ბრინჯაოს ხანის არქეოლოგიურ კულტურათა ელემენტების კვეთა კოლხეთის მთიანეთში (ზოგადი მიმოხილვა)
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Date
2023
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ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტის გამომცემლობა
Abstract
The location in the high mountains of Western Georgia, the relatively
harsh climatic conditions, and living in hard-to-reach places, seemed
to have led to isolation of the mountainous Svaneti from the outside
world. However, this area was actively connected with the neighbouring
regions in the Bronze Age, which is well proven by the discovery
of numerous metal objects. Proximity to the passes connecting
different regions led to the diversity of the Svaneti region in the Bronze
and Iron Ages.
Distant contacts can be observed between Svaneti and the neighbouring
regions since the 3rd millennium BC, it is evidenced by lop-eared
and wide-mouthed axes, which are known for the Maykop and
Kura-Araxes complexes. Svaneti is the first region after Zemo (Upper) Imereti where different
variants of the so-called Sachkhere type lop-eared and socket-eared
axes are abundantly recovered. Some contacts are observed with
the Shida Kartli region, which is reflected by the discovery of the so--
called Central Transcaucasian axes in the mountainous Colchis (Svaneti
and Racha-Lechkhumi). Perhaps, contacts in the past between Zemo
Imereti and Svaneti regions were made through the paths on the Racha
ridge.
Characteristic elements of the early complexes of Brili cemetery
and Digoria Proto-Koban culture can be found in the materials discovered
in Zemo Svaneti. Some scientists, namely, A. Yesen, V. Markovin, A.
Moshinsky, and A. Skakov. See the similarities between the materials
of these two regions, especially the bronze artifacts. According to this,
the Digoria culture and the sites of these two metallurgical regions are
distinguished. Links between the mountainous Colchis (Racha) and the
North Caucasus were made through the passes on the Central Caucasus
ridge.
Svaneti, as well as other parts of mountainous Colchis (Racha-Lechkhumi),
was included in the distribution area of pre-Colchian and ancient
Colchian cultures, which is evidenced by individual finds of metal
objects, as well as by Colchian Late Bronze Age hoards and numerous
materials from the Brili cemetery and some burial customs such as cremation.
The close contact between the highlands and lowlands of the Colchis
world is especially seen in the discovery of copper bars in the lowlands,
thus the existing metal casting workshops were supplied from
the mountains, including the mining sites Zaargash and Zemo Racha.
During the exchange of goods between the Colchian highlands
and lowlands, copper bars may have been an equivalent of the payment.
In addition to copper bars, other types of bronze artifacts could
have been used in this regard. From this point of view, the massive bronze rings included in the hoards of Kvishari, Tskhinvali, and Mekhchi
fortresses are noteworthy and doubtful to have had a practical
purpose. These objects, known as ring rods, are believed to be equivalent
to the payment. Bronze segments may have had the same function.
It is interesting to see what the mountainous people could receive
in exchange for rods from the lowland people, as this must have been
a common exchange between these two regions. Perhaps tin, which
should have been harder to supply the highlands than the lowlands.
Besides, the raw materials for the manufacture of stone beads-jewellery
could have also been included in the process of exchange with the mountainous
people because the workshops of these jewellery are known
in the territory of central Colchis dated to the 8th-7th centuries BC.
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კულტურის ისტორიისა და თეორიის საკითხები XXXVII, თსუ ისრაელის ცენტრი, თბილისი, 2023, გვ.: 16-36/ ISSUES OF HISTORY AND THEORY OF CULTURE XXXVII, TSU Center for Israel Studies, Tbilisi, 2023, pp.: 16-36