemenid provinces, which places the proto-Georgian tribes within the 13th and 19th satrapies, is significant in this regard. These territories partially correspond to the historical Georgian southwest where a number of Georgian scholars, notably Giorgi Melikishvili, tend to place Aryan Kartli.

The early Georgian kingdom of Kartli/Iberia, which clearly emerges in historical accounts of Hellenistic period, seems to have shared the Iranian bonds of Arian Kartli. Cyril Toumanoff equates the region with the Aranē of Ptolemy (V.6.18) and the Harrana of the Hittites.

In the 3rd century BC, Kartli and its original capital Mtskheta (succeeded by Tbilisi in the 5th century) formed a nucleus around which the ancient Georgian kingdom known to the Greco-Roman world as Iberia evolved. The role of Kartli as a core ethnic and political unit which would form a basis for the subsequent Georgian unification further increased as a result of its Christianization early in the 4th century.

The Georgians living in the historical lands of Kartli are known as Kartleli and comprise one of the largest geographic subgroups of the Georgian people. Most of them are Eastern Orthodox Christians adhering to the national Georgian Orthodox Church and speak a dialect, which is the basis of the modern Georgian literary language.

Tao-Klarjeti:

Tao-Klarjeti is the term conventionally used in modern history writing to describe the historic south-western Georgian kingdoms and principalities, now forming part of north-eastern Turkey and divided among the provinces of Erzurum, Artvin, Ardahan and Kars. Tao and Klarjeti were originally only the names of the two most important provinces of the Georgian lands that stretched from the “Georgian Gorge” (Turk. Gürcü Boğazı) in the south to the Lesser Caucasus in the north.

Historically, the area comprised the following provinces: West of the Arsiani Mountains (Turk. Yalnızçam Dağları) were Tao, Klarjeti, Nigali, and Shavsheti, to the east lay Samtskhe, Erusheti, Javakheti, Artaani and Kola. The landscape is characterised by mountains and the river-systems of the Chorokhi (Turk. Çoruh) and the Mtkvari (Turk. Kura). Tao-Klarjeti’s geographical position between the great Empires of the East and the West, and the fact that one branch of the Silk Road ran through its territory, meant that it was subject to a constant stream of diverging influences.

In the 9th-11th centuries, Tao-Klarjeti was ruled by the Iberian Bagrationi Dynasty, and the region played a crucial role in the unification of the Georgian principalities into a single feudal state in 1008. Alongside the magnificent nature, the architectural monuments of Tao-Klarjeti (churches, monasteries, bridges and castles) function as tourist attractions today, but many monuments are endangered, since nothing is done for their preservation. There have also been cases of deliberate destruction (for instance in Opiza and Tbeti).

An ancient monarchy of Diauehi emerged as a tribal union of early-Georgians in 12th century BC was the basis of the Kingdom of Tao-Klarjeti.

The history of the region goes back to 3000 BC, i.e. the Bronze Age known as the Kura-Araxes culture. In the 1st millennium BC, the area was predominantly inhabited by various tribes, including proto-Georgians which would later coalesce into Colchis and Iberia.

In c. 302 BC, these territories were absorbed into the ancient Kingdom of Iberia under the king of Pharnavaz I and since then it was occupied and annexed by various countries. Contested between Iberia and Armenia throughout the following centuries, the region was invaded and completely destroyed by the Arabs in the 8th century.

The new era began in Tao-Klarjeti in 813, when the Georgian prince (erismtavari) Ashot I of the Bagrationi family made Klarjeti a base in his struggle against the Arab occupation. Recognizing the Byzantine suzerainty, he received a title of κουροπαλάτης and established the Principality of the Georgians known to the Byzantines as the Kouropalatate (Kuropalatinate) of Iberia.

Ashot fought the Arabs from there, gradually incorporating the surrounding lands of Tao, Kola, Artaani and Shavsheti, along with a few other lesser lands, from the Arab dominance. He encouraged resettlement of Georgians in these lands, and patronized monastic life initiated by the prominent Georgian ecclesiastic figure Grigol Khandzteli (Gregory of Khandzta; 759–861) in Klarjeti. For a long time the region became a cultural safe-house and one of the most important religious centers of Georgia.

Ashot’s successors continued fighting for the Kartlian lands, contested also by the Abkhazian dynasty of western Georgia (Egrisi), the Arab emirs of Tbilisi and even by Kakhetian (kingdom in eastern Georgia) and Armenian rulers.

Kingdom of Colchis:

Artvin Province is a province in Turkey, on the Black Sea coast in the north-eastern corner of the country, on the border with Georgia. The provincial capital is the city of Artvin.

The area has a rich history but has not been studied extensively by archaeologists in recent decades. Artifacts dating back to the Bronze Age and even earlier have been found. The Hurrian settled in the Artvin area in 2000 BC and were succeeded by the Urartu civilisation, based in Lake Van.

Later, the area was part of the kingdom of Colchis but was always vulnerable to invasions, first the Scythians from across the Caucasus, then the Muslim armies led by Habib, son of Caliph Uthman who controlled the area from 853 AD to 1023 when it was conquered by the Byzantines from the Sac Emirate linked to the Abbasids.

Colchian culture (circa 1200 to 600 BC), named after the ancient geographic region of Colchis, which covered a large area along the Black Sea coast, is a late Bronze Age and Iron Age culture of the western Caucasus, mostly in western Georgia. It was partially succeeded by the Koban culture in northern and central Caucasus.

In physical geography, Colchis is usually defined as the area east of the Black Sea Coast, restricted from the north by south-western slopes of the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range, from the south by the northern slopes of the Lesser Caucasus in Georgia and Eastern Black Sea (Karadeniz) Mountains in Turkey, and from the east by Likhi Range, connecting the Greater and the Lesser Caucasus Mountain Ranges.

The central part of the region is Colchis Plain, stretching between Sokhumi and Kobuleti; most of that lies on the elevation below 20 m a.s.l. Marginal parts of the region are mountains of the Great and the Lesser Caucasus and Likhi Range.

The eastern Black Sea region in antiquity was home to the well-developed bronze culture known as the Colchian culture, related to the neighboring Koban culture, that emerged towards the Middle Bronze Age. In at least some parts of Colchis, the process of urbanization seems to have been well advanced by the end of the second millennium BC, centuries before Greek settlement.

The climate is mild humid; near Batumi, annual rainfall level reaches 4000 mm, which is the absolute maximum for the continental western Eurasia. The dominating natural landscapes of Colchis are temperate rainforests, yet degraded in the plain part of the region; wetlands (along the coastal parts of Colchis Plain); subalpine and alpine meadows.

The Colchis has a high proportion of Tertiary relict plants and animals, with the closest relatives in distant parts of the world: five species of Rhododendrons and other evergreen shrubs, wingnuts, Caucasian salamander, Caucasian Parsley Frog, eight endemic species of lizards from the genus Darevskia, Caucasian adder, Robert’s vole, and endemic cave shrimps.

The Colchian Late Bronze Age saw the development of significant skill 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 and a mild climate promoted the growth of progressive agricultural techniques.

The Koban culture (ca. 1100 to 400 BC) is a late Bronze Age and Iron Age culture of the northern and central Caucasus. It is preceded by the Colchian culture of the western Caucasus and the Kharachoi culture further east.

It is named after the village of Koban, Northern Ossetia, where in 1869 battle-axes, daggers, decorative items and other objects were discovered in a kurgan. Later, further sites were uncovered in the central Caucasus.

Many, such as Amjad Jaimoukha, believe the Koban culture was primarily Nakh. While all these cultures probably were made by people included among the genetic ancestors of the Northern Caucasian Nakh (i.e. Chechens and Ingush), it was either the Koban or Kharachoi culture that was the first culture made by the cultural and linguistic ancestors of the Chechens (meaning the Chechens first arrived in their homeland 3000–4000 years ago). However, many others disagree, holding the Chechens to have lived in their present day lands for over 10000 years.

The ancestors of the Nakh peoples are thought to have populated the Central Caucasus around 10000 BCE- 8000 BCE. This colonization is thought by many (including E. Veidenbaum, who cites similarities with later structures to propose continuity) to represent the whole Eastern Caucasian language family, though this is not universally agreed upon. The continuity can be seen from cultures as the Sholuveri Shomu, the Kura-Araxes, Kayakent, Kharachoi and Koban cultures.

The proto-language that is thought to be the ancestor of all Eastern Caucasian (“Alarodian”) languages, in fact, has words for concepts such as the wheel (which is first found in the Central Caucasus around 4000 BCE-3000 BCE), so it is thought that the region had intimate links to the Fertile Crescent (many scholars supporting the thesis that the Eastern Caucasians originally came from the Northern Fertile Crescent, and backing this up with linguistic affinities of the Urartian and Hurrian language to the Northeast Caucasus).

Johanna Nichols has suggested that the ancestors of Eastern Caucasians had been involved in the birth of civilization in the Fertile Crescent. Definitely, at the time the proto-language split, the people had all these concepts very early on.

The most well-studied site was on the outskirts of Serzhen-Yurt (in modern Chechnya), which was a major center from around 11th century BC to around the 7th century BC.

The remains include dwellings, cobble bridges, altars, iron objects, bones, and clay and stone objects. There were sickles and stone grain grinders. Grains that were grown included wheat, rye and barley. Cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys, pigs and horses were kept. There were shops, where artisans worked on and sold pottery, stone-casting, bone-carving, and stone-carving. There is evidence of an advanced stage of metallurgy. There was differentiation of professionals organized within clans.

A second Georgian tribal union, and the first South Caucasian state in the west, emerged with the kingdom of Colchis, which existed from the 6th to the 1st centuries BC on the eastern coast of the black sea in Western Georgia. It is regarded as the first state formation of the early Georgian tribes (including other Kartvelians such as Laz), and played an important role in the ethnic and cultural formation of the Georgian nation.

The Laz are a sub-ethnic group of Kartvelians, native to the Black Sea coastal regions of Turkey and Georgia. They speak the Laz language (Lazca in Turkish), a Kartvelian language related to Georgian, Svan and Mingrelian (Kartvelian languages). Laz identity in Georgia has largely merged with a Georgian identity and the meaning of “Laz” is seen as merely a regional category, and are mainly concentrated in Ajaria.

The Laz language is not written, Turkish and Georgian serving as the literary languages for the Laz in Turkey and Georgia, respectively. Therefore, the Laz are typically bilingual. The Laz possess a colorful folklore. Their folk literature has been transmitted orally and has not been systematically recorded.

The first attempts at establishing a distinct Laz cultural identity and creating a literary language based on the Arabic alphabet was made by Faik Efendisi in the 1870s, but he was soon imprisoned by the Ottoman authorities, while most of his works were destroyed.

During a relative cultural autonomy granted to the minorities in the 1930s, the written Laz literature – based on the Laz script – emerged in Soviet Georgia, strongly dominated by Soviet ideology. The poet Mustafa Baniṣi spearheaded this short-lived movement, but an official standard form of the tongue was never established. Since then, several attempts have been made to render the pieces of native literature in the Turkish and Georgian alphabets. A few native poets in Turkey such as Raşid Hilmi and Pehlivanoğlu have appeared later in the 20th century.

Apart some research activities at universities in Georgia and Germany (University of Cologne), there has been done little to study the language and folk culture of the Laz. A degree of cultural assimilation into the Turkish medium is high, but there has been some recent upsurge of cultural activities aiming at revitalizing the Laz tongue and folk tradition.

The Laz music and dances are highly original, even though they have been developed in close contact with the neighboring peoples. The national instruments include Guda, kemenche (violin), zurna (oboe), and doli (drum). In the 1990s and 2000s, the folk-rock musician Kâzım Koyuncu attained to significant popularity in Turkey and toured Georgia.

The social organization of the Laz community is dominated by an elaborate system of kinship in which blood and milk brotherhood as well as elements of blood feuds have survived. The family is strongly dominated by the husband, but, even under Islam, the rule of monogamous marriage has been preserved.

The traditional Laz economy has been based on agriculture—known for production of hazelnuts until the 1960s, when the introduction of tea cultures which has since been growing in importance. It has largely eliminated the hitherto closed-economy, self-rearing way of life and encouraged many Laz to engage in trading, especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union opened the border with Georgia.

The traditions of fishing, hemp cultivation, weaving of the material, ceramics and pottery are also widespread and trace their origin to the Classical antiquity.

The Laz people live in a geographic area which they refer to as Lazona. Today, the entire area is part of the Republic of Turkey. The Laz in Georgia are chiefly centered in the country’s southwestern autonomous republic of Adjara. The largest Laz villages in Adjara are: Sarpi, Kvariati, Gonio and Makho. The Laz also live in Batumi, Kobuleti, Zugdidi and Tbilisi.

Today most Laz speakers live in Northeast Turkey, in a strip of land along the shore of the Black Sea. The Laz of Turkey form two principal groups. One of these is indigenous to the eastern Black Sea province formerly known as Lazistan (modern Rize and Artvin provinces). The other group fled the Russian expansion later in the 19th century and settled in Adapazarı, Sapanca, Yalova and Bursa, in western and eastern parts of the Black Sea and Marmara regions, respectively. An expatriate community of the Laz is also present in Germany where they have migrated from Turkey since the 1960s.

Most of the Laz in Turkey belong to the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam, while the Laz in Georgia are the Eastern Orthodox Christians adhering to the national Georgian Orthodox Church. Their beliefs have survived in folk poetry and in some customs related to births, marriage, death, seamanship, the New Year, and harvest rituals.

The Turkish public uses the name “Laz” in a general way to refer to all inhabitants of Turkey’s Black Sea provinces east of Samsun, and the word is often associated with certain social stereotypes. However, the Laz themselves are increasingly keen to differentiate themselves from other inhabitants of these regions. Also, the non-Laz does not want to be called “Laz”, preferring to be called Karadenizli (“of the Black Sea region”).

The Kingdom of Colchis, which covered modern western Georgia and modern Turkish provinces of Trabzon and Rize, contributed significantly to the development of medieval Georgian statehood after its unification with the eastern Georgian Kingdom of Iberia, and the term Colchians has been used as the collective term for early Georgian-Kartvelian tribes such as Mingrelians, Lazs and Chans which populated the eastern coast of the Black Sea.

Many modern theories suggest that the ancestors of the Laz-Mingrelians constituted the dominant ethnic and cultural presence in the region in antiquity, and hence played a significant role in the ethnogenesis of the modern Georgians.

The geography of Colchis is mostly assigned to what is now the western part of Georgia and encompasses the present-day Georgian provinces of Samegrelo, Imereti, Guria, Adjara, Abkhazeti, Svaneti, Racha; the modern Turkey’s Rize, Trabzon and Artvin provinces (Lazistan, Tao-Klarjeti); and the modern Russia’s Sochi and Tuapse districts. The Colchians were probably established on the Black Sea coast by the Middle Bronze Age.

According to the scholar of the Caucasian studies Cyril Toumanoff: «Colchis appears as the first Caucasian State to have achieved the coalescence of the newcomer, Colchis can be justly regarded as not a proto-Georgian, but a Georgian (West Georgian) kingdom….It would seem natural to seek the beginnings of Georgian social history in Colchis, the earliest Georgian formation.»

Starting around 2000 BC, northwestern Colchis was inhabited by the Svan and Zan peoples of the Kartvelian tribes. Another important ethnic element of ancient Colchis were Greeks who between 1000 and 550 BC established many trading colonies in the coastal area, among them Naessus, Pitiys, Dioscurias, Guenos, Phasis (modern Poti), Apsaros, and Rhizos (modern Rize in Turkey).

The name of Colchis first appears in Aeschylus and Pindar. The earlier writers only speak about it under the name of Aea (Aia), the residence of the mythical king Aeëtes. According to the Greek mythology, Colchis was a fabulously wealthy land situated on the mysterious periphery of the heroic world.

The ancient Greeks knew of Colchis, and it featured in the Greek legend of Jason and the Argonauts, who travelled there in search of the Golden Fleece. In Greek mythology, Colchis was the home of Aeëtes and Medea and the destination of the Argonauts.

Colchis was also thought to be the possible homeland of the Amazons, or the North West Caucasian Circassians, and the land where the mythological Prometheus was punished by being chained to a mountain while an eagle ate at his liver for revealing to humanity the secret of fire.

Colchis was inhabited by a number of related but distinct tribes whose settlements lay along the shore of the Black Sea. Chief among those were the Machelones, Heniochi, Zydretae, Suani, Lazi, Apsilae, Mushki, Geloni, Sanigae, Chalybes, Tabal, Melanchlaeni, Mossynoeci, Macrones and Marres. These tribes differed so completely in language and appearance from the surrounding Indo-European nations that the ancients provided various wild theories to account for the phenomenon.

For example, Herodotus states that the Colchians, with the Egyptians and the Ethiopians, were the first to practice circumcision, a custom which he claims (without historical proof) that the Colchians inherited from remnants of the army of Pharaoh Sesostris. Herodotus thus erroneously regarded the Colchians as Egyptians.

Apollonius of Rhodes states that the Egyptians of Colchis preserved as heirlooms a number of wooden tablets, which show, with considerable accuracy, seas and highways.

Being in permanent wars with the neighbouring nations, the Colchians managed to absorb part of Diauehi in the 750s BC, but lost several provinces (including the “royal city” of Ildemusa) to the Sarduri II of Urartu following the wars of 750-748 and 744-742 BC.

Overrun by the Cimmerians and Scythians in the 730s-720s BC, the kingdom disintegrated and came under the Achaemenid Persian Empire towards the mid-6th century BC. The tribes living in the southern Colchis (Tibareni, Mossynoeci, Macrones, Moschi and Marres) were incorporated into the 19th Satrapy of Persia, while the northern tribes submitted “voluntarily” and had to send to the Persian court 100 girls and 100 boys every five years.

The influence exerted on Colchis by the vast Achaemenid Empire with its thriving commerce and wide economic and commercial ties with other regions accelerated the socio-economic development of the Colchian land.

Subsequently the Colchis people appear to have overthrown the Persian Authority, and to have formed an independent state. According to Ronald Suny: This western Georgian state was federated to Kartli-Iberia, and its kings ruled through skeptukhi (royal governors) who received a staff from the king.

In the eastern part of Georgia there was a struggle for the leadership among the various Georgian confederations during the 6th–4th centuries BC, which was finally won by the Kartlian tribes from the region of Mtskheta. According to the Georgian tradition, the Kingdom of Kartli (known as Iberia in the Greek-Roman literature) was founded around 300 BC by Parnavaz I, the first ruler of the Parnavazid dynasty.

Between 653 and 333 BC, both Colchis and Iberia survived successive invasions by the Median Empire, and later the Persian Empire. At the end of the 3rd century BC southern Iberia witnessed the invading armies of Alexander the Great, who established a vast Greco-Macedonian empire to the south of the Caucasus. Neither Iberia nor Colchis was incorporated into the empire of Alexander or any of the successor Hellenistic states of the Middle East. However, the culture of ancient Greece still had a considerable influence on the region, and Greek was widely spoken in the cities of Colchis. In Iberia Greek influence was less noticeable and Aramaic was widely spoken.

Between the early 2nd century BC and the late 2nd century AD both Colchis and Iberia, together with the neighboring countries, became an arena of long and devastating conflicts between major and local powers such as Rome, Armenia and the short-lived Kingdom of Pontus.

In 189 BC, the rapidly growing Kingdom of Armenia took over more than half of Iberia, conquering the southern and southeastern provinces of Gogarene, Taokhia and Genyokhia, as well as some other territories.

Between 120 and 63 BC, Armenia’s ally Mithridate VI Eupator of Pontus conquered all of Colchis and incorporated it into his kingdom, embracing almost all of Asia Minor as well as the eastern and northern Black Sea coastal areas.

This close association with Armenia brought upon the country an invasion (65 BC) by the Roman general Pompey, who was then at war with Mithradates VI of Pontus, and Armenia; but Rome did not establish her power permanently over Iberia. Nineteen years later, the Romans again marched (36 BC) on Iberia forcing King Pharnavaz II to join their campaign against Albania.

During this time Armenia and Pontus were actively expanding at the expense of Rome, taking over its Eastern Mediterranean possessions. However, the success of the anti-Roman alliance did not last long. As a result of the brilliant Roman campaigns of Pompey and Lucullus from the west, and the Parthian invasion from the south, Armenia lost a significant part of its conquests by 65 BC, devolving into a Roman-Parthian dependency. At the same time, the Kingdom of Pontus was completely destroyed by the Romans and all its territory including Colchis were incorporated into the Roman Empire as her provinces.

The former Kingdom of Colchis became the Roman province of Lazicum ruled by Roman legati. The following 600 years of Georgian history were marked by struggle between Rome and Persia (Iran) including Parthians and Sassanids who were fighting long wars against each other for the domination in the Middle East including Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Albania, and Iberia.

While the Georgian kingdom of Colchis was administered as a Roman province, Caucasian Iberia freely accepted the Roman Imperial protection. A stone inscription discovered at Mtskheta speaks of the 1st-century ruler Mihdrat I (AD 58–106) as “the friend of the Caesars” and the king “of the Roman-loving Iberians.” Emperor Vespasian fortified the ancient Mtskheta site of Arzami for the Iberian kings in 75 AD.

In the 2nd century AD, Iberia strengthened her position in the area, especially during the reign of King Pharsman II who achieved full independence from Rome and reconquered some of the previously lost territories from declining Armenia. In the early 3rd century, Rome had to give up Albania and most of Armenia to Sassanid Persia.

The former Kingdom of Colchis was re-organized by the Romans into the province of Lazicum ruled by Roman legati. During Byzantine times, the word Colchi gave way to the term Laz. The Roman period was marked by further Hellenization of the region in terms of language, economy and culture. For example, since the early 3rd century, Greco-Latin Philosophical Academy of Phasis (present-day Poti) was quite famous all over the Roman Empire.

The province of Lazicum was given a degree of autonomy that by the end of the century developed into full independence with the formation of a new Kingdom of Lazica-Egrisi on the territories of smaller principalities of the Zans, Svans, Apsyls, and Sanyghs. This new Western Georgian state survived more than 250 years until 562 when it was absorbed by the Byzantine Empire.

The Kingdom of Lazica or Kingdom of Egrisi was an ancient Georgian monarchy in western Georgia. The kingdom flourished between the 1st century BC and the 7th century AD. It covered part of the territory of the former kingdom Colchis and subjugated the territory of modern day Abkhazia. Throughout much of its existence, it was mainly a Byzantine strategic vassal kingdom occasionally coming under Sassanid Persian rule.

In the early 4th century, the Christian Eparchy or bishopric of Pitiunt (Bichvinta in Georgian) was established in this kingdom, as in another eastern Georgian kingdom of Iberia Christianity was declared as an official religion of the kingdom in 319 AD. In 325 among the participants of the First Council of Nicaea was the Bishop of Pitiunt, Stratophilus.

One of the chief tribes of ancient kingdom of Colchis, the Laz were initially early adopters of Christianity while living under the Byzantine Empire and the Kingdom of Georgia. The first Christian king of Lazica was Gubazes I; in the 5th century, Christianity was made the official religion of Lazica. Later, the nobility and clergy of Lazica switched from the Hellenic ecclesiastic tradition to the Georgian; and Georgian became the language of culture and education.

The Bichvinta Cathedral is one of oldest monuments of the Georgian Christian architecture constructed by the Georgian King Bagrat III of the Bagrationi Royal House in the late 10th century. It was under Bagrat III, that Lazica unified with the eastern Georgian lands of Iberia-Kartli to form a united Kingdom of Georgia.

In the 3rd century AD, the Lazi tribe came to dominate most of Colchis, establishing the kingdom of Lazica, locally known as Egrisi. Colchis was a scene of the protracted rivalry between the Eastern Roman/Byzantine and Sassanid empires, culminating in the Lazic War from 542 to 562.

Before adoption of Christianity, the cult of Mithras and Zoroastrianism were commonly practiced in Iberia from the 1st centuries AD. The cult of Mithras, distinguished by its syncretic character and thus complementary to local cults, especially the cult of the Sun, gradually came to merge with ancient Georgian beliefs.

The eastern Georgian Kingdom of Iberia became one of the first states in the world to convert to Christianity in 327 AD, when the King of Iberia Mirian III established it as the official state religion. However, the date varies based on numerous accounts and historical documents, which indicate Iberia adopting Christianity as a state religion in AD 317, 324, etc. According to The Georgian Chronicles, St. Nino of Cappadocia converted Georgia to Christianity in AD 330 during the time of Constantine the Great.

In the early 3rd century, newly established Roman Lazicum was given certain degree of autonomy which by the end of the century developed into full the independence and formation of a new Kingdom of Lazica (covering the modern day regions of Abkhazia, Mingrelia, Guria and Adjaria) on the basis of smaller principalities of Svans, Apsilae, Zans and Sanigs.

Kingdom of Lazica survived more than 250 years until in 562 AD it was absorbed by the Byzantine Empire. In the middle of the 4th century, Lazica adopted Christianity as her official religion. That event was preceded by the arrival of St. Simon the Canaanite (or Kananaios in Greek) who was preaching all over Lazica and met his death in Suaniri (Western Lazica). According to Moses of Chorene, the enemies of Christianity cut him in two halves with a saw.

The re-incorporation of Lazica with the Kingdom of Aphkhazeti into Byzantine Empire in 562 AD, as a result of a campaign waged by Byzantine Emperor Justinian, was followed by 150 years of relative stability that ceased in the early 7th century when the Arabs appeared in the area as a new regional power.

The ancient kingdom of Colchis and its successor Lazica (locally known as Egrisi) was located in the same region the Laz speakers are found in today, and its inhabitants probably spoke an ancestral version of the language. Colchis was the setting for the famous Greek legend of Jason and the Argonauts.

By the middle of the 4th century though, both Lazica (formerly the Kingdom of Colchis) and Iberia adopted Christianity as their official religion. This adoption of Christianity tied the kingdom to the Byzantine Empire, which exerted strong cultural influence over it.

During the 4th and most of the 5th centuries, Iberia (known also as the Kingdom of Kartli) was under Persian control. The Kingdom was abolished and the country was ruled by the governors appointed by the Shahs.

At the end of the 5th century though, Prince Vakhtang I Gorgasali orchestrated an anti-Persian uprising and restored Iberian statehood, proclaiming himself the King. After this, the armies of Vakhtang launched several campaigns against both Persia and the Byzantine Empire.

However, his struggle for the independence and unity of the Georgian state did not have lasting success. After Vakhtang’s death in 502, and the short reign of his son Dachi (502–514), Iberia was reincorporated into Persia as a province once again.

However this time the Iberian nobility were granted the privilege of electing the governors, who in Georgian were called erismtavari. By the late 7th century, the Byzantine-Persian rivalry for the Middle East had given way to Arab conquest of the region and subsequent invasions to ensure Arab hegemony in the Caucasus.

The first decades of the 9th century saw the rise of a new Georgian state in Tao-Klarjeti. Ashot Courapalate of the royal family of Bagrationi liberated from the Arabs the territories of former southern Iberia. These included the Principalities of Tao and Klarjeti, and the Earldoms of Shavsheti, Khikhata, Samtskhe, Trialeti, Javakheti and Ashotsi, which were formally a part of the Byzantine Empire, under the name of “Curopalatinate of Iberia”.

In practice, however, the region functioned as a fully independent country with its capital in Artanuji. The hereditary title of Curopalates was kept by the Bagrationi family, whose representatives ruled Tao-Klarjeti for almost a century.

Curopalate David Bagrationi expanded his domain by annexing the city of Theodossiopolis (Karin, Karnukalaki) and the Armenian province of Basiani, and by imposing a protectorate over the Armenian provinces of Kharqi, Apakhuni, Mantsikert, and Khlat, formerly controlled by the Kaysite Arab Emirs.

The first united Georgian monarchy was formed at the end of the 10th century when Curopalate David invaded the Earldom of Kartli-Iberia. Three years later, after the death of his uncle Theodosius the Blind, King of Egrisi-Abkhazia, Bagrat III inherited the Abkhazian throne. In 1001 Bagrat added Tao-Klarjeti (Curopalatinate of Iberia) to his domain as a result of David’s death. In 1008–1010, Bagrat annexed Kakheti and Ereti, thus becoming the first king of a united Georgia in both the east and west.

Most of the Laz people converted to Sunni Islam during Ottoman rule of Caucasus in the 16th century, and were ruled as part of the Lazistan sanjak, but there is also a very small number of Christian Laz in Georgia who were converted to Christianity from Islam.