Ancient
chroniclers believed that, similar to other old peoples, the history of the
Georgians derives from the divine source.
The period of the Proto-Iberian (Pre-Greek) culture – that of Amiran-Prometheus
- son of Iapetus – the Pre-Zeus deity can be considered conventionally as a
mythological variety of the biblical path of Noah-Japheth-Tarshish-Targamos.
The process of the becoming of the Kura-Araxes culture, extending over a great
part of the Caucasus and western Asia, is assumed to be the next proto-historic
period of the Kartvels.
I
advance the view that “the Colchian culture” descended from the people having
the common Kartvelian language and it covered the Black Sea area from Pitiunt (Bichvinta)
to Ordu, the valleys of the rivers Rioni, Qvirila, Chorokhi and the upper course
of the Mtkvari (up to Mtskheta), as well as Tskhinvali and Qoban areas.
Georgian chroniclers link the beginnings of the kingship with the history of
Azon, Parnavaz and Kuji. Exactly from this period the “Aea-Colchis, rich in
gold” well-known to the Greeks revived again as the State of Kartli, over a
smaller territory, however, with its centre at Mtskheta.
From the turn of our millennium it is easier to represent the history of the
Georgian/Kartvel written language and, generally, the Kartvels as specific
sections. The hypothetical historical chain of the Georgian nation from the
ancient period to the present day will assume the following form:
▪ Proto-Kartvelian (Iberian-Caucasian – Western Asian) period – the 5th – 3rd
millennia BC;
▪ Period of Aeetes – Colchian (common Kartvelian) culture – from the mid-2nd
millennium BC to the mid-1st millennium BC;
▪ Revival of all Georgia as Kartli of Azon, Kuji and Parnavaz – 2nd half of the
1st millennium BC;
▪ Transition period – turn of our era;
▪ From adoption of Christianity to the assassination of Gorgasali – 4th-5th cc.
AD;
▪ From the Arab rule to Georgian messianism – 7th-9th cc;
▪ David the Builder and Tamar – Georgia’s Golden Age;
▪ Period from Giorgi Lasha to Giorgi the Brilliant;
▪ Long period of Persian and Turkish domination – division of Georgia into small
provinces;
▪ Russian period – from King Giorgi XII to the assassination of President Zviad
Gamsakhurdia.
