Colchis
Colchis ეგრისი Egrisi | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
13th century BC[1][2]–131 AD[3] | |||||||||
Capital | Aea | ||||||||
Common languages | Zan languages,[4] Sardur II of Urartu | 744/743 BC[11][12] | |||||||
720 BC[13] | |||||||||
• Conquest of Mithridates VI | After 70 BC[14] | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 131 AD[3] | ||||||||
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Today part of |
Part of a series on the |
History of Georgia |
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In
Its population, the Colchians, are generally thought to have been an early
It has been described in modern scholarship as "the earliest Georgian formation", which, along with the Kingdom of Iberia, would later contribute significantly to the development of the Kingdom of Georgia and the Georgian nation.[20][21][22][23]
Colchis is known in Greek mythology as the destination of the Argonauts, as well as the home to Medea and the Golden Fleece.[24] It was also described as a land rich with gold, iron, timber and honey that would export its resources mostly to ancient Hellenic city-states.[25] Colchis likely had a diverse population. According to Greek and Roman sources, between 70 and 300 languages were spoken in Dioscourias (modern Sukhumi) alone.[6]
According to Rayfield, the first mention of Colchis is during the reign of the
Geography and toponyms
Colchis, Kolkha, Qulḫa, or Kilkhi,
According to Donald Rayfield, the ethnic makeup of Colchis is "obscure" and Kartvelian names "are conspicuously absent from the few anthronyms found in Colchian burials."[26] Instead, Greek, Anatolian, Iranian, and possibly Abkhaz names are present.[26]
The name Colchis is thought to have derived from the Urartian Qulḫa.[36] In the mid-eighth century BC, Sarduri II, the King of Urartu, inscribed his victory over Qulḫa on a stele; however, the exact location of Qulḫa is disputed. Some scholars argue the name Qulḫa (Colchís) originally referred to a land to the west of Georgia.[37][38] Others argue Qulḫa may have been located in the south, near modern Göle, Turkey.[39]
According to Levan Gordeziani, while the Greek Colchis etymologically descends from Urartian Qulḫa, the Greeks may have applied the name to a different region (and/or cultures) than the preceding Urartians had. Further confusion rests in possible differences in the Greeks' own usage of the name Colchis in political and mythological contexts (i.e. the relationship between "Aia-Colchis" and "the land of Colchis").[40]
According to the scholar of 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.[20]
According to most
The Greek name Kolchís (Κολχίς) is first used to describe a geographic area in the writings of
Physical-geographic characteristics
In physical geography, Colchis is usually defined as the area east of the Black Sea coast, restricted from the north by the southwestern slopes of the Greater Caucasus, 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. The central part of the region is Colchis Plain, stretching between Sukhumi and Kobuleti; most of that lies on the elevation below 20 m (66 ft) above sea level. Marginal parts of the region are mountains of the Great and the Lesser Caucasus and Likhi Range.[citation needed]
Its territory mostly corresponds to what is now the western part of
The climate is mild humid; near
Colchis has a high proportion of
Economy, agriculture and natural resources
Millet was the main staple crop in Colchis. Wheat grew in certain regions and was also imported by sea. Similarly, local wines were produced and some wines were brought from overseas. The Colchian plain provided ample grazing land for cattle and horses, with the name of Phasis associated with fine horses. The wetlands were a home for waterfowl, while Colchian pheasants were exported to Rome and became a symbol of excess condemned by Roman moralists. The Colchian hinterland lacked salt and demand was satisfied partially by local production on the coast and partially by imports from the northern coast of the Black Sea.[45]
Colchis provided slaves as a tribute to the Achaemenid Empire and Colchian slaves are also attested in Ancient Greece.[46]
History
Prehistory and earliest references
The eastern Black Sea region in antiquity was home to the well-developed Bronze Age culture known as the Colchian culture, related to the neighbouring Koban culture, that emerged toward 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. The Colchian Late Bronze Age (fifteenth to eighth century BC) saw the development of significant skill in the smelting and casting of metals.[47][48] Sophisticated farming implements were made, and fertile, well-watered lowlands and a mild climate promoted the growth of progressive agricultural techniques.[citation needed]
The earliest attestations of the name of Colchis can be found in the 8th century Greek poet Eumelus of Corinth as "Κολχίδα"[49] and earlier, in Urartian records as "Qulḫa" mentioned by the Urartian kings, who conquered it in 744 or 743 BC before the Urartians and their territories were themselves conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire.[11]
According to Svante Cornell, "What could be conceived as the proto Georgian statehood emerged mainly in the Western parts of today's Georgia, with the kingdom of Colchis (Kolkheti) in the sixth century BCE."[23]
Colchis was inhabited by a number of tribes whose settlements lay along the shore of the Black Sea. Chief among those were the
. The ancients assigned various origins to the tribes that inhabited Colchis.Herodotus regarded the Colchians as "dark-skinned (μελάγχροες [51]) and woolly-haired", an Egyptian race.[52] Herodotus states that the Colchians, with the Ancient Egyptians and the Ethiopians, were the first to practice circumcision, a custom which he claims that the Colchians inherited from remnants of the army of Pharaoh Sesostris (Senusret III). Herodotus writes:
For it is plain to see that the Colchians are Egyptians; and what I say, I myself noted before I heard it from others. When it occurred to me, I inquired of both peoples; and the Colchians remembered the Egyptians better than the Egyptians remembered the Colchians; the Egyptians said that they considered the Colchians part of Sesostris' army. I myself guessed it, partly because they are dark-skinned and woolly-haired; though that indeed counts for nothing, since other peoples are, too; but my better proof was that the Colchians and Egyptians and Ethiopians are the only nations that have from the first practised circumcision.
These claims have been widely rejected by modern historians. It is in doubt if Herodotus had ever been to Colchis or Egypt, and no Egyptian army ever set foot in the Caucasus, a region shielded by states to the south of the Caucasus too powerful for any Egyptian army to pass through, such as Urartu, Hittia, Assyria and Mitanni.[53]
According to Pliny the Elder:
The Colchians were governed by their own kings in the earliest ages, that Sesostris king of Egypt was overcome in Scythia,[54] and put to fight, by the king of Colchis, which if true, that the Colchians not only had kings in those times, but were a very powerful people.[55][56]
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.[57][58]
Pausanias, a 1st-century BCE Greek geographer, citing the poet Eumelos, assigned Aeëtes, the mythological first king of Colchis, a Greek origin.[59]
Persian rule
The tribes living in the southern Colchis (
Subsequently, the Colchis people appear to have overthrown the
Gocha R. Tsetskhladze explains that although Colchis and neighboring Iberia were once viewed as not having been under Achaemenid rule, "ever more evidence is emerging to show that they were, forming a lesser part of the Armenian satrapy".[64]
-
Second century BC Greek bronze torso from Colchis,Cinquantenaire Museum
-
Colchian pendants, riders and horses on wheeled platforms, Georgian National Museum
Under Pontus
Mithridates VI quelled an uprising in the region in 83 BC and gave Colchis to his son
Under Roman rule
Despite the fact that all major fortresses along the sea coast were occupied by the Romans, their rule was relatively loose. In 69, the people of Pontus and Colchis under Anicetus staged a major uprising against the Roman Empire, which ended unsuccessfully. The lowlands and coastal area were frequently raided by fierce mountain tribes, with the Svaneti and Heniochi being the most powerful of them. Paying a nominal homage to Rome, they created their own kingdoms and enjoyed significant independence.
Under Hadrian, the Romans established relations with Colchian tribes. Hadrian sent his advisor, Arrian, to tour Colchis and Iberia. Arrian depicted a turbulent fluctuation of tribal powers and boundaries, with various hostile and anarchic tribes in the area. The Laz controlled most of coastal Colchis, while other tribes such as the Sanigs and Abasgoi escaped Roman jurisdiction. Other tribes, like the Apsilae, were becoming powerful and their king with the Romanised name Julianus was recognized by Trajan.[67] Arrian listed the following peoples in his Periplus of the Euxine Sea written in 130-131 (from south to north): Sanni, Machelones, Heniochi, Zudreitae, Lazi, Apsilae, Abasgoi, Sanigs and Zilchi.[68]
According to traditional accounts
Numismatics
Colchian coins, the oldest of which were dated to the middle of the 6th century BC, served as the primary source of evidence for the Colchian state.[70] A reassessment of the coins, however, has revealed that these early "Colchian" coins actually represent the production of a Achaemenid satrapy.[70]
Rulers
Little is known of the rulers of Colchis.
Ruler | Reign | Notes |
---|---|---|
1. Akes (Basileus Aku) | end of the 4th c. BC | his name is found on a coin issued by him. |
2. Kuji | 325–280 BC | |
3. Saulaces | 2nd c. BC | |
4. Mithridates | fl. 80 BC | under the authority of Pontus. |
5. Machares | fl. 65 BC | under the authority of Pontus. |
6. Aristarchus | 63–47 BC | appointed by Pompey |
In mythology
In Classical Greek mythology, Colchis was the home of Aeëtes, Medea, the Golden Fleece, and the fire-breathing Colchis bulls[71][72] and was the destination of the Argonauts.[73][74]
Colchis also is thought to be a possible homeland of the Amazons.[75][76][77][78][79][80] Amazons also were said to be of Scythian origin from Colchis.[81]
According to the Greek mythology, Colchis was a fabulously wealthy land situated on the mysterious periphery of the heroic world. Here in the sacred grove of the war god Ares, King Aeëtes hung the Golden Fleece until it was seized by Jason and the Argonauts. Colchis was also 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.
Apollonius of Rhodes named Aea as the main city (Argonautica, passim). The main mythical characters from Colchis are:
- Absyrtus, son of Aeëtes
- Chalciope, daughter of King Aeëtes
- Circe, sister of King Aeëtes
- Idyia, Queen of Colchis, mother of Medea, Chalciope, and Absyrtus
- Medea, daughter of King Aeëtes
- Pasiphaë, sister of Aeëtes
See also
Explanatory notes
- Ancient Greek pronunciation: [kolkʰís]
Citations
- ISBN 9781443821766.
The tribes in Colchis consolidated during the 13th century BCE. This was at this period mentioned in Greek mythology as Colchis as the destination of the Argonauts and the home of Medea in her domain of sorcery. She was known to Urartians as Qulha (Kolkha or Kilkhi).
- ISBN 9789941906367.
- ^ David Braund. Georgia in Antiquity: A History of Colchis and Transcaucasian Iberia, 550 BC – AD 562. pp. 5,180.
- ^ a b Ivane Javakhishvili. A History of the Georgian Nation, Book I. pp. 44–47.
Colchis was mainly inhabited by Megrelian-Laz speaking tribes. Then Colchians conquered the land of the Svans.
- ^ Tsetskhladze 1993, p. 235, 240.
- ^ a b Rayfield 2012, p. 14.
- ISBN 9781443821766.
they [Colchis] absorbed part of Diaokh (c.750 BCE)
- ISBN 2-7384-6186-7.
- ^ Asatiani, Nodar; Janelidże, Otar (2009). History of Georgia. Tbilisi: Publishing House Petite. p. 16.
- ^ "Over the Mountains and Far Away: Studies in Near Eastern History and Archaeology Presented to Mirjo Salvini on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday". Archaeopress, 2019. p.141
- ^ a b Stanley Arthur Cook, Martin Percival Charlesworth, John Bagnell Bury, John Bernard Bury. The Cambridge Ancient History. Cambridge University Press. p. 350.
- ^ Rayfield 2012, p. 17.
- ^ Ronald Grigor Suny, The Making of the Georgian Nation, 2nd ed., p 7
- ^ Savalli-Lestrade, I. (1998) *Les philoi royaux dans l'Asie hellenistique", École pratique des hautes études: Sciences historiques et philologiques. Droz. 9782600002905 p.182
- ^ Avery, Catherine B., ed. (1962). New Century Classical Handbook. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. p. 314-315.
- ^ David Marshall Lang. The Georgians. p. 59. Frederick A. Praeger. New York (1966).
- ^ Antiquity 1994. p. 359. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia: Значение слова "Колхи" в Большой Советской Энциклопедии
- ^ a b The Cambridge Ancient History, John Anthony Crook, Elizabeth Rawson, p. 255
- ^ David Marshall Lang. The Georgians. p. 75, 76-88. Frederick A. Praeger. New York (1966).
- ^ a b Cyril Toumanoff, Studies in Christian Caucasian History, pp. 69, 84
- ^ a b Christopher Haas, Early Christianity in Contexts, An Exploration Across Cultures and Continents, Chapter Three: Caucasus, Baker Publishing Group (November 18, 2014),
- ^ a b Charles Burney, David Marshall Lang. The Peoples of the Hills: Ancient Ararat and Caucasus. p. 194-94. Phoenix Press. (2001)
- ^ a b Svante E. Cornell. Autonomy and Conflict, Ethnoteritoriality and Separatism in the South Caucasus-Cases of Georgia. p. 130. Uppsala University. Stockholm (2002)
- ^ W. E. D. Allen, A history of the Georgian people (1932), p. 123
- ^ Nigel Wilson, Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, p. 149
- ^ a b c Rayfield 2012, p. 15.
- ISBN 9781443821766 – via Google Books.
- ^ Ronald G. Suny - The Making of the Georgian Nation. Indiana University Press. Page 8
- ISBN 9781443821766 – via Google Books.
- ^ The Pre-history of the Armenian People, Igor Mikhailovich Diakonov, p. 75
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 1, p. 1040
- ^ Archaeology at the North-east Anatolian Frontier, Claudia Sagona, p. 35
- ^ Robert D. Morritt, Stones that Speak, p. 143
- ISBN 0029224012
- ^ Lang, David Marshall (1966). The Georgians. New York: Frederick A. Praeger. pp. 59, 75, 76–88.
- ^ O, Lordkipanidze. (1991). Archeology in Georgia, Weinheim, 110.
- ^ M. Salvini, Geschichte und Kultur der Urartäer (Darmstadt, 1995) 70f.
- ^ Bremmer, J. N. (2007). "The Myth of the Golden Fleece". Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions, 6, 9–38.
- ^ Kemalettin Köroğlu. "The Northward Expansion of the Kingdom of Urartu and the Historical Geography of the Land of Qulha." Aralık 2000, Cilt LXIV - Sayı 241. [1]
- ^ Levan Gordzeiani. "Some Remarks on Qulḫa." Over the Mountains and Far Away: Studies in Near Eastern history and archaeology presented to Mirjo Salvini on the occasion of his 80th birthday. eds. Pavel S. Avetisyan, Roberto Dan and Yervand H. Grekyan. Archaeopress Archaeology. 2019. p. 242. [2]
- ^ Herodotus. "Herodotus, The Histories, book 1, chapter 2, section 2". perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2020-04-07.
They sailed in a long ship to Aea, a city of the Colchians, and to the river Phasis...
- OCLC 249603642.
Kolchian Aia lies at the furthest limits of sea and earth,
- ^ "Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, Α α, αἶα, αἶα". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2020-04-07.
- ISSN 0024-4066.
- ISBN 0198144733.
- ISBN 0198144733.
- ISSN 0305-4403.
- ISSN 0278-4165.
- ^ Lordkipanidzé Otar, Mikéladzé Teimouraz. La Colchide aux VIIe-Ve siècles. Sources écrites antiques et archéologie. In: Le Pont-Euxin vu par les Grecs : sources écrites et archéologie. Symposium de Vani (Colchide), septembre-octobre 1987. Besançon : Université de Franche-Comté, 1990. pp. 167-187. (Annales littéraires de l'Université de Besançon, 427); https://www.persee.fr/doc/ista_0000-0000_1990_act_427_1_1252
- ethnos. Therefore, it is natural that several tribes or ethnoses descending from them have the names derived from a single stem. The Colchian Aphaz, Apsil, Apšil and north Caucasian Apsua, Abazaha, Abaza, existing in the 1st millennium, were the names denoting different tribes of a common origin. Some of these tribes (Apsils, Apshils) disappeared, others mingled with kindred tribes, and still others have survived to the present day." (Putkaradze, T. The Kartvelians, 2005, translated by Irene Kutsia)
- ^ "Liddell, Scott, Jones Ancient Greek Lexicon".
- ^ "Herodotus, the Histories, Book 2, chapter 104".
- ^ Fehling 1994, p. 13; Marincola 2001, p. 34.
- ^ The Shrines and Sepulchres of the Old and New World: Records of Pilgrimages in Many Lands, and Researches Connected with the History of Places Remarkable for Memorials of the Dea, Or Monuments of a Sacred Character; Including Notices of the Funeral Customs of the Principal Nations, Ancient and Modern, Volume 1, Richard Robert Madden, Newby, 1851, p. 293
- ^ An Universal History, From the Earliest Account of Time, Volume 10, George Sale, George Psalmanazar, Archibald Bower, George Shelvocke, John Campbell, John Swinton, p. 136 B.II.
- ^ Plin, I, xxxiii, c. 3.
- ^ Miniature Empires: A Historical Dictionary of the Newly Independent States, James Minahan, p. 116
- ^ Cyril Toumanoff, Studies in Christian Caucasian History, p 80
- ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D2)
- ^ Rayfield 2012, p. 18-19.
- ^ Rayfield 2012, p. 19.
- ^ The Making of the Georgian Nation, 2nd Ed., Ronald Grigor Suny, p 13
- ISBN 0198144733.
- ^ Tsetskhladze 2021, p. 665.
- ^ Pompey, Nic Fields p. 29
- ^ Rayfield 2012, p. 28.
- ^ a b Rayfield 2012, p. 33.
- ^ Arrian; Falconer, Thomas (1805). Arrian's Voyage Round the Euxine Sea: Translated and Accompanied with a Geographical Dissertation and Maps: to which are Added Three Discourses, I. On the Trade to the East Indies by Means of the Euxine Sea, II. On the Distance which the Ships of Antiquity Usually Sailed in Twenty-four Hours, III. On the Measure of the Olympic Stadium. J. Cooke. p. 9.
- ISBN 978-0-8160-7109-8.
- ^ a b Tsetskhladze 2022, p. 534.
- ^ The Origin of Pagan Idolatry, George Stanley Faber p. 409
- ^ The Facts on File Companion to Classical Drama, John E. Thorburn "Colchian Bulls" p. 145
- ^ The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the Fall of the Persian Empire, Trevor Bryce p. 171
- ^ World Mythology: An Anthology of Great Myths and Epics, Donna Rosenberg p. 218
- ^ Celebrate the Divine Feminine: Reclaim Your Power with Ancient Goddess Wisdom, Joy Reichard p. 169
- ^ John Canzanella, Innocence and Anarchy p. 58
- ^ Margaret Meserve, Empires of Islam in Renaissance Historical Thought, p. 250
- ^ Diane P. Thompson, The Trojan War: Literature and Legends from the Bronze Age to the Present p. 193
- ^ Andrew Brown, A New Companion to Greek Tragedy p. 66
- ^ Mark Amaru Pinkham, The Return of the Serpents of Wisdom "The Amazons, The Female Serpents"
- ^ William G. Thalmann, Apollonius of Rhodes and the Spaces of Hellenism "Apollonius of Rhodes", p. 130
- ISBN 9781136314841.
- ISBN 9789042913189.
Known in Old Georgian as Egrisi, this realm gained legendary repute with the Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts whose adventure brought them to "Colchis" (i.e., Egrisi) in pursuit of the Golden Fleece.
General and cited sources
- Braund, David (1994). Georgia in Antiquity: A History of Colchis and Transcaucasian Iberia 550 BC–AD 562. Clarendon Press, Oxford. ISBN 0-19-814473-3.
- Fehling, Detlev (1994). "The art of Herodotus and the margins of the world". In von Martels, Z.R.W.M. (ed.). Travel Fact and Travel Fiction: Studies on fiction, literary tradition, scholarly discovery, and observation in travel writing. Brill's Studies in Intellectual History Volume 55. Leiden, NL: ISBN 978-90-04-10112-8.
- ISBN 3-515-07271-3.
- Marincola, John (2001). Greek Historians. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-922501-9.
- Melamid, Alexander (January 1993). "Colchis Today". The Geographical Review. 83 (1): 79–83. JSTOR 215382.
- Mitchell, John Malcolm (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). pp. 662–663. .
- Rayfield, Donald (2012). Edge of Empires : A History of Georgia. Reaktion Books.
- Thordarson, Fridrik (1993). "COLCHIS". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. VI, Fasc. 1. pp. 41–42.
- Tsetskhladze, Gocha R. "Pichvnari and Its Environs, 6th c BC–4th c A". Annales Littéraires de l'Université de Franche-Comté, 659, Editeurs: M. Clavel-Lévêque, E. Geny, P. Lévêque. Paris: Presses Universitaires Franc-Comtoises, 1999. ISBN 2-913322-42-5.
- Tsetskhladze, Gocha R. (2021). "The Northern Black Sea". In Jacobs, Bruno; Rollinger, Robert (eds.). A companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire. ISBN 978-1119174288.
- Tsetskhladze, Gocha R. (1993). "On the numismatics of Colchis: the classical archaeologist's perspective". Dialogues d'histoire ancienne Année. 19–1: 233–256 (235). .
A small percentage of the Colchian Type В hemidrachms are complete with Greek letters. [page 240] The Greek language was widespread in Colchis and decrees were even issued in that language.
- Tsetskhladze, Gocha R. (2022). "Classical Archeology of the Pontus in the Archaic Period: Some Current Problems and Prospective Solutions". In Colombi, Camilla; Parisi, Valeria; Dally, Ortwin; Guggisberg, Martin; Piras, Giorgio (eds.). Comparing Greek Colonies: Mobility and Settlement Consolidation from. Walter de Gruyter.
- Akaki Urushadze. The Country of the Enchantress Media, Tbilisi, 1984 (in Russian and English).
External links
- "Colchis" in the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD)
- Colchian coins
- Strabo on Colchis
- Herodotus on Colchis
- Pliny on Colchis
- Golden graves, archeological evidences Archived 2017-10-06 at the Wayback Machine
- Colchis (in German)
- Colchis at the Piano (amarcord.be) (in Dutch)