Abstract:
The report discusses the work “Information about Georgia and
the Caucasus” by the Austrian author Amand Freicherr von Schweiger
Lerchenfend (1846-1910), which is a partial translation of the same
author’s complete work “Between the Danube and the Caucasus:
Land and Sea Voyages in the Black Sea Region” (1887, Vienna); Translated
and published by the Centre for the Studies of Ethnicity and
Multiculturalism (2018). These data are an important historiographical
source in terms of geographical description and historical-ethnographic,
as well as relations between the ethnic groups of the Black
Sea region and adjacent territories. Three chapters translated and
published from the whole book: “Caucasus”, “Transcaucasia” and
the „Armenian-Pontic region“ describe the peculiarities of separate
parts of Georgia, ethnographic groups and geographical units. The
author pays special attention to individual cities and settlements
and provides detailed information about the inhabitants of these
cities.
Amand von Lerchenfend describes with special accuracy the
geographical features of the Caucasus Mountains, describes the access
to the Devdorak Glacier and its dangers, the existence and culture
of the peoples living in the mountains. The author compares the
Caucasus Mountains with the condition of the peoples living in the
Alps and compares the condition of the peoples living in the Caucasus
Mountains. Lerchenfend provides a linguistic classification of
Caucasian languages based on Friedrich Müller’s classifi cation and
distinguishes between endogenous and exogenous languages. He
talks in detail about the Mountain of the Cross and the so-called On the strategic importance of this mountain in the Caucasus Railway
project (this project should be the subject of a separate study).
The report analyzes the importance of Amand von Lerchenfend’s
historiographical source in the study of the Caucasus and the development
of Caucasology. The paper is also comparable to other works
of this type and the similarities and differences between them are
highlighted.
