TransCaucasus

Happily married

2009-07-07T14:54:00.003+04:00

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A cheesy portrait of the happy couple, with Rezo Orbetishvili - better known as "the Bats Minister of Culture" - present. He came all the way from Alvani to Mleta (on the road to Qazbegi) for our wedding, accompanied by 4 Tush singers and traditional Tush wedding gifts (sweets, cakes shaped like rams, a cross with apples stuck on it, etc.).

Zezvaoba Horse Race 2009

2009-05-12T16:17:00.010+04:00

dalaoba

This Sunday 31 May 2009 near the villages of Kvemo- ("Lower") and Zemo- ("Upper") Alvani, the Tush will commemorate the death of their erstwhile leader Zezva Gaprindauli by organizing a doghi or funerary horse race centred upon his grave a few kilometres east of Kvemo Alvani.

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Zezva Gaprindauli led the Tush in battle against the Persians at the battle of Bakhtrioni in 1659. Following the (shortlived) Georgian victory, the princes of Kakheti and of the Aragvi and Ksani Gorges - to whose aid Zezva and his men had come - granted the Tush land in the Alazani Valley for wintering their flocks. Zezva was told that all the land his horse could encircle at a gallop would belong to the Tush in perpetuity. This land "belongs" to the Tush to this day, and is centred upon the villages of Kvemo- and Zemo- Alvani.
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The following photographs of last year's (2008) Zezvaoba horse race in Alvani were taken by Giorgi Mamardashvili from the State Museum of Georgia. The winner was a young Kist boy from the Pankisi, who was held aloft by his friends to cries of "Allah is great!" following his victory; I imagine the (Christian) Tush were not amused...
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The 2007 edition of Zezvaoba was a rather muted affair compared to last year's celebrations: The funerary race seems to have turned into the "Zezvaoba & Carpet Festival", and is now sponsored by USAID and Geocell. Last year's event featured an archery contest and stalls selling food and local artistry (carpets, felt, and the ubiquitous knitted socks).
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As far as the author is concerned, the highlight of the entire day is not the exciting horse race itself, but the moving ceremony called "dalaoba", where a group of riders sing a lament called "dalai" in memory of the deceased Zezva Gaprindauli.

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Last year's winner - A young Kist from Duisi
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A pretty serious-looking Chechen (or Kist) rider
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The Kist riders' "coach"
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A breathtaking display of local feltwork
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Zezvaoba 2008, proudly brought to you by Geocell...
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An archery contest - The prizes include knitted socks and bundles of raw sheep's wool!
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"God is great!"
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For more information on Zezva Gaprindauli and Zezvaoba, please see the following pages:
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The Tale of Zesva, as written by A. Goulbat
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The tradition of Zezwaoba
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Zezwaoba 2007
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More on doghi (horse races)
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Ethnographic Map of Tusheti

2009-05-12T16:13:00.003+04:00

tushetis istoriul-etnograpiuli dzeglebis kartograpireba
[historical-ethnographical map of Tusheti]
Courtesy of Giorgi Mamardashvili from the State Museum of Georgia. The definition is poor, but familiarity with the region should enable one to glean some information from the map.
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Ethnographic Map of Qvara-Tianeti

2009-05-12T16:09:00.002+04:00

qvara-tianetis salotsavebi
[map of holy places in Qvara-Tianeti]
Courtesy of Giorgi Mamardashvili from the State Museum of Georgia. The definition is poor, but familiarity with the region should enable one to glean some information from the map.
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Ethnographic Map of Pirikita-Khevsureti

2009-05-12T16:07:00.002+04:00

pirikita khevsuretis djvar-khatebis ruka
[a map of shrines and holy places in pirikita khevsureti]
Courtesy of Giorgi Mamardashvili from the State Museum of Georgia. The definition is poor, but familiarity with the region should enable one to glean some information from the map.
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Ethnographic Map of Piraketa-Khevsureti

2009-05-12T16:01:00.005+04:00

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piraketa khevsuretis djvar-khatebis ruka
[a map of shrines and holy places in piraketa khevsureti]
Courtesy of Giorgi Mamardashvili from the State Museum of Georgia. The definition is poor, but familiarity with the region should enable one to glean some information from the map.
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Through Foreign Eyes - The Bats/Tsova and Tush in Ethnographical Literature

2009-05-08T17:15:00.004+04:00

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--- I ---
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ALLEN, W.E.D. (Ed.), Russian Embassies to the Georgian Kings – 1589-1605, The Hakluyt Society, Second Series No. CXXXVIII, Cambridge University Press 1970 (pp. 288-289).

COMMENTARY 15

Metsk, Batsk (ref. Chap. 2, p. 111, n. 1)

'Dont la position est absolument inconnue' Brosset (EC/BHP/II, Nos. 14-15, col. 236). Some of the topographical indications of this passage are obscure but it would seem that the Georgians were proposing a route up the valley of the Argun, leading by tracks over the main chain of [the] Caucasus [mountains] into the upper valleys of the Aragvi and the Alazani. This route would cross the territory of the Akko Chechens (Shikh murza's Okok) who were friendly to the Russians and had a sloboda at Terek-town (see Introduction, Section 5 and Commentary 14). The villages of Upper and Lower Kii (Akki) lie on an affluent of the Tchanti (White) Argun, the westerly feeder of the Argun (Baddeley, RFC, Vol. II, index under 'Kii' and Map V, and for description of Argun route as far as the Tchanti Argun, ibid., Vol. I, pp. 90 ff.). West of the Tchanti Argun a track crosses the Basti-lam (lam = mountain, ridge, in Ingush), the boundary between Chechnya and Georgia (ibid., Vol. I, p. 114) to Shatil (1,524 m.) west of the great peaks of Tebulos-mta (4,494 m.); then by the Anatori Pass to Khamkheti and paths leading to the upper valleys of the Aragvi and the Alazani. From Shatil, Baddeley states, a ride to Tiflis 'in summer or early autumn' would always be feasible. Compare Radde's 'Marschroute', 1876, in Die Chews'uren und ihr Land, as far as Djarego on the Tchanti Argun. West of this river Meesti ridge or plateau is marked on Güldenstädt's map; it seems to correspond to Miskin-doukh of Baddeley's Map V. Bronevski (Vol. II, p. 166) refers to an Ingush commune of Meesti, and also to the Aka and Betsi communes of the upper Kombulei. These indications explain the Metsk mountain range of Zvenigorodski. Amaley is the river Kombulei (Reineggs/W., Vol. I, p. 311; Bronevski, Vol. II, pp. 91, 152, 160), whose upper valley runs parallel with the Sunzha, the Assa and the Argun, and finally enters the Terek a few miles above Tartarup. Burnash remains obscure.
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Reineggs/W. (Vol. II, p. 39), described the Basti as a sub-tribe of the Kists, then settled on the left bank of the middle Sunzha. They were neighbours of the Alti (cf. Baddeley, RFC, Vol. I, p. 79, for the commune of Aldee, famous as the base of Sheikh Mansur in 1785). These Basti may have been a fragment of an older Batsi agglomeration along the Sunzha. The Batsi (Georgian plur. Batsebi) were held to be Kists (Baddeley, RFC, Vol I, p. 90) who are related to the Chechens (Reineggs/W., Vol. I, p. 41). (Bronevski, Vol. II, p. 158, finds that the Kist language has some resemblance to Tush, and he believes therefore that the (Georgian) Tushes must be of Kist origin; it would seem here that he is in fact referring to the Batsi whose dialect has been much influenced by Georgian: see Desheriev.) In 1575 the communes of the Batsi in the tchanti-Argun district sought the protection of King Levan of Kakheti against the Avar nutsal; they were allowed to pasture their flocks in the highlands of upper Kakheti, south of the main ridge of [the] Caucasus [mountains] and south-east of the great peak of Tebulos-mta and the Kadowanis Pass (3,048 m.), where they mixed with the Tushes. During the last century they moved as far south as Akhmeti and Alvan on the Alazani (cf. Desheriev, Batsbiyski yazyk, and Radde, Chews'uren, pp. 330 ff., and map). For the suggestion that the Batsebi represent a surviving fragment of the classical Bessoi, see Karst, OM, p. 504; also Allen, 'Ex Ponto, I and II' in BK, No. 30/31 (1958), p. 51.
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--- II ---
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MOSER, Louis, The Caucasus and its People, with a Brief History of their Wars, and a Sketch of the Achievements of the Renowned Chief Schamyl, London 1856 (pp. 67-69).
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6. The Medzeghee or Kists, are often called Tchetchenzes, from the name of their most influential tribe. They possess the virtues and qualities peculiar to the Circassian races, and especially a most enthusiastic love of freedom and independence, submitting with the utmost reluctance to a foreign yoke, and watching with keen vigilance every opportunity of throwing it off.
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Their villages consist of flat-roofed stone houses, protected by walls and towers, capable of resisting an energetic attack. Some of these tribes possess an abundance of cattle and corn, but they are nevertheless very frugal in their mode of living.
They usually confine themselves to the district bordered on the west by the Terek (in the part where it flows northward), on the east by the Aksai and Engure, and bounded on the north by the Lesser Kabarda and Sundcha, and to the south by the Snowy Mountains.
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The most influential tribes among them are:---
1. The Ingushes, or Galgai, who reside on the Kumbolei, and in the plains between the latter and the banks of the Assai.
2. The Kists, north-west of the Ingushes, and extending to the Argun.
3. The Karabulaks, from the Zarthan to the Argun; and lastly,
4. The Tchetchenzes, who are found along the banks of the Argun, the Aksai, and the Sundcha. Several branches of this tribe inhabit the Snowy Mountain ridges, and of these the principal are:---
a. The Tchavi, from the Aragvi to the springs of the Yori.
b. The Tuschi, found to the east of the latter, on the Alazani.
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--- III ---
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ABERCROMBY, John, A Trip through the Eastern Caucasus, with a Chapter on the Languages of the Country, London 1889.
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For the first time in the Caucasus I saw a rainbow, which Mejid knew as "Peighamber's girdle," or the girdle of the Prophet. The Tush, who are closely connected in language with the Chechents, call it "the girdle of the sky"; the latter people "the bow of the sky." (p. 127)
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Half an hour's ride, however, along the right bank of the stream brought us opposite the village of Shatil, 4677 feet above the sea, and inhabited by a different race from the Chechents. Tatar called them Tush, but strictly speaking they were Khevsurs, an offshoot of the Georgians. Some of the Tush are, linguistically at least, Chechents, but the word seems often applied to the Georgian-speaking highlanders; for I could never get Mejid, who said he had often seen them at Nukha, to allow they were anything but Georgians. The Chechents-speaking Tush call themselves Batsav, and live south-east of the Khevsurs. (p. 172)
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--- IV ---
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BADDELEY, The Conquest of the Caucasus, London 1908
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The men of the Lioublin regiment lost their colonel, Korneeloff, cousin of the hero of Sevastopol, but bayoneted those who had killed him and hacked off their heads. The Tousheens, too, the bravest of the many brave races of the Caucasus, who contributed a small body to the native contingent, kept up their time-honoured custom of cutting off the right hand of a slain or wounded enemy (see note), and in condemning the cruelty habitually practised by the semi-savage warriors of Daghestan and Tchetchnia it is only fair to remember that their Christian foemen, who were also the invaders of their country, frequently stooped to similar practices.
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Note: Shaté, a celebrated Tousheen warrior, who accompanied Vrevsky's Deedo expedition in 1857, had no less than seventy of these ghastly trophies nailed to his walls, and no Tousheen could obtain a bride who had not at least one severed right hand to show. The Tousheens were Christians, of Georgian extraction. (p. 398)
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A Chechen Death-Song

2009-05-08T17:05:00.002+04:00

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Quite remarkable - for the sheer intensity of the two quatrains and the final couplet (particularly the last line), and for the reference to the elder brother of the deceased, whose duty it is to avenge his brother's death! Found in Baddeley's The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus (London 1908, pp. 488-489).
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The earth will dry on my grave,
Mother, my Mother!
And thou wilt forget me!
And over me rank grasses wave,
Father, my Father!
Nor wilt thou regret me!
When tears cease thy dark eyes to lave,
Sister, dear Sister!
No more will grief fret thee!

But thou, my Brother the Elder, wilt never forget,
With vengeance denied me!
And thou, my Brother the Younger, wilt ever regret
Till thou liest beside me!

Hotly thou camest, oh death-bearing ball that I spurned,
For thou was my Slave!
And thou, black earth, that my battle-steed trampled and churned,
Wilt cover my grave!

Cold art thou, oh Death, yet I was thy Lord and Master!
My body sinks fast to earth; my Soul to Heaven flies faster!
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Georges Dumezil

2009-03-06T16:17:00.009+04:00

Georges Dumézil was born in Paris in 1898, the son of a clacissist, and became interested in ancient languages at a very young age. According to the Wikipaedia entry, "it has been said that he could read the Aeneid in Latin at the age of 9". Having finished school, he went to France's elite Ecole Nationale Supérieure in 1916.

His studies were interrupted by the First World War (the Battle of Verdun took place the year he became a student): He was mobilized, and fought in the war as an officer in the French artillery. After the war, he resumed his studies, and obtained his agrégation in Classical Literature in 1921.

He spent a few months teaching in France, before becoming a lecturer at the University of Warsaw. In 1924, he received his doctorate, having written his doctoral thesis on "The Feast of Immortality" in Indo-European mythologies, thesis in which he compared the origins of the Greek "ambrosia" and the Indian drink "amrita", which was believed to render the man who drank it immortal.

Dumézil apparently found the academic climate in France rather stifling, and moved to (the then nascent republic of) Turkey. He became Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Istanbul in 1925, where he taught for six . He learnt Turkish, and travelled in Turkey, Russia, and the Caucasus. It was also in Turkey that he first came across the Ubykh language, which was to fascinate him for years, and the experience and knowledge of the Caucasus he gained during these years was to make him the foremost French (and francophone) caucasologist.

He left Turkey in 1931, and moved to Uppsala in Sweden, where he taught at the University for 2 years before returning to France in 1933. Back in Paris, he held the Chair of Comparative Religion of Indo-European Peoples at the famous Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes.

Named a member of the prestigious Collège de France after the war (1949), where he held the Chair of Indo-European Civilization (created specially for him), Dumézil would go on to teach at the Collège for almost 20 years, before moving to Princeton University (1968-1971).

Prof. Georges Dumézil was elected to the 40th Chair of the Académie française on October 26, 1978, and was formally received by the illustrious Claude Lévi-Strauss - his colleague, patron, and fellow student of mythology.

Doctor honoris causa of the University of Uppsala (1955), of Istanbul (1964), of Berne (1969), of Liège (1979), Associate Member of the Académie royale de Belgique (1958), Member of the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1968), Member of the Académie des Inscriptions et belles-lettres de Paris (1970), Honorary Member of The Royal Irish Academy, Section of Polite Literature and Antiquities (1974), Honorary Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (1974), Prof. Georges Dumézil died on October 11, 1986.

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Dumézil published many books and articles. The following list concerns itself only with those related to the Caucasus:
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Légendes sur les Nartes (Institut d’Études Slaves, 1930)
Textes populaires ingush (A. Maisonneuve, 1935)
Contes et légendes des Oubykhs (Institut d’Ethnologie, 1957)
Contes lazes (Institut d’Ethnologie, 1957)
Études oubykhs (A. Maisonneuve, 1959)
Documents anatoliens sur les langues et les traditions du Caucase (A. Maisonneuve, 1960-'67)
Le livre des héros, légendes ossètes sur les Nartes (Gallimard, 1965)
Le verbe oubykh, études descriptives et comparatives (Académie des Inscriptions et belles-lettres, 1975)
Romans de Scythie et d’alentour (Payot, 1978)
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Two books from the author's library:
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Mirian Khutsishvili

2009-02-26T14:00:00.004+04:00

Mirian Khutsishvili was born on the 27^th of June 1924, in the village of Zemo Khodasheni (near Telavi; the village is now part of the Akhmeta region). His father was a schoolteacher.

In 1943, he served in the Soviet 33^rd Mountain Artillery Corps, and fought in the Caucasus and in many other places. After the war, he joined the Faculty of History at the Teachers' Training Institute in Gori.

In 1949, following his studies, he began to work as a scientist for the State Museum of History and Ethnography in Gori.

He was called up for his military service in the Soviet Army in 1952. Following a short career in the army, he retired in 1959, and became Head of the Atheistic Department of the S. Janashia State Museum. (This department would later become the Department of Religious History.)

Khutsishvili began filming ethnographical documentaries in 1960.

He received his Master's degree in 1972, at the age of 48, and began publishing his scientific works as a leading researcher and guardian of the Film and Video Fund.

In 1984 he received a State Museum Reward for his work.

From 1987 to 1991 he took part in international anthropological documentary film festivals. He also participated in several scientific conferences.

One of Khutsishvili's documentaries, entitled Before the Angels return, was declared the winner of the Folk Festival of Georgian Cinema in 2005.

He filmed in many regions of Georgia, notably in Pshavi (1960-1979), in Tusheti (1984), in Mtiuleti and Gudamaqari (1978), in Khevsureti (1985-1995), in Svaneti (1960-19990), in Tianeti (1988-1990), in Kakheti (1960-2001), etc. etc. Please see this previous post for a complete list of his films as kept in the collections of the Georgian National Museum.

The Russian Academy and the Caucasus in the XVIIIth Century

2009-02-26T12:44:00.005+04:00

In Prof. George Hewitt's The Russian Imperial Academy and Western Transcaucasia (late-eighteenth century to the 1850s), published following a conference held in June 2006 at Kymenlaakso Summer University (Finland), entitled "Research and Identity: non-Russian Peoples in the Russian Empire, 1800-1855", and available for download here.

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The Russian Academy and the Caucasus in the eighteenth century

Russian interests in moving south and Georgia’s political weakness and fragmentation led to contacts between the two as early as the late sixteenth century— the embassies dispatched by the tsars between 1589 and 1605 have been chronicled byW.E.D. Allen (1970). By the end of the eighteenth century, Russia was a significant player in the area, threatening the (largely Muslim) North Caucasian peoples and consolidating relations in the Transcaucasian states by construction of the Georgian Military Highway: regular traffic between Vladikavkaz in North Ossetia and Tbilisi started around 1799. But the extent of ignorance about the Caucasus in the Russian capital before attempts were made to gather necessary information is well illustrated in Isabel de Madariaga’s book on Russia in the time of Catherine the Great: ‘Russian relations with the Caucasian kingdoms were complex and tenuous, and left a great deal to the discretion (or indiscretion) of local commanders. (So little was known about the area that when an emissary of King Solomon of Imeretia asked to be received in St Petersburg in 1768, Catherine called for maps, and found that according to some of them Tiflis was on the Black Sea, according to others, on the Caspian)’ (de Madariaga 2001.369). The first academic mission to the Caucasus was headed by Johann Anton Güldenstädt (1745-1781), with whom any study of the Academy’s activities in the Caucasus must begin, even though the dates of his travel and publication of his materials fall outside the strict remit of this conference.
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1. Johann Anton Güldenstädt
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Güldenstädt was born to a German family on 26 April 1745 in Riga. He studied medicine, botany and natural sciences in Berlin from 1863 and gained a doctorate from Frankfurt-am-Oder in 1767. As a twenty-three year-old naturalist and medical doctor, he was invited the following year by the Imperial Academy in St Petersburg, of which he became a full member and professor of natural science on 8 April 1771, to participate in the planned seven-man expedition to the Caucasus— Catherine the Great decreed that a number of such expeditions should be organised both to collect data on her empire and to make observations of the passage of Venus. The Caucasus group were travelling for some years (1768-1775), of which around twelve months from September 1771 were spent in Western Transcaucasia. Often afflicted with fever on his travels, Güldenstädt died in St Petersburg on 21 March 1781, aged just 36.
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The two volumes resulting from the expedition were posthumously published in Güldenstädt’s name by Peter Simon Pallas and entitled Dr. Johann Anton Güldenstädt: Reisen durch Russland und im kaukasischen Gebürge (St Petersburg, Band I, 1787, XXIV+511 pp., Band II, 1791, 552 pp.); the German text with Georgian translation was published in two volumes by Gela Gelashvili (Tbilisi, 1962 & 1964).
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At the end of September 1771 Güldenstädt finally crossed into Dusheti, making the southern Ossetes the first people of Transcaucasia that he encountered. On 15 October he was received by King Erek’le II, whom he accompanied into eastern Georgian regions on 21 February 1772. While here, he was able to gather information about some of the peoples of Daghestan, such as the K’ap’uch’i, Dido and Avar. Güldenstädt spent April and May exploring northern and southern regions of central Georgia. From late June he moved through South Ossetia into the north-western province of Rach’a and from there southwards into Imeretia. While in Khoni (16-17 August), he gathered information about Mingrelia and Lechkhumi from visiting Mingrelians but could not journey to Mingrelia itself, as it was too dangerous. At a meeting with Imeretia’s King Solomon on 28 August, Güldenstädt was shewn lead and copper samples brought from the mountainous district of Svanetia and the source of the River Tskhenis-ts’q’ali, an occasion which Güldenstädt used to learn something of Svanetia itself. Delayed on his return to the North Caucasus by rebellious Ossetes, he finally got back to Kizlyar (virtually Russia’s capital in the Caucasus until 1863 — A.P. Berzhe, quoted by Gammer 2006.10) under Russian escort on 2 November.
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Güldenstädt’s posthumous volumes are in the form of a diary, describing when he was where and what he saw there: place, soil, water, flora, fauna, insects..., population, what the locals did, etc...; interwoven within the basic descriptions are a variety of excursions (e.g. under ‘River Terek’ are described its tributaries, the fish in it, the flora along its banks, and the settlements beside it; animal- and plant-life of the Caucasus; the political geography of the Caucasian mountain-zone and information on the peoples). Güldenstädt did not ignore the languages he heard, discussing their relationships and possible origins. He had a list of words which he had translated (albeit with gaps) into the various languages in order to facilitate comparison — 290 lexical items were the most illustrated, and this number was attained for the Kartvelian family.
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Pages 496 to 535 of volume II are devoted to the indigenous Caucasian materials, whilst Iranian Ossetic is included on pages 535-545. Güldenstädt classifies the indigenous languages into:
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1. Kartvelian Dialects (Georgianische Mundarten): Georgian, Mingrelian and Svan (496-504 pp.);
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2. Nakh Dialects (Mizdschegische Mundarten): Chechen, Ingush, Tush (Bats) (504-511 pp.);
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3. “Lezgian” and Related Dialects (Lesginische und damit verwandte Mundarten): Ants’ukh, Ch’ar, Khundzakh, Dido (512-519 pp.), plus Lak, Andi and Akusha (Sprachen der Kasikumüken, Andi und Akuscha, 520-527 pp.);
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4: Kabardian and Abkhaz (Kabardinische und Abassische Sprache): Kabardian and coastal vs north Caucasian Abkhaz (Kusch-hasib-Abassische vs Altekesek-Abassische, viz. Abkhaz proper vs Abaza) (527-535 pp.).
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Comments on these divisions would include the observation that Laz is lacking from the Georgianische Mundarten. The Nakh group is accurately characterised. ‘Lesgian’ is a strictly incorrect designation (albeit one common at the time to refer to Daghestanian peoples and languages in general), as it is here applied to three Avar dialects (Ants’ukh, Ch’ar, Khundzakh) plus Dido from the related Didoic/Tsezic sub-family. Lak has its older designation of Kazi-kumukh; Andi is more closely related to Avar; and Akusha is a dialect of Dargwa (Dargi(n)). Amongst the myriad of Daghestanian languages, all of the Lezgic, most of the Andic, and most of the Didoic/Tsezic sub-families are missing. From North West Caucasian no mention is made of Ubykh. The vocabulary-materials are laid out according to semantic fields, the majority being nouns, with fewer adjectives, and very few verbs. Translations were obtained via translators, Güldenstädt not knowing any of the local languages or even Russian; hence, there are inconsistencies of treatment. A further source of difficulty arises out of the Roman or Gothic scripts used to present languages noted for phonetic challenges which the developing discipline of (comparative) philology and its subsidiary science of phonetics had yet to tackle. Compare, for example, the following:
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(Language - Güldenstädt - Modern Transcription - Meaning)
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Georgian - madsoni - mats’oni - yoghurt
Georgian - kadzi - k’atsi - man
Georgian - zikwaruli - siq’varuli - love
Mingrelian - kodschi - k’ot∫i - man
Abkhaz - isduda - j´ztw"´dA - whose is it?
Chechen - berik - b¿arg - eye
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For many of the languages incorporated in his work Güldenstädt’s list represented the first time they were documented even to the extent of word-lists of this size. On the basis of his lexical comparisons, Güldenstädt was the first to make some progress in classifying the local languages and produced the oft-repeated and highly pertinent observation that ‘Mingrelian stands in the same relationship to Georgian as does Dutch to German’. He did not recognise the genetic link, now universally accepted, between Nakh and Daghestanian, Daghestan being an area Güldenstädt did not himself visit. All eight linguistic forms named under his third group he recognised as sisterlanguages (Töchter einer Mutter, I.484), and he (quite correctly) did not include Iranian Ossetic or Turkic Kumukh and Nogay in his Caucasian groupings.
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In addition to his word-lists, Güldenstädt also had translated into eighteen (half of them Caucasian) languages a series of cardinals plus twenty-two simple sentences, the first examples of connected speech recorded for Chechen, Avar, Andi and Dargwa/Dargi(n). [Çelebi in the 1640s had gathered some such examples for Abkhaz and Circassian (see Gippert 1992).] The originals of these texts are partly kept in the Güldenstädt Collection at the Russian Academy of Sciences, whilst a part are in the Adelung Fund at St Petersburg’s public library [See Chikobava (1982), which incorporates photographs of the originals.]; they were published, with minor alterations, by Julius von Klaproth in 1814. An example each for Georgian and Mingrelian would be what in general is translateable as ‘God is immortal; man’s life is short’:
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Georgian: Hmerti arss uqudavi, qazi arss mzirissa zchovrebissa mkone
Mingrelian: Horomthi vauhur, qotschi syma chanzerhe
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which are respectively to be transcribed and analysed as:
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VmErt.i [ God.NOM[inative] ] A(.)r.s [ be.X(-PRES[ent]); older form of A(.)r.i.s. ] u.k"vd.Av.i [ PRIV[ative].die.SUFF[ix].AGR[eement] ] k"Ats.i [ man.NOM ] A(.)r.s [ be.X(-PRES[ent]) ] mtsir.isA [ slight.AGR ] tsXOvr(.)Eb.isA [ life.GEN[itive] ] m.kOn.E [ PRE[ix].have.SUFF ]
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'God is immortal; man is possessor of a short life' [Georgian]
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VOrOnt.i [ God.NOM ] wA.Vur(.u[.n]) [ not.die.PRES.X ] k"OtS.i [ man.NOM ] z´m(.)A [ measured time.DAT[ive] ] XAn.(t)sr.E[.n] [ be.PRES.X ]
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'God does not die, man exists for a limited time' [Mingrelian]
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Güldenstädt familiarised himself with historical documents, as when he was discussing the relationship between Abkhazia and Georgia, a matter of considerable relevance today: ‘In olden times the country [Abkhazia] had its own ruler, who in the Georgian chronicles is referred to as the King of the Abkhazians (King of Abkhazia). Later it belonged over a long period to the king of Georgia, who then was referred to as the King of Abkhazia and Kartli [Georgia]. At the time of this leadership Greek Orthodoxy became widespread, and a Patriarch even sat in Bich’vinta [Pitsunda], whilst in Mokvi [Mykw] and Dranda archbishops [were installed]. Later they became independent of Georgia, and there is no unitary leadership’ (vol. II). On the other hand, Güldenstädt’s contemporary comments on language-usage can throw light on modern-day arguments about the extent of the knowledge of Georgian in what are today provinces of Georgia. Having stated, for example, that ‘the Georgian province of Mingrelia and the districts of Odishi and Lechkhumi form the fourth kingdom of Georgia and have their own independent leader who carries the title Dadiani’, Güldenstädt offers the remark: ‘In Odishi they speak Mingrelian, whilst in Lechkhumi in a mixed Mingrelian-Imeretian dialect’ (vol. I), defining Odishi as lying to the north and west of Mingrelia, extending to the Black Sea, and bordering Abkhazia to the north. Sadly, those who are only interested in arguing for a centuries-old spoken tradition for Georgian in both Mingrelia and Abkhazia tend to ignore Güldenstädt’s text, which well repays study.
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2. Jacob Reineggs
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Although not strictly an envoy to the Caucasus on behalf of the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences, in order to understand the sequence of scholarly foreign visitors to, and observers of, western Transcaucasia on behalf of Russia mention should be made of Jacob Reineggs (see the relevant entry in vol. 8 of the 11-volume Georgian Encyclopædia and the Introduction to his 2002 Georgian translation of Reineggs’ travel-book by Gia Gelashvili). Born in 1744 in Eisleben (Germany), the originally named Christian-Rudolf Elich studied at Leipzig University, for a time lived in Vienna, and gained his doctorate in medicine at Tirnau (Hungary) in 1773. Three years later he set out for the orient and made his way via Constantinople to Georgia circa 1779. In Tbilisi he entered the service of King Erek’le II of Kartli(-K’akheti), where he not only practised medicine but introduced western systems for minting money and preparing gunpowder, becoming interested in mining practices and overseeing typographical and printing work.
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Reineggs came to the attention of the Russian authorities and was appointed personal commissioner at the Court of Kartli-K’akheti by Georgij Potemkin, who thereby enlisted the western scientist in Russia’s plan to bring both King Erek’le II and his counterpart in western Georgia, King Solomon I of Imereti, into a pro-Russian orientation. As a result of his far from unsuccessful mission, which culminated in the aforementioned Treaty of Georgievsk with Catherine the Great’s Russia in 1783— indeed, at the signing he was at the side of Pavel Sergeievich Potemkin, first Viceroy in the Caucasus and cousin of the more famous carrier of this surname —, Reineggs was invited to Russia. From 1786 he was scientific secretary at the Medical College and at the start of 1787 was appointed Inspector of the Medical School at Ekaterine’s Hospital and Director of the School of Medicine and Surgery in Petersburg. He died there in 1793, having become addicted to opium. Even after leaving the Caucasus he kept up contacts with leading figures in both Georgia and Armenia.
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During his time in Georgia and the Caucasus in general he became well acquainted with the whole area. His writings were published under the title Allgemeine historisch-topographische Beschreibung des Kaukasus, volume I appearing in 1796 (Gotha und St.-Petersburg) and volume II in 1797 (Hildesheim und St.-Petersburg) and contain a geographical description of the region, extensive excursions, as well as interesting observations on ethnography, history, economics, extractive industry and linguistics. He was, however, not grounded in philology, as can be easily seen in the following. Though he correctly describes the border between Abkhazia and the Georgian province of Mingrelia thus: ‘The river Engur [Ingur] splits the Abkhazians and Laz from the bestsited, fertile, sometimes low-lying, sometimes hilly and mountainous province known as Megrel or Samegrelo [Mingrelia]’, he goes on to betray the naivety of his approach to language-study by remarking: ‘Mingrelian is the name of the people residing here who have their own language; it represents a mixture of dialects of Caucasian, Greek and Georgian words.’
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Given the recent charges made against the presence of Ossetes on the southern flanks of the Caucasus by Georgian nationalists in their struggle over rights to South Ossetia (still a province of Georgia in international law), Reineggs’ conclusions will be of some interest: ‘...and, in truth, they [the southern Ossetes] live even now in that area which first Pliny and then Moses Xorenatsi [an Armenian historian of the latter half of the first millennium] named as the fiefdom of the Ass and Ghossi.’
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The Russian Academy and the Caucasus 1800-1850
The first researcher dispatched to the Caucasus by the Russian Academy in the years that fall within the purview of this conference was yet another ethnic German.
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3. Julius von Klaproth
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Klaproth was born in Berlin in 1783. Having published the Asiatischer Magazin in Weimar in 1802, he was invited to the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences. After accompanying a diplomatic mission to China in 1805-1806 and returning with a collection of manuscripts (Chinese and Mongol inter alia), he was sent by the Academy to the Caucasus (1807-08), spending sixteen months travelling. He began work in Paris in 1825 and died there in 1835.
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His description of his Caucasian travels was published in (Halle and) Berlin in two volumes in 1812 (740 pp.) and 1814 (624 pp.) under the title Reise in den Kaukasus und nach Georgien, unternommen in den Jahren 1807 und 1808, auf Veranstaltung der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu St.-Petersburg, enthaltend eine vollständige Beschreibung der kaukasischen Länder und ihrer Bewohner, von Julius von Klaproth, Kaiserl. Russischem Hofrathe und Mitgliede der Akademie er Wissenschaften zu St.-Petersburg. An English version (Travels in the Caucasus and Georgia) came out in 1814, whilst a French translation (Voyage au Caucase et en Géorgie) appeared in 1823 in Paris.
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In 1827 Klaproth published a Georgian-French and French-Georgian dictionary of some 4,000 items, which, according to Marie Brosset, seem to have been taken from the seventeenth-century word-list of the missionaries Stefano Paolini and Niceforo Irbach and from the lexicon appended to his self-tutor of Georgian by the Russian Piralof [I have no knowledge of this work other than the reference to it in Brosset]. He also undertook to write a Georgian grammar, based on the work of an Italian missionary that he had acquired, but died before he could complete it, and the task of doing so was entrusted by the Asiatic Society to Brosset, whose Elements de la langue Géorgienne came out in 1837 (reprinted in 1974 by Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück).
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Klaproth did not cross into Transcaucasia until December 1807, reaching Tbilisi on 14 January 1808. He travelled in central/eastern parts until the summer, claiming to have crossed back briefly over the snowy main chain from Mozdok to Oni, capital of Rach’a, before hostility to Russia forced him to leave Transcaucasia for the last time.
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Klaproth asserts that he was instructed to use and correct the materials left by his predecessors and boasts in a supplementary volume entitled Kaukasische Sprachen. Anhang zur Reise in den Kaukasus und nach Georgien (288 pp., Halle und Berlin, published in 1814 but apparently composed in 1809) to his original publication of his superiority over Güldenstädt in relation to his ability to compare Caucasian and other oriental languages.
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Section One is devoted to the Daghestanian languages (Lesgische Sprachen): Avar (pp. 10- 55), Kazi-Kumukh or Lak (p. 56), Akusha or Dargwa/Dargi(n) (p. 58, with Lak-Dargwa comparisons on pp. 59-72), with mention of a fourth group named Kuraelisch = Lezgian on p. 72; pages 74 to 157 present comparative word-lists for Avar (with dialectal variants), Andi, Dido, Lak, Akusha, and Kubachi. Differently from Güldenstädt, Klaproth’s materials are set out according to the alphabetical order of the German translation-equivalents (as opposed to Güldenstädt’s ordering by semantic fields); Klaproth has up to 430 items, compared with Güldenstädt’s 275 for Avar-Dido. Pages 134-137 incorporate parallel lists for the numerals, whilst the days of the week are set out on p. 138 for Avar, Andi, Dido, Lak, Dargwa and, strangely, Chechen.
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Section Two (pp. 138-175) contains materials in the three Nakh languages, though the alphabetical principle for German equivalents is not applied here. Two dialects for Chechen are represented: Karabulax and an unspecified other; for Ingush the dialect is that of Shalxa.
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Section Three (pp. 176-224) illustrates Ossetic (the texts being The Lord’s Prayer, The Ten Commandments, and the Catechism) and includes an attempt to describe the declensional and conjugational systems of the language.
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Section Four (pp. 225-245) presents 75 words, three phrases (‘What is X called?’, ‘What is this?’, and ‘Please’), the days of the week and some basic grammatical observations (mainly on the Kabardian dialect of Circassian).
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Section Five (pp. 246-261) looks at the Abassiche Sprache, though the words and phrases represent the divergent Abaza dialect, and, on p. 261, the same phrases ‘translated by an Abaza into some other language’.
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Section Six (pp. 262-270) offers some remarks on, and a few words in, Svan.
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Section Seven (pp. 271-288) has examples from four local Turkic tongues.
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Klaproth was acquainted with historical sources on the Caucasus (e.g. classical writers such as Strabo, Arab geographers such as Mas’udi, and the Georgian chronicles) and attempts to identify some of the historical ethnonyms with contemporary tribes.
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Of his four Daghestanian language-groups Klaproth admits to having no knowledge of the Lezgic family, stating simply and accurately that their speakers reside in southern Daghestan. Whilst managing to associate around Avar Güldenstädt’s Avar, Dido, K’ap’uch’i, and Andi, Klaproth introduces an error not made by his predecessor in wrongly ascribing to Lak Dargwa's Kaitak dialect as well as the Lezgic language Tabasaran.
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Whereas Güldenstädt basically confined himself to offering lexical materials and comments based thereon, Klaproth ventured into the realms of grammar. But this can hardly be seen as an advance in view of the superficial and erroneous nature of his observations, such as when he asserts that Avar has no grammatical gender, even though his adjectival citations shew gender agreement with their epithets. And, like many others, he allowed his expectations based on the structures of Latin and Greek of what languages should be like to influence his descriptions of these non-Indo- European tongues, assigning accusative cases to systems where no such case is attested. Another backward step in comparison with Güldenstädt is Klaproth’s belief that Abkhaz and Circassian are not genetically related, though he postulates an entirely false link between Circassian and Finnish, Ostyak and Vogul based on some superficial lexical similarities, wild speculations which reveal Klaproth’s ignorance of the fundamental principles underlying the proof of linguistic genetic affiliation (viz. systematic sound-correspondences demonstrated by strict application of the comparative method). Whilst recognising the closeness of Nakh to Daghestanian, Klaproth again draws parallelisms with Samoyed, Vogul and other Siberian forms.
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Klaproth’s addendum does contain the first examples of full sentences published in printed format for Avar, Andi, Lak, Dargwa, Chechen, Kabardian and Abaza. However, these texts were not recorded by Klaproth — Güldenstädt had them already in 1775, and Klaproth took them with him on his own expedition, adding only the variant for Abaza in, as stated above, an unspecified dialect.
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Interestingly, in a dispatch of 26 Nov 1836 from Simferopol to the Academy’s Secretary Frähn, the Ossetic specialist Academician Johan Sjögren charged: ‘I deem it my duty to send to the Academy evidence from which it is revealed that Klaproth did not undertake, if not all, at least most of the excursions but has composed them on the basis of the statements or written sources of others, specifically the reports on the peoples living along the Kuban and beyond for the most part and particularly from p. 206 to the end are translated word for word from a document lodged at the general HQ without a squeak about his source’ (vid. Brosset’s Bibliographie analitique 1887, p.535).
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4. Marie Félicité Brosset (Jeune)
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The French orientalist Marie Félicité Brosset (Jeune) (1802-1880) came to Georgian (and Armenian) studies from Chinese. Invited to Russia in 1837, he was elected to a fellowship of the Russian Academy the following year; he continued to work at the Academy until 1880, when illness took him back to France, where he died. In St Petersburg Brosset laid the foundation of Georgian(- Armenian) philology. He read a cycle of lectures on Georgian and Armenian between 1839 and 1841 at the University and Academy, but then appointment as Director of the Public Library forced him to abandon this.
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Brosset had practical command of both Georgian and Armenian and contributed to the spread of the knowledge of these cultures in Western Europe in the fields of both philology and history, though his interests and writings extended to archæology, numismatics and epigraphy. In 1847-48 he travelled around Georgia and Armenia, publishing the results in three volumes entitled Rapports sur un voyage archéologique dans la Géorgie et dans l'Arménie exécuté en 1847-1848 (St Petersburg, 1849-51). He introduced the non-Georgian reading public to the native historical chronicles with his translation into French of the collection of texts known as ‘Kartlis Tskhovreba’ (Life of Kartli = Georgia), including an eighteenth-century addition to the corpus in the shape of the so-called ‘Geography of Georgia’ by Prince Vakhusht’ Bagrat’ion (member of the royal family); these translations came out in seven fascicules between 1849 and 1858.
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Before Brosset arrived in Russia, he had already made a contribution to the foreign study of Georgian. It seems from what Brosset tells us that the Asiatic Society in Paris was only a few months old when it decided to place the study of Georgian top of its list of desiderata (according to a lecture by St. Martin of 6 January 1823). As a consequence they commissioned Klaproth to prepare both a grammar and dictionary. As already stated, a Georgian-French/French Georgian dictionary appeared in 1827, being based on the seventeenth-century list of 3,084 entries published in 1629 in Rome by the missionaries Stefano Paolini and Niceforo Irbach (see the 1983 facsimilereprint as part of ‘First Printed Books in Georgian’, edited by A.S. Chikobava and J.L. Vateishvili, Tbilisi, Khelovneba Press) as well as that in Piralof’s self-tutor. As for the grammar, Klaproth intended to build on a work he had found by an Italian missionary, but the project was dragged out, and by the time of his death in 1835, he had completed only 112 pages, which took him merely to the verb, which is the most demanding part of Georgian grammar. The task thus passed to Brosset, who produced his Eléments de la langue géorgienne (lvi+336 pp., Paris, 1837).
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Brosset had published lithographically in Paris in 1834 a 291-page work he called L'art libéral ou Grammaire géorgienne. The book consists of seventeen chapters, each followed by illustrative material with translation. Previous works by such pioneers as the eighteenth-century Georgian patriarch Ant’on I, the seventeenth-century Italian missionary Maggio, and the eighteenthcentury member of the Georgian royal family Davit Bat’onishvili are considered, but Brosset bases all opinions he expresses on Georgian materials, being the first non-Georgian capable of manipulating original data.
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That said, there are, quite naturally, errors of interpretation. One of these concerned the case called in Georgian motxrobiti (literally ‘narrative’), which is conventionally translated as ‘ergative’. The debate about the nature and essential function of this case continues to this day (see, for example, the discussion in Hewitt 2004), but Brosset argued for it not to be treated as a separate case at all. In the 1837 grammar the original author, Klaproth, had stated on p.13 the following: ‘Le démonstratif: moTHrobiTi mothkrobithi; c’est un nominatif qui perd ordinairement sa dernière voyelle, et prend à la fin la syllabe man.’ To this Brosset appends his '’orrective’ note on p.xxvi: ‘Le démonstratif, que les grammairiens géorgiens appellent narratif, n’est point un cas à part, puisque le pronom démonstratif explétif man se décline avec tous les cas des noms, et aux deux nombres.’ The hypothesis of a relationship between the origin of the case-endings and the third person pronoun is a justified one, but the fact is that a motxrobiti or ergative or narrative case does need to be treated as a distinct entity. Consider the example quoted by Brosset in his syntactic discussion on p.242 of the 1837 publication:
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mosrnis [ it-strikes-them ] mQeC.n.i [ beast.PL[URAL].NOM[INATIVE] ] da [ and ] nadir.n.i [ game.PL.NOM ] isar.man [ arrow.ERG[ATIVE] ] Xem.man [ mine.ERG ] sreul.man [ thrown.ERG ]
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‘My arrow when cast regularly strikes the beasts and game-animals’ where, without more ado, the Nominative argument (in fact the object) is described as the subject, and nothing is said about the true subject in the Ergative case in -man.
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Though Brosset’s contribution to the study and knowledge of Georgian was immense, it is regrettable that on the matter of its genetic classification he misplaced it by categorising it as a member of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family— it is perhaps pertinent to recall that for many years in the nineteenth century Armenian was also placed within Indo-Iranian because of the large number of Iranian lexical items adopted by it over the centuries, but, unlike Georgian, Armenian does fall within the Indo-European family, as correctly demonstrated by Heinrich Hübschmann later in the nineteenth century, where it forms a separate branch. On Georgian’s own rich store of Iranian loans see Andronik’ashvili (1966).
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Another to ascribe Indo-European status to Georgian and the sisters was the German Franz Bopp who delivered two lectures in Berlin in 1842 and 1845 which were later published firstly with the title Über das Georgische in sprachverwandtschaftlicher Beziehung (1846) and secondly entitled Die kaukasischen Glieder des indo-europäischen Sprachstammes (1847). In these he argued for an Indo-European origin for the ‘Iberian’ or ‘Georgian’ (recte ‘Kartvelian’) family that encompasses Georgian, Mingrelian, Laz and Svan. Bopp did not know Georgian, nor did he visit the Caucasus but relied both on Brosset and, for supplementary information on Georgian’s congeners, on a contemporary fellow-German who did and who provided Bopp with preliminary results of his researches on the ground. If a competent presentation of Georgian grammar (essentially its morphology) became available to Western European readers with the works of Brosset in the 1830s [This discounts the not fully competent account by Maggio from 1640.], it fell to a Fellow of the German (rather than Russian) Academy of Sciences in Berlin, namely Georg Rosen, to extend philological investigation to other Caucasian languages. Rosen’s thirty-eight-page review of Laz (Über die Sprache der Lazen) was read to the Berlin Academy on 11 November 1843 and published in 1844. On 1 October 1844 the Berlin Academy was again treated to another presentation by Rosen, to wit his second linguistic survey from the region, this time on Ossetic (Über die ossetische Sprache), whilst his third paper, delivered on 31 January 1845, gave short surveys of Mingrelian, Svan and Abkhaz (Über das Mingrelishe, Suanische und Abxasische). The last two papers were published in 1846 and entitled Ossetische Sprachlehre nebst einer Abhandlung über das Mingrelische, Suanische und Abchasische von Dr. Georg Rosen; they totalled eighty-four pages. Of these forty-three are devoted to Ossetic, including Klaproth’s lexical list, as verified by Rosen; Mingrelian is examined in nine pages (48-57), Svan in 13 (57-70), and Abkhaz in 12 (70-82). Rosen studied each of these languages on native soil, not knowing Georgian when he applied himself to Laz. He made a number of important observations, not least remarking on the relationship between Georgian’s own dialects and noting that the closeness of Laz to Mingrelian could best be viewed as assigning them co-dialectal status of a single language, as is done to this day within Georgia, where the language concerned is designated Zan; Svan he rightly saw as the most divergent of the Kartvelian sisters. Rosen commented on the closeness of Abkhaz to Circassian. Rosen hoped to locate on Abkhazian territory a tribe named ‘Azra’ by the English traveller James Stanislaus Bell, who lived among the North-West Caucasian peoples resident here and encouraged them in their war with Russia (see his justly famed two volumes Journal of a Residence in Circassia During the Years 1837, 1838, and 1839 (London, Edward Moxon, 1840)). Bell had given on p.482 of his second volume a short word-list to illustrate the languages of the three peoples he encountered, whom he named Azra, Abaza, and Adighe. Rosen failed to identify the words assigned to the so-called Azras as being in fact Abkhaz; the language styled by Bell (as indeed by Evliya Çelebi in the seventeenth century) ‘Abaza’ was actually Ubykh, and the Ubykh word for ‘Abkhaz’ was /AzÂA/; Adyghe is another term for Circassian based on the Circassians’ self-designation /A:d´VA/.
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One might object to Rosen’s stadial conclusion that in terms of their structural development Abkhaz and Circassian represent an older (?more primitive) stage than that found in the Kartvelian family, just as he was wrong in deeming the first two languages, which belong, as we know, to the North West Caucasian family, as being genetically related to Kartvelian. However, he was right to distance (Iranian) Ossetic and the (Turkic) mountain-Tatar tongues (Balkar, Karachay) from the indigenous Caucasian languages, and right also to conclude that parallels such as similar soundsystems could be explained by centuries (if not millennia) of symbiosis. Interestingly, Rosen chose to write not only his Mingrelian and Svan but also Ossetic and Abkhaz examples in the Georgian script (with transcription), the best-suited naturally developed writing-system to represent any Caucasian language; for Laz he had employed Arabic (with transcription), in good Ottoman fashion. To Rosen belongs the accolade of having been the first to make these four unwritten (sc. at that time) languages the object of scholarly study and thus accessible for the first time to serious philological investigation.
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Though Bopp’s attempt to associate Kartvelian with Indo-European looks like a reinforcement of the opinion somewhat earlier expressed by Brosset, the two scholars subsequently argued in print over the respective paths by which they had come to this (erroneous) conclusion. Of course, the discipline of comparative philology was still in relative infancy in Brosset’s and Bopp’s day and was yet to recognise the absolute fundamentality of the principle of strict soundcorrespondence in the demonstration of genetic affiliation. Even so, it was somewhat odd that neither Brosset nor Bopp thought to search for sound-correspondences, preferring to look at such features as verb-endings and case-markers. Failure to recognise the true nature of the ergative case was an obstacle here, for Bopp tried to link the nasal ending of the ergative case in such pronominal forms as iman ‘that one’ with the accusative case’s nasal ending in Sanskrit, Greek and Latin.
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Brosset delivered a reply to Bopp’s assertions, based in part on Rosen’s observations, in a lecture at the St Petersburg Academy on 1 Nov 1844. Brosset was able to correct some of Bopp’s misinterpretations of basic data and took issue with the above-mentioned analysis of the nasalending, pointing out that the ergative/narrative could not function as object of a transitive verb, which is the essential role of the Indo-European accusative. Brosset himself had been led to his mistaken conclusion by such features as the ‘shared’ lexical stock he recognised between Georgian, Armenian, Old Persian, Avestan and Sanskrit, or what he saw as a commonality in the declensional systems between Georgian and Sanskrit and Avestan. See the last page of his 1834 publication for a summary of the relevant data.
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The genetic links within the Caucasus are still debated (particularly with reference to the relationship between the North Caucasian languages); there was a period when North-West Caucasian Abkhaz was argued to be related to (even a dialect of) Georgian, but those (and there are some, especially in Georgia) proposing this today are deceiving themselves and doing so principally through political motives. As already stated, the Kartvelian family is now, almost without dissent, recognised to be an isolate, though it must be said that of all the indigenous Caucasian languages, it is the members of the Kartvelian family which have the most Indo-European ‘feel’ about them (sc. in terms of the use of fully developed subordinate clauses, something which marks them out from the rest).
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5. Anton Schiefner
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As Georgian is the only autochthonous Caucasian language with a long (and distinguished) literary tradition, it was hardly surprising that it should have become the focus of attention for Western orientalists, as the classification of the world’s languages got underway in the first half of the nineteenth century, winning for itself descriptions in Brosset’s grammatical monographs. If Rosen presented a smattering of materials from a handful of the other, then unknown languages of the Caucasus to his philological peers, it fell to another ethnic German, Anton Shiefner (1817-1879), from Tallinn, to produce a full (for its time — sc. without any detailed treatment of syntax) grammatical description of a North Caucasian language, work accomplished with a level of professional expertise (especially in the rigour of the analysis applied to the sound-system) that went beyond anything then available for anyCaucasian language (including Georgian).
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After completing his university-education in St Petersburg, Schiefner spent six months studying oriental languages in Berlin. To his pen belong such works as ‘Tibetan Studies’ and a German translation from Finnish of the Kalevala epic. A fellow of the St Petersburg Academy, he turned his attention at the close of 1853 to Bats (or [Ts’ova-]Tush), a now moribund language of the [Vei]Nakh family, spoken, then as today, in only a single village (Zemo Alvani) in eastern Georgia. Schiefner never visited the Caucasus but worked with materials sent from the region, supplemented with information provided by native speaker consultants, collaborating with the priest Giorgi Tsisk’arishvili on Bats for nine months. The first results of this collaboration were published in 1854 under the title Kurze Charakteristik der Thusch Sprache (Bulletin historico-philologique, t. XII, No. 8/Mélanges Asiatiques, t. II, 402-429). There followed in 1856 the 160-page monograph Versuch über die Thusch-Sprache oder die kistische Mundart in Tuschetien (St Petersburg). Pages 6-28 were devoted to phonetics, 29-89 to morphology, 90-104 to examples of speech with translation, 105-158 to a lexicon, and the final two pages contain a list of errata. He observed a phenomenon pertaining to the use of the ergative case (styled by Schiefner the ‘instructive’) which has attracted the attention of linguists to this day, namely that first and second person pronouns stand in the ergative with intransitive verbs, if the verb has any semantic trace of Selbstthätigkeit, to illustrate which he quotes:
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As lei - 'IERG talk'
AÌ lei - 'youERG talk'
BUT o lei - 'XNOM talks'
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Schiefner’s status as the pioneer at the Russian Academy for the study of the Caucasian languages was reinforced by his subsequent publications: Versuch über das Awarische (St Petersburg, 1862, 54 pp.) and Versuch über die Sprache der Uden (St. Petersburg, 1863, 110 pp.) — both Udi and Avar are spoken in Georgia, though the main Avar speech-community resides in Daghestan (N.E. Caucasus), whilst Udi is spoken in one village in South-East Georgia and also over the border in today’s Azerbaijan. In addition to these three important contributions of his own, Schiefner over the course of the next decade worked on the monographs produced by perhaps the most famous of the early investigators of Caucasian languages, the soldier-linguist Baron Pëtr Uslar (Peter von Uslar), who took advantage of his time as soldier in the Caucasus to work on a number of the languages spoken in the territories which were then either being or had recently been conquered by force of Russian arms. In addition to full descriptions of Abkhaz, Chechen, Avar, Lak, Dargwa/Dargi(n), and Lezgi (plus Tabasaran, published only in 1979 in Tbilisi from the rediscovered manuscript), Uslar was also the only person to do serious work on Ubykh before the migration of the entire population to Turkey. Before Uslar’s works appeared in the original Russian, Schiefner translated them into German, reworking the materials (especially the phonetics) in so doing and presenting them according to the order and principles he had established in his own grammars, which is often preferable to the presentation in Uslar’s Russian originals. Schiefner’s versions were published under the standard title Ausführlicher Bericht über des Generals Baron Peter von Uslar ... Studien with the relevant language-name preceding the final word of the title. The order of publication of the German versions was: Abkhaz (1863), Chechen (1864), Lak (1866), Dargwa (1871), Avar (1872) and Lezgi (1873), published in the series Mémoires de l'Académie impériale des sciences de St.-Pétersbourg.
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We have already moved beyond the strict confines of this conference’s theme, but it was important to include Schiefner as the academician who in a sense built on the work begun only in the 1770s by Güldenstädt’s commission and set the study of Caucasian languages on a path that can be recognised as truly modern. Whilst much valuable research within the Caucasus was conducted in a variety of disciplines during the nineteenth century by, or on behalf of, the Imperial Russian Academy and published in such admirable series as Sbornik Materialov dlja Opisanija Mestnostej i Plemën Kavkaza, it must not be forgotten that for most of this period the peoples of the North Caucasus were subjected to a brutal war of imperial aggression— indeed, it was military matters that brought Uslar to the Caucasus, as we have just observed. In a ‘Memorandum respecting Georgia’, marked ‘confidential’ and printed for the British Foreign Office on 24 March 1855, James Brant wrote from Erzeroum suggestions for a British protectorate for Georgia once Russia was ejected therefrom. Towards the end of his paper Brant remarked: ‘She [Russia] will be deprived of the power of attacking Turkey and Persia; and both nations, relieved from her baneful contact, will have leisure to attend to the improvements of their social institutions' (stress added — BGH; see Burdett 1996.91). History was not to follow such a course as that envisaged by Brant. If the knowledge and discoveries about the Caucasus, its peoples and languages given to the world by researchers dispatched there from the Russian Academy in the first half of the nineteenth century is placed in the scales against everything the region and its peoples have suffered from the (to quote Brant) ‘baneful contact’ with the Russian state, would the good necessarily be judged by any objective commentator to outweigh the harm?...
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The Georgian National Museum's Ethnographic Film and Photograph Collections

2009-02-25T11:25:00.011+04:00

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In 2005, UNESCO's Section for Museums and Cultural Objects began to support Georgia's National Museum in its efforts to preserve, restore, catalogue, and digitalize ethnographic films and photographs in its collections. A catalogue was published in 2006, and is available here.
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The following introduction to the Georgian National Museum's ethnographic film and photograph collections was written by Prof. Kevin Tuite, Professor of Ethnolinguistics at the Department of Anthropology of the University of Montreal in Canada.
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Prof. Tuite, a noted expert on the Caucasus and its peoples, took part in this project as a "UNESCO Expert".
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The production, cataloguing and research-related use of ethnographic films in Georgia began in the sixties of the last century. The Department of Religious Studies of the State Museum was entrusted with this project, and as a result of the long-term activities of the department’s staff, a cinematographic and video collection was created at the museum. Film, video and photographic materials of great value are kept there. Mirian Khutsishvili (Cand. Historical Sciences) has directed the activities of the collection from the very beginning. As one of the founders of Georgian ethnographic film-making, for many years he has successfully employed his skills as both ethnographer and cameraman.
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Ethnographic films have their own history: the idea of using documentary film as a historical source and as a means of conserving samples of cultural heritage was born together with the cinematographic medium. By means of film, researchers of cultural heritage were able to record and conserve materials of material and spiritual culture of people from archaic local zones. Subsequently video cameras and digital computer systems took their place alongside cinema and photography in scholarly research.
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The first research expedition in Georgia to be equipped with cameras was organized by the staff of the Department of Religious Studies of the State Museum in collaboration with researchers from the institutes of archaeology and ethnography. In the course of these early expeditions in the highlands of Georgia, Georgian ethnographic documentary cinema was born. Although aspects of the spiritual and material culture and mode of life of Georgian highlanders had been filmed even earlier, these recordings lacked the main features of ethnographic films. In the latter, the scenes recorded are as natural as possible, without any script, or artificial props and scenery.
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An ethnographic film made according to the above-mentioned standards is free from artificial visual effects. Under the guidance of consultant ethnographers, they are made according to the principals of visual anthropology. Professional directors while shooting ethnographic films often double as camera operators.
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Since 1960 the national museum of Georgia has organized many expeditions in different regions of Georgia and throughout the Caucasus. They have filmed 300 hours of unique documentary material, showing not only the cultural heritage of Georgia, but that of Chechnia, Ingusheti, Kabardo-Balkaria and North Ossetia as well. It should be noted, that many aspects of the material and intellectual culture of these peoples, for different reasons, do not exist any more, and therefore their analysis is only possible thanks to the video materials conserved in the fund of the national museum.
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Besides materials recorded by the museum staff, the collection contains old, rare tapes from former Soviet archives, showing the life and customs of the inhabitants of Georgia and some other parts of the Caucasus.
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In a sense, the ethnographic films in the collection of the national museum are works of art, as attested by awards received at international festivals. This is particularly true of the following documentaries set in the highlands of Georgia: “Khevsureti”, “Tusheti”, “Pshavi”, “Mtiuleti-Gudamaqari”, “Tianeti”, “Along the route of the Transcaucasian Railway”, “Shrovetide in Georgia”, etc. In these films the traditional life of people is reflected documentarily. Among the elements shown are villages, sites of ancient settlement, fortification, homes. Special attention is paid to cultic sanctuaries and the traditional feasts and rituals connected with them, which are specific to the mountainous regions of Georgia. A large amount of raw footage that was not used in documentary films is classified chronologically and thematically and is kept in the video collection separately. Among this footage are scenes reflecting the spiritual and material culture of Svaneti, Racha and other regions of Georgia. Besides the ethnographic films in the fund, there is also an archive covering the history of the National Museum: scientific sessions held in the museum, conferences, anniversary celebrations of outstanding scholars. The collection also includes footage of archaeological expeditions, research projects and excavations carried out under the museum’s auspices.
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The fund also contains some documentary and feature films obtained from the collections of museums that are no longer in existence, which may be of interest to historians and specialists in Soviet studies.
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The materials in the ethnographic film collection of the national museum can be divided into several groups:
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Ethnographic documentary films with added sound-tracks:
“Pshavi”, “Tusheti”, “Khevsureti”, “Mtiulet-Gudamaqari”, “Along the route of the Transcaucasian Railway”, “Shrovetide in Georgia”, “Georgians in Iran”, “Along the River Kura”, “Gelati”, “Georgian Museum”, “Gurian Riders of the Wild West”, “Racha-Lechkhumi”.
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Raw film materials, without sound-tracks:
“Svaneti”, “Kakheti”, “Kartli”, “Tianeti”, “The Lashari Shrine of Tianeti”, “Samtskhe-Javakheti”, “Samegrelo”, “Abkhazeti”, “Saingilo”, “Dagestan”, “Chechen Ingusheti”, “Ossetia”, “Ingusheti”; also footage shot by the cameramen Sobol in Khevsureti and Svaneti.
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Feature-length documentary films:
“Gurian Bandits”, “Before the Angels Come Back”.
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Documentary-animated films:
“House of joy” , “A Toast to all who came”.
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Video Films:
“Hard days of the State Museum” (a description of the museum in the early 1990’s);
Films describing archaeological excavations in Lagodekhi, Nokalakevi, Dmanisi, and Urbnisi.
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Documentary films, raw materials, and feature-length films:
“Dimitri Shevardnadze”, “Gremi”, “Antiquities of Svaneti”, “The Painter Surmava”, “Georgia Boxing”, “Zari”, “Our Sergo”, “Peaceful Sky”, “The Siberian”, “Georgian Days in Erevan”, “Krazana”, “On the way of Friendship”, “Agriculture in Georgia”, “The Small Theatre”, “In the Family of Nations”, “Lesia Ukrainka”, “Opening of the Museum of Friendship”, “Soviet Georgia”, “Scholars’ Anniversary Celebrations”.
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Many of the above mentioned films were inherited from the Museum of Friendship. Some of these films need urgent restoration and some are in critical condition.
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As we mentioned above, most of the films were shot during research expeditions organized in various years. Despite the difficulties (often the films were made at 2800-3000 meters above sea level, in tough climatic conditions, using primitive cameras) the scientific expeditions were organized systematically and resulted in many hours of important, scientifically valuable material. Some of the earliest documentaries were filmed in the 1920’s-30’s, during the Soviet fight against the “survivals of religion” and “backward traditions”. Despite this, these films include unique pictures of the life of people in mountainous regions. The greater part of this material, before the fall of the Soviet Union, was kept in the Krasnogorsk central archives. Due to the efforts of the National Museum’s Visual Anthropology staff, it became possible to bring these early documentaries back to Georgia.
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Since 1960, at the initiative of the Visual Anthropology staff, footage shot during research expeditions was used in the production of documentaries. Several films made on this basis were successful at various international festivals. Films produced by the museum received five main awards at the Pärnu (Estonia) International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival during the years 1987-1991. Another film produced by the National Museum of Georgia was the winner at a competition sponsored by the American organization “Internews” in 2000. (In this feature-length documentary film the traditional life of people living in the mountainous regions is shown).
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A major theme of the ethnographic footage in the National Museum archives is the traditional culture of the Georgian highlands, especially shrines and rituals. The choice of theme was in reaction to the rapid cultural change and loss of traditional practices undergone by highland Georgian communities. It could be said that visual documentation helped make it possible to preserve these traditional cultural features for study by future generations, since many of the material monuments and cultural practices, filmed during last 40 years, have since gone out of existence.
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Of particular interest are highland religious cult monuments known to the local communities as “crosses” or “icons”, although in fact these terms designate both the divine beings worshipped in the highlands of the eastern Georgia, and the complex of shrines dedicated to them. At the annual religious feasts celebrated at these shrines, all members of the local clan strove to attend, although many of them lived in the lowlands. Some shrines had such great power that people from other regions of Georgia – and even representatives of non-Georgian tribes – came to pray and present offerings. In addition to shrines of regional significance, museum film-makers documented fertility shrines located near villages (“Place-Mother” or “Mother of God” shrines), and cultic edifices built on mountaintops, far from populated areas. Christian churches, monasteries, and festivals are also shown in the films. In some localities, evidence of syncretism between traditional and Orthodox Christian observances has been captured on film.
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In addition to cultic monuments of different types and the rituals connected with them, film-makers also recorded scenes of traditional crafts, agriculture and practices of the highlanders (brewing beer, weaving carpets, horse-riding, weddings, fencing, mourning, etc.). Traditional costumes were also documented on film. Spectacular highland landscapes and monuments of material culture serve as background to scenes of the everyday life of local inhabitants and the problems they are facing – such as the continuous loss of population through migration to the lowlands – which pose a risk to the survival of the traditional life and culture of the Eastern Georgian mountaineers.
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In conclusion, the ethnographic films and materials in the Visual Anthropology Collection of the Georgian State Museum are of considerable scientific importance and will be of great use to all experts and specialists, interested in the Georgian cultural heritage. This is especially true in view of the dramatic changes undergone by the traditional cultures of the Caucasus in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. The study of many vanished elements of these cultures will necessitate reference to visual documentation kept in the museum’s collection.
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The following is a list of films, as copied from the catalogue:
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PSHAVI
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 120 min.
Author Mirian Khutsishvili.
1960–1979
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The film opens with views of Magaroskari, the largest village and administrative centre of the present-day province of Pshavi. Scenes of the local school are shown, as well as demonstrations of traditional methods of rug-weaving and knitting socks. This is follwed by scenes of the village of Chargali, birthplace of the celebrated poet Vazha Pshavela, whose home has been turned into a museum. Rituals and merry making at a wedding party are shown, rich with the elements of traditional culture. After that film takes us up the Aragvi Valley to the historical territory of ancient Pshavi, beginning with the principal village Shuapkho. After the views of the village, cheesemaking and bread-baking are shown, followed by the feast of the Shuapkho community shrine. The shrines and sanctuaries of the eastern Georgian highlands are considered the earthly domains of the divine patrons of each community, and function as local religious centres. The shrine complexes of each Pshavi commune spread over a large territory, including edifices of various functions. This is where the annual mid-summer feast dedicated to the divine patron are held. Rituals are led by a traditional priest (Khevisberi) and his assistants (Dasturi). Each member of the community took part in the ritual.
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A number of shrines and festivals are shown in the film. The first takes place at the Iakhsar shrine on a mountain slope to the west of Shuapkho. Among the cultic edifices shown are Iakhsar’s sacrificial altar (a pit made of stones, where animals are slain by the Khevisberi); the place where offerings of various kinds of bread baked for the shrine are presented; the “beerhouse” where ritual beer was brewed in large copper vats; the tower where sacred banners are kept; the “candle-altar”; the highly-sacred tower known as “kvrivi”, marking the spot where the divine patron is believed to have touched the earth; and the treasury where silver and copper vessels belonging to the shrine are kept.
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Next the film moves further upriver to the village of Gogolauri, that once was a community of 8 villages (the clans that inhabit Magaloskari and Chargali nowadays came from this territory). The Gogolauri St. George sanctuary complex is shown, which is located at two different places: the mountain shrine at Kmodis-Gori (at over 2000 meters altitude) and the abandoned settlement of Turmanauli. According to legend, the divine patron came down from Kmodis- Gori, drove away the residents of Turmanauli and settled there. The initiation ritual for newborn boys born to members of the clan, performed by the Khevisberi at St. George’s icon tower is shown. Also shown is the ancient granary with its distinctive pyramid-shaped roof, and the nearby bell-tower.
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Not far from Gogolaurta is the village Muku, site of the shrine of the Virgin Mary. The complex includes a building for clan chiefs and a beer-brewing cabin built of slates (both structures are badly damaged). The beer-brewing implements are shown. Traditionally, the brewing process occurred five days before the religious festival. The beer was poured into large wooden vessels by dasturis (the priest’s assistants). The pilgrims would spend the previous night in the sanctuary and would attend the opening of the vessels. According to tradition, only after the beer vats had been opened and could the sacrificing of animals begin. When the sun reached the top of the mountain, candles would be lit, the beer was poured into cups, and first the clan chief and then the rest of the people would drink toasts to the glory of their patron sanctuaries. Afterwards bread offerings would be cut and the feast began.
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The film records another religious monument, situated at the village Tchicho across the Aragvi River from Muku: the sanctuary dedicated to Queen Tamar (altitude 1780 m) and the badly damaged building where the dasturis once lived. Unlike the Khevisberi, who served for life, the dasturis performed their functions by turns, according to a certain order. During their term of service the dasturis were provided with food and drink by other members of the clan. The film also shows the bell-tower, an inscription on a copper bell, the place for cutting bread offerings.
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The film includes scenes of the main sanctuary of all twelve clans of Pshavi – Lasharis Jvari. Lasharis Jvari, which is at quite a distance from the populated areas in the upper part of the river Aragvi, was the most significant public and religious centre not only for the people of Pshavi, but also for all Georgian highlanders. Moreover, it was closely connected to the lowlands in political, economic and, of course, religious terms. This is confirmed by the fact that Georgian kings and nobles gave generous donations and granted numerous estates to Lasharis Jvari in different parts of Georgia. Traditionally, Lasharis Jvari was also the centre for rendering justice – the specially gathered council of “counselor-chiefs” pronounced verdicts on religious issues as well as serious intra- clan disputes. Here were resolved the most urgent and important problems concerning the twelve clans of Pshavi – both internal and foreign affairs, including the issues of peace and war. According to tradition, the army of highlanders would never go to war without the blessing of Lasharis Jvari.
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At the end of the film there are scenes of traditional ritual of “moving” the guardian angel of a household from an old to a new dwelling, conducted by the Khevisberi at the village Chinti.
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TUSHETI
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 120 min.
Author Mirian Khutsishvili
1984
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The film begins at the village Alvani, followed by scenes showing shepherds’ everyday life (sheep-breeding was traditionally the most important economic activity in this region of the eastern Georgian highlands). There are scenes of grazing sheep in summer pastures. This is followed by views of the mountain village Omalo and the Tushetians’ dwellings, which represent quite interesting examples of folk architecture. A well-attended Festival of the Archangel was recorded at Omalo, including scenes of the brewing of ritual beer and components of the sanctuary: the candle-altar and a middle-sized stone tower (which the locals call “milionai”), believed to be the throne of the patron deity.
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The commemorative banquet on the first anniversary of death and a mourning ritual were also shot at Omalo. The film includes scenes of wailing a deceased person, called dalaoba. Among the mourning practices in Tusheti, special importance is attached to the so called dalai, a commemorative horse-race conducted on the death anniversary. Five riders took part in the dalai: one – called the modalave – chanted verses in commemoration of the deceased while the other four sang an accompaniment. They laid out the deceased’s clothes in the yard, along with several pairs of socks, a tobacco pouch, rock-salt, roast barley, and wool poured milk into a bowl and began a loud wailing. The dalai riders mounted their own horses, whereas the modalave rode the horse in honour of the soul of the deceased, which was covered with black cloth and had a saddle bag over it. The rider of the “soul-horse” mourned aloud and sang in praise the deceased while the others sang the second voice. During pauses they were offered beer, part of which was spilt on the mane of the deceased’s horse and the rest was drunk in memory of the deceased.
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The following scenes of the film present the village of Shenako. It shows residential and household structures, as well as the village’s Christian church. Then follow scenes of hay-mowing and rug-weaving, and religious festival at the nearby village Diklo, where a dry-built stone “milionai” is situated. A very interesting ritual is recorded in the village Kumelauri: after the festival drunk riders heading for the village are blocked by women armed with long sticks who try to throw them off their horses. Indeed everything is veiled with humour, but, apparently, this a bit strange habit must be related to some event that occurred in the past or a ritual that has been forgotten by now.
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MTIULETI-GUDAMAQARI
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 30 min.
Author Mirian Khutsishvili
1978
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The film shows landscapes from the eastern Georgian districts of Mtiuleti and Gudamaqari, churches of St. George in the villages of Gogonauri and Chokhi, also local religious festivals and holidays.
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The film begins with scenes along the Georgian Military Highway, alternating with typical images of local dwellers and scenes reflecting their household activities. A sanctuary at Gogniauri, situated at the altitude of 1500 metres, and a sacrifice ritual are shown. It is followed by St. George’s church at the village of Mleta and a crowded festival. Then we move to the Lomisis Jvari sanctuary, located not far from an early Christian period basilica.
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The film goes on to show the church at the village of Chokhi and scenes of the economic life of the villagers. In Gudamaqari the festival dedicated to the Pirimze piris angel’s icon is shown (the icon was brought from Khevsureti and pilgrims from there also participate in the festival). The film-maker also recorded the sacrifice ritual conducted by the clan priest.
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At the end of the film there is a modern festival dedicated to the “Shepherd’s Day” at the village of Tsivtsqaro, in the district of Dusheti, which includes a wrestling tournament and a concert of folk groups.
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KHEVSURETI
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 80 min.
Author Mirian Khutsishvili
1995
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The film mainly uses archival footage shot in the 1920s by the cameraman Sobol. It shows scenes of the Khevsurs’ everyday life (haircutting, shaving), portraits of Khevsur women and men and their activities: weaving rugs, sewing, mowing, forging daggers, making cheese and so on. It shows traditional Khevsur men’s and women’s costumes. It records the ritual celebrated on the fortieth day after death: going to the sanctuary, decorating the horse of the dead, plaiting the horse’s tail, the feast held in the name of the dead. There appear buildings of the sanctuary at the village Gudani, the treasury (objects donated to the sanctuary), also the ritual of a child’s consecration to the sanctuary, or “blood-baptism”, after which he/she was regarded as the “vassal” of the sanctuary for life. There follow scenes of sacrificing domestic animals to the sanctuary, also the ritual horse-race with dozens of riders. Afterwards there occurs the ritual of “decorating the flag” by the traditional priest. Small bells hanging on the flag were the necessary attributes of the flag. The bell was conceived by Georgian highlanders as an instrument of God’s Revelation as well as a means for driving evil spirits away, that is why the bells were rung whenever the flag was used in the ritual.
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There follow scenes of the Khevsurs’ economic and everyday life – crossing the river on horses, forging a horseshoe, greeting rituals, traditional swordplay, ploughing, sowing and so on. There are scenes of villages from Northern Khevsureti (Arkhoti, Mutso, Shatili), residential and agricultural buildings.
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The custom of sacrificing a horse to the deceased is related to once-widespread beliefs about the afterlife among the East-Georgian highlanders. Such a horse was called a “soulhorse”. During the mourning ceremony it would be washed, its mane would be plaited, a velvet pad decorated with beads and buttons was attached to the mane, the tail would be plaited and pieces of coloured cloth would be tied to it. Then the horse was saddled, a lit candle was fixed to the saddle seat and a whip was hung on it. A saddle bag with bread and vodka was put over the saddle and the decorated horse stood by the deceased’s corpse on the funeral day. The “soul-horse” played an important role in the ritual horse-race (“doghi”) arranged on the first anniversary of death, which is also recorded in the film. The horse was again ornamented as described above, and put in front of the race riders (it did not take part in the race itself).
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The race was an indivisible component of the ritual of commemorating the dead and was considered a sign of great respect. As a rule it was held on the death anniversary (there were some exceptional cases when the race was held on the funeral day). At least five riders took part in the race, although the more horses participated in the race, the more respect it showed to the deceased and his/her family. The race was held on behalf of dead people of either sex.
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Special care was taken to prepare racing horses: the tail and the mane were plaited and decorated with coloured beads. The race horses were never saddled (only the “soul-horse” was saddled): there was only a band round the horse’s for the riders to hold on to. The winner was presented with awards by the mourners: livestock, rugs, and sometimes money. The race was attended by the whole village, and the riders were welcomed and taken to a special place where they drank toasts in honour of the dead.
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The film shows traditional everyday life and activities of mountain Khevsurian villages, abundantly permeated with archaic elements. Original clothing, habits and customs, residential and housekeeping constructions are recorded. There is special focus on the unique medieval residential complex at the village Shatili.
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SHROVETIDE IN GEORGIA
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 30 min.
Author Mirian Khutsishvili
1986-1988
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The film shows an ancient Georgian festival as celebrated at the villages of Ude, Vale, Patara Chailuri (Sagarejo district) and Matani (Akhmeta district). The Georgian Shrovetide festival was usually held in the early spring, during the week preceding Christian Lent (known as “Cheese Week” in Georgian). Shrovetide is of pagan origin. However, it was not repressed by the church and was incorporated into the Easter cycle of the Orthodox calendar. A carnivallike festival called berikaoba or qeenoba takes place in Shrovetide week throughout Georgia. A ritual was carried out on each day of the week, intended to see winter off and welcome a new farming year. While a number of folk festivals have forever been forgotten, berikaobaqeenoba has survived in Georgian custom for a long time, doubtless due to its popular theatrical nature. The film shows how modern life merges organically with traditional cultural elements – how the participants of the festival try to accommodate archaic customs with modernity, in keeping with the reality of their lives.
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ALONG THE ROUTE OF THE
TRANSCAUCASIAN RAILWAY
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 120 min.
Author Mirian Khutsishvili
1985-1991
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In the late 1970s plans were announced to construct a gigantic 25km-long railway tunnel through the Caucasus, which would have shortened the main line between Georgia and the Russian Soviet Federation by several thousand kilometres. The grandiose scale of the project and the dangers it posed caused an extremely negative reaction among the society, which eventually prevented the project from being accomplished. Numerous cultural-historic monuments along the route of the proposed Trans-Caucasian main railway were put at risk of damage and destruction; according to independent experts, flora and fauna were also facing significant ecological danger. It is noteworthy that the events brought about by the Trans-Caucasian railway project played a very important role in the process of intensifying national consciousness – the already weakened Soviet regime was made to retreat and acknowledge public opinion, which was not at all characteristic of the establishment. It is not accidental that several years later the Soviet empire disintegrated.
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The main task of the authors of the film was to record those cultural-historic monuments located along the route of the projected Trans- Caucasian railway system. Despite the existing censure limitations the film shows the heterogeneous attitude of the society towards the building process as it was underway.
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The film begins with views of the village of Ksani and its medieval castle. They are followed by scenes of archaeological excavations at Ksani and Dzalisi, which were financed from the funds of the Trans-Caucasian railway project (in this sense the unaccomplished building project had great importance – it became possible to excavate a number of interesting archaeological sites through the project’s budget). An interview with the head of the archaeological expedition is recorded, followed by a tour of the important historic sites that were revealed as a result of excavations, for example, the Classical period cemetery and the 2nd century Romantype mosaic bath floor with images of Dionysus and Ariadne. The film shows the visit of the president of the Georgian Academy of Sciences and of Georgian academicians to the site and their discussion on the importance of the newly- discovered cultural-historic monuments.
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The next section through which the railway line was to pass is the village of Tsilkani. The early-medieval basilica-type church and a festival dedicated to St. George – the most popular Christian saint in Georgia –are shown. Next there are scenes of village of Saguramo, and the house-museum of the prominent 19th century Georgian public and literary figure Ilia Chavchavadze. This is followed by scenes of the Georgian Orthodox Patriarch’s visit to the Zedazeni monastic complex near Saguramo, after which are shown various monuments along the building site of the main line: Chadijvari church, Bodorna, Aranisi, the village Zhinvali and the Zhinvali power station and reservoir. The film then moves further up the Aragvi Valley to the village Chargali with the house-museum of another popular 19th century Georgian writer, Vazha-Pshavela. It is followed by views of mountainous regions of Pshavi, the village of Shuapkho and the Iakhsar clan sanctuary. In the Khevsurian village of Korsha the ceremony of wailing over the deceased and the horse-race in commemoration of the dead are shown. There follows footage of a clan sanctuary in the village Vakisopeli and the associated religious festival. It is followed by the scenes reflecting shepherds’ life, sheep-shearing, cheese-making, etc.
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Work carried out to build the tunnel, with the use of heavy machinery, dynamite, etc., is observed in passing.
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In the second half of the film are shown various Khevsurian villages, as well as construction work along the Arkhoti Tarsk-Orjonikidze segment of the Trans-Caucasian railway route. The film includes a communal ritual at the shrine of Arkhoti in northern Khevsureti.
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At this point the scene shifts to the North Caucasus, and to Ingushetian territory. The Assa Valley is shown, where work was then underway on the northern entrance of the railway tunnel. This is followed by scenes from the Ingush village of Targim, with its residential towers – monuments of traditional Ingush architecture –, the fortresses of Egi-Kale and Vovnushk, and the 11th century Christian church Tqoba-Erda, where Georgian inscriptions and bas-reliefs are to be seen. Also shown are archaeological excavations underway at the site of the Egi-Kale fortress and a local cemetery.
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Also recorded on film is the Ingush village of Erzan, with scenes of its towers, local residents and their agricultural activities. A local beekeeper is shown, who says his ancestors came from Georgia several centuries earlier.
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The final segment of the film begins in the villages of Jeirakh and Tarsk. Local residents are shown, along with their traditional costumes, mourning and burial rituals, and also scenes from a wedding celebration. Of particular interest is the Miatlom shrine built atop the 2500- meter Mt. Stalovaya. The film ends in Orjonikidze (now renamed Vladikavkaz), the capital of the North Ossetian Republic. A Georgian-language school that existed at the time of the film is shown, along with a church and other noteworthy sights.
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SVANETI
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 70 min.
(raw film material)
Author Mirian Khutsishvili
1960-1990
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The Museum’s collection includes footage of the high-mountain province of Svaneti shot by the museum staff along with that recorded by the cameraman Sobol in the 1940’s. The film depicts the traditional culture of the Svans and elements of their daily life: agricultural activities such as hay-mowing, threshing, forestry, vodka distilling, traditional clothing, round-dancing, and sporting activities such as stone-lifting competitions.
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Also shown are aspects of contemporary life in Svaneti: the school, kindergarten, and medical clinic in the principal village of Mestia, also the local museum, with its rich and unique collection of artefacts from the region. Ushguli, one of the highest settlements in Europe, is also featured in the film.
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Since the 1920’s, Svaneti has attracted tourists and mountain-climbers. An international mountaineering camp was established at the village of Ailama, from where expeditions set out each year to conquer the high peaks of Ushba, Shkhara and other mountains. A team of mountain- climbers is shown in the film as they prepare for an ascent of Mt. Shkhara.
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THE LASHARI SHRINE OF TIANETI
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 80 min.
(raw film materials)
Author Mirian Khutsishvili
1988-1990
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The deity known as Lashari is one of the most powerful figures of traditional East-Georgian highland religion. Besides Lasharis Jvari, the main shrine of Pshavi, sanctuaries bearing his name are found in Tusheti and Tianeti. This last-named shrine is featured in this film, recorded by members of the visual anthropology team of the Georgian State Museum.
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The existence of shrines to Lashari in Tusheti and Tianeti is association with a tradition, according to which those inhabitants of the East-Georgian highland who refused to accept Christianity resettled in these areas, setting up shrines to their chief divinities. It is a noteworthy fact that those who participate in the festival of the Lashari Shrine of Tianeti regard themselves as descendants of Pshav mountaineers.
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The film contains scenes from the popular festival of the Lashari Shrine, including breadbaking, animal sacrifice, and the presentation of bread-offerings to be blessed by the Khevisberi (traditional priest).
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TIANETI
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 80 min.
(raw film material)
Author Mirian Khutsishvili
1988-1990
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This footage includes scenes of the procession of the Khevisberi (traditional priest) and several dozen worshippers from Akhmeta to the Lasharis Jvari shrine of Tianeti. In earlier times, Lasharis Jvari possessed so-called “shrine lands” near Akhmeta – traditionally, such lands included farmland, hayfields and pastures, which were situated at a considerable distance from the shrine itself. The worshippers, lead by men bearing Lashari’s banners, begin with prayers at a small shrine near Akhmeta, and along their route they stop at other holy sites, where they are met by local people bearing food. Most of the residents of these villages are of Pshavian origin, and consider themselves “vassals” of Lasharis Jvari. Toward the end of the route, the procession stops at the shrine of Queen Tamar at Tamar Ghele, where they spend the night. The next day they proceed to the Lasharis Jvari shrine of Tianeti, where the annual festival takes place.
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Besides the above, the film also contains scenes of the feast of the Dormition of Mary, and the remarkable medieval church located near the village of Kvetera, one of the jewels of Georgian architecture, at the seat of an ancient principality. Also shown are the medieval basilica at Zhaleti, and various aspects of daily life: wood-cutting and transport downhill, butterchurning, knitting, etc.
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KAKHETI
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 50 min.
(raw film material)
Author Mirian Khutsishvili
1960-2001
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This film features the Christmas ceremony at Nekresi Monastery in the eastern province of Kakheti. This is the most important Christian holiday at this monastery, and every year a large number of people turn up. Parents and their children come to attend the ceremony, and spend the preceding night in tents. Nekresi is the only Orthodox Church in Georgia where people bring pigs to be sacrificed. Various stages of the ceremony are shown: sacrifice, praying and feasting.
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The remainder of the film depicts the daily life of the residents of Lapaskuri, a Kakhetian village inhabited by people resettled from the mountain district of Pshavi. They have not abandoned their traditions. In the village there is a shrine brought from the highlands, where the annual shrine festival (“khatoba”) is celebrated. Scenes are shown of the festival, the baking of “kada” (a type of bread with a sweet filling), cow-milking, the blacksmith, etc. Also shown is a special wish-tree called “sakadrisebiani”, on the branches of which community members tie strips of cloth while imploring the shrine to fulfill their wishes. The film concludes with images of the memorial and obelisk erected in honour of local soldiers killed in World War II.
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KARTLI
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 30 min.
(raw film material)
Author Mirian Khutsishvili
1965-1995
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The film begins with scenes of the “Giorgoba” (St. George’s day) festival at the church of St. George at Geri near Gori. A procession of cars and canvas-covered carts are shown moving towards the church, as well as scenes of worshippers circumambulating the church on their knees. It was earlier believed that Geri St. George aided people with mental afflictions. Such individuals were tied a tree overlooking a deep gorge near the church – a form of “shock therapy” that occasional produced positive results.
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Next the film presents the feast of the Virgin Mary as celebrated at Kvatakhevi Monastery. This is the second most popular Christian festival in Georgia after Giorgoba. It is followed by the Didgori Festival at the local church of St. George. The film shows a ritual performed on behalf of small children: a woman circles three times around the church on her knees, carrying a child in her arms, while rolling a ball of white thread in front of her. The film also shows the landscape and lifestyle of the local community.
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KHEVSURETI AND SVANETI
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 30 min.
(raw film material)
Footage shot by the cameraman Fivel Sobol
XX c. 40-60
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The Novosibirsk film-maker Sobol recorded ethnographic footage in the highland provinces of Svaneti and Khevsureti. This film was brought to Georgia and added to the Museum’s archive at the initiative of M. Khutsishvili.
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The footage from Khevsureti consists principally in scenes of the landscape, the local people, and their traditional costumes. Also shown are scenes of traditional swordsmanship – a highly-developed art in Khevsureti –, processions of banner-bearing shrine personnel, horse-riding, etc. This section concludes with views of the village of Shatili, children’s costumes, and other aspects of daily life.
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The footage from Svaneti comprises many scenes of the landscape and the high peaks of the Caucasus. The village of Mestia and its residents are shown, as well as their houses and medieval defence towers. This is followed by scene of a funeral, mourning and burial. The traditional technology of collecting gold from the river is shown, which according to some scholars may be at the origin of the legend of the Golden Fleece.
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RACHA-LECHKHUMI
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 35 min.
(raw film material)
Author Mirian Khutsishvili
1965-1980
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The film begins with landscape views of Racha, another of Georgia’s highland provinces. The town of Oni, administrative centre of Upper Racha, is shown, including scenes of its old neighbourhoods. From medieval times until their recent migration to Israel, Oni was home to a thriving Jewish community. The synagogue is shown, with its ancient manuscript Torah, one of the oldest known, which is brought out on holy days. The architecture of the synagogue is shown. Some centuries ago, the present building was erected on the foundation of an older edifice.
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The film continues with scenes further up the Rioni Valley, including the village of Shkmeri, with its residents and traditional houses. This is followed by scenes of Ghebi, a village near the frontier with Svaneti, with its distinctive domestic architecture; then come scenes of the near-by towns of Chiora and Glola.
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There follows a depiction of the 9th-century St. George Church in the village of Mravaldzargva, one of the oldest churches in the region. Scenes of the festival of the Dormition of Mary are shown, which is attended by worshippers from all parts of western Georgia. The film concludes with the official opening of a hospital in Oni, which took place in 1975.
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SAMTSKHE-JAVAKHETI
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 50 min.
(raw film material)
Author Mirian Khutsishvili
1969-1998
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This footage was shot in the southern province of Samtskhe-Javakheti. The film begins at one of medieval Georgia’s most extraordinary achievements, the 12th-13th century monastery complex of Vardzia, which is built into the wall of a cliff overlooking the Kura (Mtkvari) River. This royal monastery, dedicated during the reign of Queen Tamar in 1185, has played an important role in Georgian history. Featured in the film are the Cathedral of the Dormition of Mary, built in a large chamber cut out from the cliff face, with its splendid wall paintings (including portraits of Queen Tamar and her father Giorgi III); various rooms, monastic cells and defence structures from the 13-story complex; a two-story bell tower adorned with elaborate stone carvings, erected after the earthquake of 1283, which caused serious damage to the monastery; and other noteworthy structures. The complex once contained living quarters for 120, and 420 rooms, including 25 wine-cellars with 185 large wine-jugs buried in the floor. There were also at least a dozen chapels, many of them adorned with wall paintings. Most of the icons and other precious items kept at Vardzia were carried away by an invading Persian army in 1551.
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After Vardzia, the film crew recorded views of Apnia, a village at 1700 m altitude on the Akhalkalaki Plateau overlooking the right bank of the Kura, and its early-Christian period basilica and bell-tower. This is followed by the ruins of a 10thc. church at Kumurdo, in which ancient inscriptions are preserved, including the name of the architect (Sakotar) who was commissioned to erect the cathedral. Then the film moves to Sapara, site of an important monastery complex, including the Church of the Dormition (10thc.), the Church of St. Saba (c. 1300), the belltower and castle. (At the time, Sapara was the residence of the Jaqeli princes, who ruled over Samtskhe-Javakheti). Next is
shown the 8th-9th c. monastery complex at Zarzma, with its church, bell-tower, refectory and other buildings.
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The next section of the film is set in the villages of Khizambavra and Saro, settled by members of Georgia’s Catholic minority. Due to long-standing contacts with the Roman papacy, Catholic missionaries came to Georgia at various times, some as early as the 13th century. A Catholic bishopric was founded in Tbilisi at the order of Pope John XXII in 1329. The influence of the papacy declined in the face of Turkish expansion, but resumed in the early 17th century with the arrival of Italian missionaries, some of whom left detailed accounts of life in Georgia at the time. Georgian Catholic communities are primarily found in the cities of Tbilisi, Gori and Kutaisi, and especially in the southwestern districts of Akhaltsikhe, Samtskhe, Artaani and Shavsheti.
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The film concludes with scenes of a basilica in the village Zeveli, and a memorial in Saro erected to commemorate local soldiers killed in World War II.
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ABKHAZETI
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 10 min.
(raw film material)
Author Mirian Khutsishvili
1971-1980
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This brief film features scenes of the St. George festival (“Giorgoba”) at the 11th-c. church of St. George at Ilori, which takes place every year on 20 November. According to tradition, and 17th-18th-c. documents, it was believed that a bull
would miraculously appear inside the Ilori cathedral during the night preceding Giorgoba, which would then be sacrificed at the festival. Portions of the slaughtered bull’s meat were kept by the worshippers, who believed it warded off evil and illness.
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OSSETIA
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 10 min.
(raw film material)
Author Mirian Khutsishvili
1975
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This foot ge was recorded in the North Ossetian village of Dargavs, the site of an ancient cemetery or “city of the dead”, with its mausoleums, gravestones, etc.
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DAGESTAN
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 40 min.
(raw film material)
Author Mirian Khutsishvili
1960-1985
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This footage includes views of the impressive scenery of Dagestan, beginning with the villages Gunib and Upper and Lower Kuban. The distinctive layout of Dagestan villages is shown. The gold- and silversmiths of the village Kubachi are renowned for their artistry throughout the Caucasus. Examples of their daggers, swords and other pieces of craftsmanship are shown. Evidence of former Georgian cultural influence in Dagestan is shown in the form of a church with Georgian inscriptions.
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Also shown are the citadel of Narinkala in Derbent, and also the site in Gunib where the Imam Shamil surrendered to the Russian General Bariatinsky, ending the decades-long resistance of the North Caucasian tribes, at least temporarily...
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The film concludes with views of the narrow streets, houses and wood-carved balconies of Gunib, and a cemetery in Derbent.
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SAINGILO
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 10 min.
(raw film material)
Author Mirian Khutsishvili
1975
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The formerly Georgian province of Saingilo is now part of the Azerbaijan Republic. The local population still retains the Georgian language and many of their former traditions, despite being surrounded by a Muslim majority. They also have a Georgian-language school and theatre. The film shows the Church of St. George at Kurmuxi, and the people praying there.
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GEORGIANS IN IRAN
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 20 min.
Author Irakli Kandelaki
1944
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This film shows the everyday life of the Georgian community in Fereidan, Iran. It also describes the history of 200 000 Georgians exiled by Shah Abbas I in 1614-17. These people were settled in Fereidan where they established several Georgian villages. Although they were compelled to change their religion, they have preserved the Georgian language and many ancestral traditions.
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ALONG THE RIVER MTKVARI
Colour. 35 mm. App. 20 min.
Author Irakli Kandelaki
1959
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The purpose of this film was to record the provinces, landscapes and historical monuments situated along the banks of the Mtkvari, the principal river of Georgia.
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GELATI
Colour. 35 mm. Approx. 30 min.
(one reel missing)
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The Gelati Monastery (situated 11 kilometres to the north-east of Kutaisi, in the Tsqaltsitela Valley) was one of Georgia’s principal cultural centres for centuries, and the depository of numerous artistic and intellectual treasures. The monastery was founded by King David the Builder in 1106. Due to his progressive internal policy and favorable international circumstances Georgia became a powerful feudal monarchy at this time. The construction of Gelati Monastery is considered to be one of King David’s greatest projects. The organization and architecture of the monastery complex of Gelati and its wall paintings reflect the artistic style of the period.
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DIMITRI SHEVARDNADZE
Documentary film. DVD. 20 min.
Screenplay: Manana Shevardnadze and
Irakli Makharadze
Director: Irakli Makharadze
2000
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The film presents the life and career of the Georgian painter Dimitri Shevardnadze, who was a victim of the purges of 1937 along with thousands of intellectuals who lived in the Soviet Union at that time. As well as being a celebrated painter, Dimitri Shevardnadze was active in cultural affairs. He played a leading role in the founding of the Georgian Museum of Fine Arts, Art Gallery and Academy of Art. He was the first to understand the value and importance of the primitivist painter Niko Pirosmani’s work, which he did much to popularize. He worked in the Georgian cinema, and also executed the designs for bank notes and the first Georgian post stamp. Under his leadership several young artists who were later to acheive fame, such as Lado Gudiashvili, David Kakabadze, and Elene Akhvlediani were sent abroad to be educated.
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GURIAN BANDITS Documentary film. DVD. 23 min.
Author and director Irakli Makharadze
1999
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The film depicts the adventures of the bandits from the western Georgian province of Guria at the turn of the 20th century. Sisona Darchia, Simon Dolidze, Datiko Shevardnadze are main characters in this story, and their deeds are recounted in numerous ballads, stories and songs. They were as popular as Robin Hood in their time.
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The film is based on real events, as described in letters written by a certain Kirile Chavleshvili to the notorious American bandit Henry Starr, with whom he apparently robbed a train in 1893. Although Starr and the other robbers were arrested, Chavleshvili managed to leave America. While in America he participated in Buffalo Bill Cody’s famous Wild West Show. He and other Georgian trick riders were advertised as “Russian Cossacks” and demonstrated daredevil horse riding techniques.
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RIDERS OF THE WILD WEST
Documentary. DVD. 30 min.
,,Georgian TV Film”.
Author and director Irakli Makharadze
1997
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Georgian riders from the province of Guria made their first appearance in Buffalo Bill Cody’s “Wild West Show” in London in 1892, then arrived in America in 1893. Unfortunately, they were called “Russian Cossacks,” probably because Georgia was then part of the Russian Empire. Over the next thirty years, Georgian “Cossacks” made numerous appearances in Buffalo Bill’s ensemble, as well as other circuses and shows. The whole world came to know them, and even cowboys were impressed. According to Dee Brown, historian and researcher of the Wild West, the Georgian Cossacks transformed rodeo horse riding. “Cowboys were fascinated by their stunning stunts and later they represented the tricks in their own way in American rodeo.” The Georgian riders’ technique and unprecedented tricks made them famous throughout America. The film presents the Gurian trick riders’ amazing history, as well as its sad end after the Soviet takeover of Georgia. Unique documentary footage and photo materials found in Georgian and American archives were used in the film.
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TRANSFER OF THE BODY OF THE ARTIST GEORGI YAKULOV
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 5 min.
(raw film material)
1928
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This early documentary footage, once kept in a mislabelled box in the Central State Archives, was rediscovered by chance. Although brief, it is of exceptional historical interest because many Georgian cultural figures, who were later to be executed by the Soviet regime, make an appearance in this film. Among them are the theatrical director Sandro Akhmeteli and the poet Tristan Tabidze. Doubtless many other films and photographs depicting the victims of the Stalin years were destroyed by the regime.
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The footage was recorded at the Tbilisi railway station in 1928, showing the arrival of the remains of the painter Georgy Yakulov, the party meeting the train, a military band and Red Army honour guard, the artist’s wake, and the transfer of the body to a Moscow-bound train.
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GEORGIAN MUSEUM
Colour. 35 mm. Approx. 30 min.
1968
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The film shows the exhibits then on display at the Georgian National Museum, from the prehistoric period up to the modern era.
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ANTIQUITIES OF MTSKHETA
B&W. 35 mm. Approx. 4 min.
(raw film material)
1939
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This footage from 1939 was shot at the site of an archaeological excavation at Mtskheta, the ancient capital of Georgia. The ruins of a wall are shown, as well as remnants of a tower and a royal residence (with its colonnaded hall, bath, water-ducts, etc.), dating to the 1st-2nd c. AD. Also shown is ancient cemetery where urnburials were discovered, and the archaeologists at work. Some well-known scholars of the period appear in the film, including Ivane Javakhishvili, Akaki Shanidze, and Simon Janashia.
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A TOAST TO ALL WHO CAME!
Animation. DVD. 21 min.
Screenplay: Irakli Makharadze,
Shadiman Chavchavadze.
Director Irakli Makharadze
2001
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This film is dedicated to the first Georgian opera company, founded in Tbilisi in the 1850’s. The first troupe of singers to come to the city were Italian singers, which led to the enormous popularity of Italian opera among Georgian music lovers.
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Miscellaneous rough material of
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS
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The Visual Anthropology archives of the museum also contains several short documentary films of archaeological excavations, usually a few minutes in length, recorded at various dates. Among the archaeological sites shown are Urbnisi, Dmanisi, Lagodekhi, and Nokalakevi.
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© 2006 Georgian National Museum
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UNESCO's Major Evaluative Factors of Language Vitality

2009-02-23T17:17:00.003+04:00

The following 6 evaluative factors of language vitality were copied from the UNESCO's Ad Hoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages' report on Language Vitality and Endangerment, document which was submitted to the International Expert Meeting on [the] UNESCO's Programme [for the] Safeguarding of Endangered Languages (held in Paris in 2003).
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Factor 1
Intergenerational Language Transmission
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The most commonly used factor in evaluating the vitality of a language is whether or not it is being transmitted from one generation to the next (Fishman 1991). Endangerment can be ranked on a continuum from stability to extinction. Even “safe” (below), however, does not guarantee language vitality, because at any time speakers may cease to pass on their language to the next generation. Six degrees of endangerment may be distinguished with regards to Intergenerational Language Transmission:
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Safe (5): The language is spoken by all generations. There is no sign of linguistic threat from any other language, and the intergenerational transmission of the language seems uninterrupted.
Stable yet threatened (5-): The language is spoken in most contexts by all generations with unbroken intergenerational transmission, yet multilingualism in the native language and one or more dominant language(s) has usurped certain important communication contexts. Note that multilingualism alone is not necessarily a threat to languages.
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Unsafe (4): Most but not all children or families of a particular community speak their language as their first language, but it may be restricted to specific social domains (such as at home where children interact with their parents and grandparents).
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Definitively endangered (3): The language is no longer being learned as the mother tongue by children in the home. The youngest speakers are thus of the parental generation. At this stage, parents may still speak their language to their children, but their children do not typically respond in the language.
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Severely endangered (2): The language is spoken only by grandparents and older generations; while the parent generation may still understand the language, they typically do not speak it to their children.
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Critically endangered (1): The youngest speakers are in the great-grandparental generation, and the language is not used for everyday interactions. These older people often remember only part of the language but do not use it, since there may not be anyone to speak with.
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Extinct (0): There is no one who can speak or remember the language.
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Factor 2
Absolute Number of Speakers
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It is impossible to provide a valid interpretation of absolute numbers, but a small speech community is always at risk. A small population is much more vulnerable to decimation (e.g. by disease, warfare, or natural disaster) than a larger one. A small language group may also merge with a neighbouring group, losing its own language and culture.
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Factor 3
Proportion of Speakers within the Total Population
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The number of speakers in relation to the total population of a group is a significant indicator of language vitality, where “group” may refer to the ethnic, religious, regional, or national group with which the speaker community identifies. The following scale can be used to appraise degrees of endangerment.
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"safe" - all speak the language
"unsafe" - nearly all speak the language
"definitively endangered" - a majority speak the language
"severely endangered" - a minority speak the language
"critically endangered" - very few speak the language
"extinct" - none speak the language
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Factor 4
Trends in Existing Language Domains
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Where, with whom, and the range of topics for which a language is used directly affects whether or not it will be transmitted to the next generation.
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Universal use (5): The language of the ethnolinguistic group is the language of interaction, identity, thinking, creativity, and entertainment, and is actively used in all discourse domains for all purposes.
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Multilingual parity (4): One or more dominant languages, rather than the language of the ethnolinguistic group, is/are the primary language(s) in most official domains: government, public offices, and educational institutions. The language in question, however, may well continue to be integral to a number of public domains, especially in traditional religious institutions, local stores, and those places where members of the community socialize. The coexistence of the dominant and non-dominant languages results in speakers’ using each language for a different function (diglossia), whereby the non-dominant language is used in informal and home contexts and the dominant language is used in official and public contexts. Speakers may consider the dominant language to be the language of social and economic opportunity. However, older members of the community may continue to use only their own minority language. Note that multilingualism, common throughout the world, does not necessarily lead to language loss.
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Dwindling domains (3): The non-dominant language loses ground and, at home, parents begin to use the dominant language in their everyday interactions with their children, and children become semi-speakers of their own language (receptive bilinguals). Parents and older members of the community tend to be productively bilingual in the dominant and indigenous languages: they understand and speak both. Bilingual children may exist in families where the indigenous language is actively used.
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Limited or formal domains (2): The non-dominant language is used only in highly formal domains, as especially in ritual and administration. The language may also still be used at the community centre, at festivals, and at ceremonial occasions where these older members of the community have a chance to meet. The limited domain may also include homes where grandparents and other older extended family members reside, and other traditional gathering places of the elderly. Many people can understand the language but cannot speak it.
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Highly limited domain (1): The non-dominant language is used in very restricted domains at special occasions, usually by very few individuals in a community, e.g. ritual leaders on ceremonial occasions. Some other individuals may remember at least some of the language (rememberers).
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Extinct (0): The language is not spoken at any place at any time.
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Factor 5
Response to New Domains and Media
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New areas for language use may emerge as community living conditions change. While some language communities do succeed in expanding their own language into the new domain, most do not. Schools, new work environments, new media, including broadcast media and the Internet, usually serve only to expand the scope and power of the dominant language at the expense of endangered languages. Although no existing domains of the endangered language may be lost, the use of the dominant language in the new domain has mesmerizing power, as with television.
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If the communities do not meet the challenges of modernity with their language, it becomes increasingly irrelevant and stigmatized.
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The type and use of these new domains will vary according to the local context. One example of the possible use of this criterion is: an endangered language enjoys one new domain, broadcast media, including radio and television, but only for a half-hour a week. Though the availability of these media gives the language a potentially high ranking, the extreme time limitation results in limited exposure to the language, which thus would rank only a 2 or 3. Inevitably, there will be different levels of achievement in different media.
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In education, assigning criteria can be based on two dimensions: up to what level, and how broadly across the curriculum, the endangered language is used. An endangered language which is the medium of instruction for all courses and at all levels will rank much higher than an endangered language that is taught only one hour per week.
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All new domains, be they in employment, education, or the media, must be considered together when assessing an endangered language community’s response.
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"dynamic" - the language is used in all new domains
"robust/active" - the language is used in most new domains
"receptive" - the language is used in many new domains
"coping" - the language is used in some new domains
"minimal" - the language is used in only a few new domains
"inactive" - the language is not used in any new domains
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Factor 6
Materials for Language Education and Literacy
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Education in the language is essential for language vitality. There are language communities that maintain strong oral traditions, and some do not wish their language to be written. In other communities, literacy in their language is a source of pride. In general, however, literacy is directly linked with social and economic development. Needed are books and materials on all topics for various ages and language abilities.
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Grade: 5 - There is an established orthography, literacy tradition with grammars, dictionaries, texts, literature, and everyday media. Writing in the language is used in administration and education.
Grade: 4 - Written materials exist, and at school, children are developing literacy in the language. Writing in the language is not used in administration.
Grade: 3 - Written materials exist and children may be exposed to the written form at school. Literacy is not promoted through print media.
Grade: 2 - Written materials exist, but they may only be useful for some members of the community; and for others, they may have a symbolic significance. Literacy education in the language is not a part of the school curriculum.
Grade: 1 - A practical orthography is known to the community and some material is being written.
Grade: 0 - No orthography available to the community.
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UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

2009-02-21T13:37:00.007+04:00

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(The timing of this post is particularly appropriate, as today - Saturday 21 February 2009 - is the 10th "International Mother-Language Day"!)
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The 2009 edition of the United Nations' Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization's Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger has just been published on the UNESCO's website.
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The Atlas' Editor-in-Chief is Christopher Moseley, previously editor of the Encyclopaedia of the World's Endangered Languages (London: Routledge 2007) and of the Atlas of the World's Languages (London: Routledge 1994 & 2007), and the experts who provided and validated the Atlas' data for the languages of Europe and of the Caucasus were Tapani Salminen and Tjeerd de Graaf.
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The Atlas can be consulted here, or downloaded (as a 20MB .pdf file) here.
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The Atlas lists around 50 languages - Caucasian, or spoken in the wider Caucasus - which it considers to be endangered. The colour-code key runs from white ("unsafe") to black ("extinct"), via yellow ("definitely endangered"), orange ("severely endangered"), and red ("critically endangered"). (Please see below for a fuller explanation of these terms, and of the methodology behind them.)
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Should one compile the language data for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Russian Federation, and Turkey, one would end up with the following list:
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"UNSAFE":
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Abaza
Russian Federation - Karachayevo-Cherkassia
[North-]West Caucasian/Abkhaz-Abazin
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Abkhaz
Georgia [de jure] - Abkhazia
[North-]West Caucasian/Abkhaz-Abazin
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Adyge
Russian Federation - Adygheia
[North-]West Caucasian/Circassian
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Avar
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Avar-Andic
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Chechen
Russian Federation - Chechnya
Nakho-Daghestanian/Nakh/Veinakh
-
Dargwa
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian
-
Ingush
Russian Federation - Ingushetia
Nakho-Daghestanian/Nakh/Veinakh
-
Kumyk
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Altaic/Turkic/Western Turkic/Ponto-Caspian
-
Lak
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian
-
Lezgian
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Lezgic/Nuclear Lezgic/East Lezgic
-
Ossete
Russian Federation - North Ossetia, and Georgia [de jure] - South Ossetia
Indo-European/Indo-Iranian/Iranian/Eastern/Northeastern
-
Tabasaran
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Lezgic/Nuclear Lezgic/East Lezgic
-
-
"DEFINITELY ENDANGERED":
-
Agul (Aghul)
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Lezgic/Nuclear Lezgic/East Lezgic
-
Akhvakh
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Avar-Andic/Andic
-
Andi
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Avar-Andic/Andic
-
Archi
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Lezgic
-
Bagvalal
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Avar-Andic/Andic
-
Bezhta
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Tsezic/East Tsezic
-
Botlikh
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Avar-Andic/Andic
-
Chamalal
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Avar-Andic/Andic
-
Godoberi
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Avar-Andic/Andic
-
Hinukh
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Tsezic/West Tsezic
-
Homshetsma (Hamshen)
Turkey
Indo-European/Armenian
-
Hunzib
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Tsezic/East Tsezic
-
Inkhokvari (Khvarshi)
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Tsezic/West Tsezic
-
Juhur (Tat)
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Altaic/Turkic/Western Turkic/Uralian
-
Karata
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Avar-Andic/Andic
-
Khvarshi
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Tsezic/West Tsezic
-
Laz
Turkey
Kartvelian/Zan
-
Mingrelian
Georgia
Kartvelian/Zan
-
Nogay
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Altaic/Turkic/Western Turkic/Aralo-Caspian
-
Pontic Greek
Turkey
Indo-Euroepan/Greek/Attic
-
Rutul
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Lezgic/Nuclear Lezgic/West Nuclear Lezgic
-
Svan
Georgia
Kartvelian/Svan
-
Tindi
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Avar-Andic/Andic
-
Tsakhur
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Lezgic/Nuclear Lezgic/West Nuclear Lezgic
-
Tsez
Russian Federation - Daghestan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Tsezic/West Tsezic
-
-
"SEVERELY ENDANGERED":
-
Bats
Georgia
Nakho-Daghestanian/Nakh
-
Bohtan Neo-Aramaic
Georgia
Afro-Asiatic/Semitic/Central Semitic/Aramaic/Eastern Aramaic/Central Eastern Aramaic/Northeastern Central Eastern Aramaic
-
Budukh
Azerbaijan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Lezgic/Nuclear Lezgic/South Nuclear Lezgic
-
Homshetsma (Hamshen)
Georgia [de jure] - Abkhazia
Indo-European/Armenian
-
Khinalug
Azerbaijan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Khinalugh
-
Kryz
Azerbaijan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Lezgic/Nuclear Lezgic/South Nuclear Lezgic
-
Tat
Azerbaijan
Altaic/Turkic/Western Turkic/Uralian
-
Udi
Georgia and Azerbaijan
Nakho-Daghestanian/Lezgic/Udi
-
-
"CRITICALLY ENDANGERED":
None (officially)
-
-
"EXTINCT":
-
Ubykh
Russian Federation - Krasnodarskii Krai, and Turkey
[North-]West Caucasian/Ubykh
-
-

As always, please refer to Ethnologue's excellent Languages of the World for more information on all these languages.

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Travels in Tusheti

2009-01-30T00:18:00.003+04:00

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When on my way back from the Dadaloba festival in the summer of 2008, I came across an English family on their way around Tusheti on horseback. I had been in touch with dad - Chris Wills - by email many months beforehand, and both parties were much surprised to bump into each other in Patima's wonderful guesthouse in the small hamlet of Djvarboseli!

Here is a link to their blog, a fine tale of horsemanship and feasting, and probably the best account of a wonderful stay in Tusheti! And for more information on how to get to Tusheti in the first place, please see this entry on my blog.
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J.A. Güldenstädt's 'Reisen durch Russland und im Caucasischen Gebürge'

2009-01-14T17:32:00.013+04:00

The two volumes of Johann Anton Güldenstädt's Reisen durch Russland und im Caucasischen Gebürge ["Travels through Russia and in the Mountains of the Caucasus"] were published posthumously by Peter Simon Pallas between 1787 and 1791. An updated, re-edited version of his Reisen was also published by Julius Klaproth in the Verlage der Stuhrschen Buchhandlung in 1834, under the title Dr. J.A. Güldenstädts Beschreibung der kaukasischen Länder - Aus seinen Papieren gänzlich umgearbeitet, verbessert herausgegeben und mit erklärenden Anmerkungen begleitet von Julius Klaproth. All are available on the Internet Archive website.

(Regrettably, I have no reference books here in Georgia which could provide me with a biography - however short - of J.A. Güldenstädt, and since most of the biographical material on the internet seems to be recycled from the Wikipedia entry on him, I shall quote freely from the latter source.)

Johann Anton Güldenstädt was a Baltic German naturalist and explorer, whose career was largely built in the service of the Russian empire. Born in 1745 in Riga (now the capital of Latvia - then, part of Imperial Russia), he studied at the University of Frankfurt, obtaining his doctorate in medicine in 1767 at the tender age of 22.

The following year he joined the St. Petersburg (i.e. Imperial Russian) Academy of Science's expedition sent by empress Catherine II ("The Great") to explore the empire's southern borders. Güldenstädt travelled through the Ukraine and the Astrakhan region to the northern Caucasus and Georgia - both of which were quasi terra incognita at the imperial court and almost entirely beyond the borders of the Russian empire - returning to St. Petersburg in 1775.

Güldenstädt's expedition was the first systematic study of the Caucasus. As was typical of contemporary expeditions organized in the spirit of the Enlightenment, it was tasked with the observation and description of virtually every aspect of the region under study, sparing readers no detail, however insignificant. This included both its "natural" attributes - flora, fauna, geography, geology, topography, etc. etc. - and every aspect of the region's peoples, economies, and governments. In this sense it was both a scientific expedition and a mission of reconnaissance to learn more about a region that was important to the simultaneous [first] Russian war against the Ottomans (1768-1774), of which the Caucasus was a theater, with the Georgians acting as Russian allies.

Immediately following the expedition, Russian interest in the region - and particularly Russian interest in Georgia - grew markedly, culminating in the Treaty of Georgievsk, which made East Georgia a Russian protectorate, and which marked the beginning of the end for Georgia's independence and sovereignty.

The expedition also contributed greatly to the fields of biology, geology, geography, and particularly linguistics. Güldenstädt took detailed notes on the languages of the region, and compiled comparative word-lists for Georgian, Mingrelian, Svan, Persian, Kurdish, "Kazak-Tatar", Ossetian (and Digoron), Kabard, "Abassish", Andi, Ghazi-Ghumukh, Lezgian, Dido, Khunzakh, etc. etc.

After the expedition, which definitively established Güldenstädt's reputation at the Academy, he continued to work as a naturalist. During his expedition to the Caucasus, he "collected" (i.e. shot - binoculars were not yet very advanced at that time) several species of bird which are named after him - most notably "Güldenstädt's Redstart" (Phoenicurus erythrogaster).

Johann Anton Güldenstädt died from an outbreak of fever in St. Petersburg in 1781, aged only 36.

Güldenstädt's Reisen is interesting to this blog not only for its detailed account of the Caucasus region in the XVIIIth century, however, but also because the author was (I believe) the first scientist and academic to mention the Bats people, who thus make their first historiographical appearance in its pages! Here is a scan of Güldenstädt's entry on the Tush and Tusheti, followed by my (approximate, but near-complete) transcription of the book's gothic typeface:

(As always, please click on the image for a larger view - or, better still, open it in a new tab in your browser. The bold typeface in the transcription is mine, and highlights elements specifically relating to the Bats people.)

Distrikt und Volk Tuschi oder Tuscheti

Oben am Flusse Stori der linken des obern Alasan und über dem Dokon (großen) Argun des Sundscha, [? im] Gebürge, ist der von dem Volke Tuschi oder den Tuscheten bewohnte Kreis Tuschi, 1½ Tagereisen vom Fuß des Hauptgebürges, in dem kachetischen Distrikte Kisicha am Stori hinauf. Er [? nimt] die Höhe des südlichen Schiefergebürgs. (Iugum alpinum schistosum) an Quellen und Bächen, die theils südlich zum Alassan, theils nordlich zum Argun oder [? Aksai] fließen; daher daselbst der [? Steinbok] häufig ist.

Die Dörfer des Distriktes Tuschi heißen:

Zoa. [probably "Tsova", i.e. "Tsaro"] - Sagirta.

Etelta. - Imdurt. ["Indurta"]

Wercha. ["Verkhovani"?] - Todgnare. [?]

Boagdrnare. [?] - Schenako.

Tikloare. ["Diklo"] - Tartloare. ["Dartlo"]

Taschare. - Tscheschoare. ["Tchesho"]

Parsnuare. ["Parsma"] - Giroare. ["Girevi"]

Tschuntiare. ["Chontio"] - Gogultare. ["Goglurta"]

Wakidsiriare. ["Vakisdziri"] - Buchartnare. ["Bukhurta"]

Kumelaurteare. ["Kumelaurta"] - Dschorboseliare. ["Djvarboseli"]

Godoniare. ["Gudanta"] - Homoloare. ["Omalo"]

Alle sollen bis 500 wehrhafte Männer stellen können.

Die Tuschi sind wie die Sprache, die ein georgianischer Dialekt mit vielen kistischen Wörtern ist, zeigt, gewiß Georgianer mit Kisten vermischt und der Zaar Heraklius sieht sie wie seine Unterthanen an, und sezt ihnen auch einen Maurow (Tuschetis Maurow,) der aber nicht im Distrikt, sondern in [? Baliskur] seinen Siz hat und 1772 von der fürstl Familie Tscherkessiani war. Sie geben auch dem Zaar zu gewissen Zeiten des Jahres Schloßwachen und stellen im Kriege Mannschaft; alles aber ist wenig mehr, als Schatten von Oberherrschaft; da sie weder Steuern [? entrichten] noch Befehlen [? gehorchen].

Sie geben dagegen an den lesgischen Auar Chan oder Nuzal einen jährlichen Tribut von 10 Maulthieren oder [? vergüten jedes] mit 60 Schaafen, wovon jedes mit rußischen Gelde verglichen 80 Kop. angeschlagen ist.

In den 4 erstgennanten Dörfern wird kistisch mit georgischen untermengt gesprochen. Die Einwohner können auch leicht mehr als die übrigen von Kisten gern abstammen.

Die Namen sind mehr vermischt, doch mehr georgische [? Mannsnamen] z.B. Mamuka, Uti, Ziskar, Zika, Epehe, [? Naderent], [?Darkis], Iwane, [? Kaptar], Otar, Dai, Schanki, Tscherkes, Georgi, Antau, Kautar, Gabrill, Theodor, Chuzer, [? Buko], Sage, Ito, [? Miki], Scha, [? Asi], Obolo, Sultan, Gagil, Dawid, Sagil, Gulo, Suro, Zoe, Sagirta.

Weibliche Namen: Tamar, Bai, Sabra, [? Simo], Nana, Merzeche, Maria, Anna, Matao, Soa.

Die Männer kleiden sich georgisch und auch die Weiber tragen nicht die kistinischen hornförmigen Hauben, sondern hangen nach georgischer Art Tücher über den Kopf.

Die Männer tragen einen Stutzbart und scheeren den Kopf wie die Tscherkessen.

Die mehresten halten die großen Fasten, aber nur wenige werden von einem sehr dummen Priester getauft. Sie halten keine Schweine, essen aber Schweinefleisch. Im Distrikt sind mehrere steinerne Kirchen, die aber nicht mehr besucht werden.

My translation into English from the original German:

The District [of the eastern Georgian province of Kakheti] and People of Tushi or Tusheti

Up by the Stori River the left [? branch] of the upper Alazani [River] and over the Dokon (big) Argun of the Sundzha, in the mountains, lies the area called Tushi, inhabited by the Tushi or Tushetian people, 1½ days' journey from the foot of the main mountain range, in the Kakhetian district of Qiziqi up the Stori [River]. It [Tusheti] [? occupies] the heights of the southern range of the schistous mountains. iugum alpinum schistotum at springs and streams, which flow partly southwards to the Alazani [River], partly northwards to the Argun or [? Aksai] [Rivers]; thus [where] the [? ibex] is numerous.

The villages of the District of Tushi are called:

Zoa. [probably "Tsova", i.e. "Tsaro"] - Sagirta.

Etelta. - Imdurt. ["Indurta"]

Wercha. ["Verkhovani"?] - Todgnare. [?]

Boagdrnare. [?] - Schenako.

Tikloare. ["Diklo"] - Tartloare. ["Dartlo"]

Taschare. - Tscheschoare. ["Tchesho"]

Parsnuare. ["Parsma"] - Giroare. ["Girevi"]

Tschuntiare. ["Chontio"] - Gogultare. ["Goglurta"]

Wakidsiriare. ["Vakisdziri"] - Buchartnare. ["Bukhurta"]

Kumelaurteare. ["Kumelaurta"] - Dschorboseliare. ["Djvarboseli"]

Godoniare. ["Gudanta"] - Homoloare. ["Omalo"]

All [are said] to [be able to] provide 500 armed men.

The Tushi are – as the language, which is a dialect of Georgian with many Kist words, shows – certainly Georgians mixed with Kists, and [King Erekle] considers them his subjects, and attributes them a [mouravi, i.e. lord] ([in Georgian:] tushetis mouravi), who however does not have his seat in the district, [sitting instead] in [? Baliskur] and [who] in 1772 was from the ducal family of Tcherkessiani. They [the Tush] also provide the King with palace guards at certain times of the year, and provide men during wars; all this, however, is little more than a shadow of overlordship, since they neither pay taxes nor obey commands.

In addition to this, they pay a yearly tribute to the Lesghian Avar Khan or Nutzal of 10 mules or compensate the same with 60 sheep, [the value of] each one of which is set at 80 kopeks of Russian money.

Kistian and Georgian are spoken equally in the 4 first-named villages. [Their] inhabitants could also more easily be descendants of the Kists [than the other Tush].

The names are more mixed, [although] there are more Georgian men's names, for example Mamuka, Uti, Ziskar, Zika, Epehe, [? Naderent], [?Darkis], Iwane, [? Kaptar], Otar, Dai, Schanki, Tscherkes, Georgi, Antau, Kautar, Gabrill, Theodor, Chuzer, [? Buko], Sage, Ito, [? Miki], Scha, [? Asi], Obolo, Sultan, Gagil, Dawid, Sagil, Gulo, Suro, Zoe, Sagirta.

Female names: Tamar, Bai, Sabra, [? Simo], Nana, Merzeche, Maria, Anna, Matao, Soa.

The men clothe themselves in the Georgian style and the women, too, do not wear the horn-shaped Kistian headdresses, instead hanging [scarves, lit. cloths] over the head according to the Georgian style.

The men [have] tile-beards and shave their heads like the Cherkessians.

Most hold the important fasts, but only a few of them are baptised by a very imbecile priest. They do not keep pigs, yet eat pork. Several stone churches are [to be found] in the district, which are however no longer visited.

(pp. 376-378 of Vol. I of G.'s Reisen)

Note: Two of the place-names - "Todgnare", "Boagdrnare" - in Güldenstädt's account of Tusheti elude me; they do not seem to relate to any existing toponyms. For purposes of comparison, I am using the best material I can find, viz. a 1:250,000 atlas published in Georgia in 2006. (Please click on the image below for a closer look at Tusheti copied from the relevant page of this atlas.)

"sakartvelos geograpiuli atlasi", GeoAnalytica 2006 - www.geoanalytica.ge

Another noteworthy curiosity regarding the place-names in Güldenstädt's account: Prof. Topshishvili remarks upon the fact that the suffix "-are", which is no longer in use nowadays, is of Vainkah origin. In his words:

"By the way, as it is quite obvious, information [regarding the names of the villages of Tusheti - a.b.] is obtained by the German scientist from the Tsova-Tushs (the Batsbs). It is approved by the names of the villages: “Diklo-Arre”, “Dochu-Arre”. The Tsova-Tushs called the Diklos, the Shenakos like this, which means the inhabitants of Diklo and Shenako (the Diklos, the Shenakos)."

This might also explain the fact that the first four villages in Güldenstädt's list are the four main [or remaining] villages of Tsovata. Only a Tsova would have namd his villages first! (And should a traveller follow Güldenstädt's indications and journey up the Stori River to Tusheti i.e. along the main "road", the first village mentioned in Güldenstädt's list he would encounter would be Kumelaurta.)

Khevsur Warriors

2009-01-14T15:24:00.004+04:00

I do not wish to become embroiled in the common nonsensical discussions about the Khevsurs being the descendants of Crusaders who somehow got lost in the Caucasus on their way from Europe to the Holy Land. Even a basic knowledge of geography suffices to know that Khevsureti is a long, long way from the routes followed by the Crusaders from Europe!
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Regardless: This old studio photograph (probably taken in Tbilisi) is so wonderful that I feel I must post it!
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The Tribute of Roses, as written by A. Goulbat

2009-01-14T12:46:00.005+04:00

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From Caucasian Legends, translated from the Russian of A. Goulbat by Sergei de Wesselitsky-Bojidarovitch, published by Hinds, Noble and Eldredge, New York 1904 (pp. 109-117).
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[This book is available online in its entirety on the Internet Archive website.]
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VII. The Tribute of Roses
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A LEGEND
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In our most blessed and favored country, where the sun shines so brightly, where the flowers have such a sweet, sweet fragrance, where the birds sing so melodiously, long ago in bygone times, when neither I nor my father nor my forefathers had been born, there lived a young and splendid couple in the Aule of Mokde [Note of the Translator: Aule is the common term for a very small village or rather mountain hamlet in the Caucasus.] They were always most hospitable and everybody praised them, but the Lord, who always delights in seeing the religious and the poor well treated, fully rewarded them and abundantly furnished them with rich presents, thus clearly showing them his appreciation for their good deeds. They had everything that could be desired: youth, beauty, good health, riches, and reputation, they sincerely loved one another and their inner happiness was as great as their outer appearance and great success. Their children were healthy, clever, good and lovely to look at. Their elder son, little Timitch, distinguished himself especially through his strength and ability; he was endowed with most fiery eyes, once sparkling like flashes of lightning, then again as soft and innocent as the eyes of a young mountain goat.
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For nine years the happy husband and wife lived thus, when suddenly between the aules of Mokde and Khamki a very bloody strife ensued and led to much destruction of life and property. During this strife, when the father of Timitch was mercilessly killed as well as his brothers and sisters, while the mother was taken prisoner and led off as a captive, Timitch himself was saved by some inexplicable wonder and soon became the favorite and greatest pride of the whole aule. In the meantime his mother, who was still a beautiful and youthful woman [in our country the women can be married at the early age of twelve] was sold and taken away to Turkey, where her wonderful appearance was the chief ornament of the Sultan's harem. In this select collection of beautiful and highly attractive women, her good looks and sweet disposition cast a dark shadow over all the rest — just as our bright sun dims all other planets.
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The Sultan got perfectly wild with delight over her, and he incessantly showered most precious weavings, gorgeous carpets and splendid stones of one color and priceless shawls—in a word everything that the rich, rich East could produce lay at her graceful feet. Nevertheless in the midst of all these flatteries and endless temptations she always remained faithful to her husband. It needed a marvellous mind and character like hers, while utterly refusing to fulfil the wishes of the Sultan, to still remain the governess of his heart and the immediate object of his kind and thoughtful attention. In these proceedings a lucky circumstance firmly assisted her viz., the fact that she had been preparing herself to become a mother already four months before, when she happened to be taken prisoner. The loving and enchanted Sultan decided to patiently await the birth of the baby, which was foreign to him, and then marry his unusual captive, who was of royal blood and thus fully had the right to be an empress. The nearer she approached the time when a child should be born, the gayer the future Sultana became, so that those surrounding her really imagined that she had forgotten her husband. But oh, how terribly mistaken they were! Indeed, the eventful day came and a daughter Tousholi was born.
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When they brought her the baby she long looked at it and tears came in floods out of her magnificent eyes, afterwards she made the sign of the cross on it and gave orders that it should be carried off.
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"Call Samson to me," she said. Samson was the eunuch, given and attached to her personal service by the Sultan and who had faithfully done his duty by her side. She knew how to win his esteem and confidence, especially as he was himself a Christian (of course quite secretly). When he arrived she ordered him to take up the opakalo (probably a kind of Eastern fan) and protect her, while sleeping, from uncomfortable and noisy flies ; but she did not want to sleep—this was simply a sly device to make everybody leave her apartment and get out. She profited by this occasion to tell Samson the following facts:
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"Samson, to thee I trust the new-born daughter Tousholi, promise me if possible secretly to make a Christian of her, as sincere and earnest in her belief as thou thyself. Among all these unbelievers thou wert not a slave to me, but a true and faithful friend and a tender and thoughtful brother. By the almighty mercifulness of God I am destined to live not much longer, for I hope to-day already to be able to unite myself with my dear husband, while thee I ask to take the place of this dear orphan's parents. Thou knowest my whole history, my strength does not enable me to speak to thee as freely as I should like. For the sake of the outward appearance I shall leave Tousholi nominally to the care of the Sultan, and I am convinced that at first everything will go right with you. When, however, your situation changes, I hope indeed that you may find means to return to Mokde and look up my firstborn child, whose natural obligation it is to be the powerful protector of his defenceless sister and her very aged educator, but now give me my little kindjail (Caucasian dagger)—fear nothing, I shall not cut myself open, for I have not even the strength to do that."
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Samson placed in her now feeble hands the handsomely ornamented little kindjail, artistically decorated with precious stones and fastened to a most gorgeous girdle. This was the wedding present of her husband and she never left it out of her sight. The submissive old man, through his tears beheld how the face of the sick woman suddenly lit up and how, her eyes flashing with some extraordinary fire, she bravely pulled the little kindjail out of the sheath and put its thin blade, which was as sharp as the tongue of a snake, up to her lovely mouth.
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"She sincerely kisses it," thought Samson, and quieted himself; but the precious little kindjail had yet another resemblance with the tongue of a snake, of which the faithful servant knew nothing. It was indeed poisoned!
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Having heroically swallowed the deadly poison, the sick woman commanded Samson to instantly inform the Sultan that she desired to see him. The all-powerful adorer of this Christian heroine immediately made his appearance and was utterly distressed when he saw the signs of approaching death already marked on her magnificent features. In his anger against those standing about, he threatened them with perfectly atrocious punishment if they did not that moment find doctors able to bring his favorite back to life. In the meantime with a weak but expressive and comprehensible movement of her hand, the patient showed that she desired to be left alone with him. All the rest disappeared in a second and she broke out thus:
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"My minutes are counted, I am dying, not paying you back in any way for your innumerable marks of kindness to me, and nevertheless I wish to ask yet another favor of you: be a father to my new-born daughter! It is my firm and irrevocable wish that my true and ever-faithful Samson shall stay by her and bring her up in none but my own dear religion ; when, however, you are tired of her, simply send them to Mokde to my son Timitch, and even if he be no longer living, I am fully convinced that the excellent daughter of my loving husband will always find protectors and friends among the good and kindly inhabitants of Mokde." With these serene words she breathed her last breath. The tremendous fury and utter despair of the Sultan went beyond any description. The court body-doctor and the arifa (i.e., the lady who administrates the harem) were hung without delay, but Samson and his sweet little pupil were given very fine and expensive apartments with magnificent board.
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Every ten days the old man was obliged to bring little Tousholi to the Sultan, who having tenderly caressed her and given riches to the faithful servant, let them retire, giving the strictest orders that those who surrounded them should never hinder, trouble, or disturb them in any way. Thus three long years easily went by. The childish features of the face of Tousholi now acquired a most striking resemblance with the marvellously beautiful features of her late mother. The courtiers began to notice repeatedly that the Sultan after a time had fallen in love with her, was earnestly reflecting about something and frequently sighing. Thus the visits, which used to last but a few minutes, now became very long indeed, while little Tousholi, with her childish caresses, gained the affection of the Sultan more and more. Immediately two parties sprang up: the first, wishing to make Tousholi their excellent instrument in order to get the upper hand and overrule the Sultan, and thus naturally, constantly and unceasingly chanting her praises and flattering her to the skies; the second, which had resolved to make her perish and from this reason never letting one occasion go by without trying to snap at her and pull her down from her exalted position.
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During the fearful struggle of these two desperate parties, Tousholi's childhood went by and she was already a grown-up maiden, when the kind-hearted Sultan died. His successor by chance belonged to the dangerous and inimical party, and so the sharp and careful Samson began to energetically demand to be allowed to go away to Mokde. The permission to start for the home journey was given with great joy and satisfaction, and very soon they had already arrived at Mokde. Here there was no difficulty in finding out Timitch. He was known by young and old alike. The old servant silently took from Tousholi's baggage that precious girdle with the kindjall, which he had handed to her mother just a few hours before her untimely death and passed it to Timitch, drawing his attention to a splendid all-sparkling round tablet. On it were inscribed the dear names of his glorious parents.
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"This is the remarkable girdle which was always around the waist of my all-beloved mother!" cried out the youth.
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"Well, say now I prythee where is she staying? How can I possibly reward thee—oh, thou grand old man? Art thou sent by her?"
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"I verily came to this memorable village by her sacred will," reverently answered Samson. "While dying she ordered me to lead thy sister to thee and hand her over to thy mighty care and protection."
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"What, my sister? Well, well, is it possible that not all sisters and brothers perished together with their splendid father?"
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Saying this he closely looked at the young girl and was evidently struck and impressed by her perfectly unusual beauty.
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"The resemblance with your mother ought to be sufficient to convince you of the truth of my words."
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Afterwards innumerable questions and answers were mutually exchanged. The old man and Tousholi settled down in the house of Timitch and Samson heartily rejoiced, seeing soon how the youngsters became friends. But nevertheless there was nothing to rejoice about! The twenty-year-old Timitch, fiery, not given to reflections, unaccustomed to restrain himself in any way, was entertaining such intentions as would make Samson's hair stand on end if he thoroughly understood their meaning. What is there strange in the fact that the twelve-year-old Tousholi was unable to guess at the thoughts of her brother and firmly trusted him in everything with all her simple childish sincerity of soul. The passionate attraction of Timitch grew not with days, but with hours, and once during a promenade, without being at all disturbed by the presence of grave old Samson, he actually went as far as to tell her of his peculiar intentions.
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Samson, astonished and disapproving the plan, threw himself in between the young people and was stupefied when seeing a dagger pointed towards him, but the terrified Tousholi speedily hid herself near a precipice. Seeing the immediate danger, the dying faithful Samson cursed the wicked and lawless boy, and lo! suddenly a great wonder took place.
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Timitch was transformed into a wind and began to crazily blow and whistle over the precipice, but the submissive and ever loyal servant was turned into a gigantic rose bush, in the midst of which a rose of unusual size was growing and constantly blooming. By the will of God, angels with marvellous, all-glorious singing slowly let themselves down into the precipice, majestically lifted out from it the magnificent body of Tousholi and carefully placed it in the very centre of the superb rose, the all-fragrant leaves of which gradually closed up and thus buried inside of them the deceased. Attracted by the all-glorious angelic singing, the faithful inhabitants of Mokde ran together in crowds to the rose and many of them clearly saw how the angels gracefully interred Tousholi in the rose. But Timitch could by no means quiet down; with anger and greatest passion he threw himself upon the rose bush and wished to break it down, but the more he shook the lovely branches, the closer and firmer did they stick to the rose and the better did they defend her from his unjustified attacks and depredations. When, however, he finally succeeded in carrying off the tender, tender leaves of the rose, Tousholi was no more to be seen, for her body had completely evaporated in the marvellous fragrance.
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The religious inhabitants of Mokde enclosed the beloved holy rose with a very massive stone wall, called this spot Tousholi, and yearly when the first beautiful rose came out they celebrated a fete, which has quite a character of its own and is popularly known as "the tribute of roses."
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The ceremony consists of the following points : Every young girl gathers a tremendous full bunch of rose leaves and standing one behind the other, they await the exit of the very oldest man in the village. He comes out, dressed in a white suit and bearing in his hand a white flag, the point of which is richly decorated with roses and covered with sweet little bells, while at the end a large wax candle burns. Putting himself at the head of the procession, the old man gives a solemn signal and the procession duly and martially directs itself towards Tousholi; behind it at a considerable distance followed young people, leading sheep and bringing along with them the customary offerings, i.e., horns, balls, hatchets, silks, etc. The procession winds around Tousholi three times with beautiful singing in which is described in detail all that we have mentioned above—then the girls in their turn enter through the great fence and put down in a certain place their splendid fragrant offerings, softly adding:
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"Saint Tousholi, help and assist me! Holy Samson, shield and protect me from the cursed Timitch and all of that kind !"
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On the top of a pretty mound, formed by the magnificent rose leaves, the old man solemnly fixes his standard, saying: "Saint Tousholi, make me wise, Holy Samson, help me to guard and defend all these tender maids from the cursed and all-hated Timitch and all those who follow his wicked example!"
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After this earnest speech the old man sits down at the foot of the graceful flag, while at his own feet the young girls settle down. Then the young people enter the enclosure and kneeling on one knee pronounce a most reverential greeting discourse to the hermit and the maidens and then they turn about and face an opposite corner, where they curse Timitch who hath wickedly cast a dark shadow over their beloved aule; afterwards they cut up the sheep and gayly feast with all those present. When I was but a very small boy I happened to be in this place and was favored with seeing with my own eyes one or two roses inside the enclosure, which it appears is existing even in our advanced and enlightened days. These roses are really unusually large in size, but nevertheless neither a grown-up girl nor even a new-born youngster can possibly find place inside the flower. I understand that at that time they used to say with regret, that the fete of "the tribute of roses" did not repeat itself yearly! Thus little by little ancient customs disappear and antique amusements are superseded by new ones, which are not always successfully chosen; only grim Timitch never changes, for he is quite as restless now as ever before, here moves and weeps like a child, there makes a row, yes rebels like a robber and lawlessly destroys whole buildings. His dislike for roses never ceases, and as soon as he sees a sweet little flower he immediately begins to blow around it with impatience and anger until he hath scattered the beautifully fragrant leaves far and wide over the country. Now the story of Tousholi is already forgotten, but her name, among the Chechenzes, is given to all such interesting places, where they go to make sacrifices and fervently pray.
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The Tale of Zesva, as written by A. Goulbat

2009-01-13T19:10:00.004+04:00

From Caucasian Legends, translated from the Russian of A. Goulbat by Sergei de Wesselitsky-Bojidarovitch, published by Hinds, Noble and Eldredge, New York 1904 (pp. 153-6).
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[This book is available online in its entirety on the Internet Archive website.]

XII. Zesva

Two horsemen were giving chase to some wild goats. Quickly did their most daring horses run, but still faster did the light little goats save themselves by flight, jumping across narrow gorges with one bound, springing on small plateaus, and in a word as though favored with having wings they seemed to fly through bushes and low shrubs. Now, however, they made for a very high mountain covered with bushes and forests and rapidly found their way among green branches and blooming trees, ascending higher and higher. The pace of the pursuit of the horsemen considerably slowed down as the various plants were every now and then the cause of unexpected delays, while their victims, the goats, were able to catch breath between each long jump and thus got on rather well and without much difficulty. The comparatively large horses were of course forced to go out of their way in order to avoid knocking up against trees, which barred the trail, and even where the grass had been smoothed out the animals went rather quietly and the energetic horsemen saw themselves more than once obliged to cut and bend down massive branches which formed the chief impediment in the whole undertaking. When after long and renewed attempts they safely reached the summit of the mountain, the goats had completely disappeared, and looking in various directions in order to discover the hiding place of the fugitives, the plucky horsemen cast their glances at that part of the mountain at the foot of which spread itself out like a fairyland the perfectly magnificent valley of Alazana. And how beautiful she looked on this rare sunny day, all shining with soft sweet rays, separated from each other by a large number of various colored shades, one more perfect and exquisite than the other. Now she would seem to take a bath in some pale, rosy waves, produced by an unknown marvellous battery of light, then again she so dazzled in precious gold and finally blazed with emeralds and the branches of its quite innumerable vineyards. There was also the sea of clusters, which could be distinguished through its little fruit garden, and like gigantic flower bushes they concentrated in themselves an amazing variety of flowers from the very most conspicuous to the darkest and palest. In astonishment did the hunters stop. Till then none of the Toushines had known about the existence of the highly blessed and favored Kakhitia. Being illuminated and showing all of her blinding beauty, she indeed seemed to them a perfect paradise and attracted forever their exultant glances. And the hunt and goats and everything else was forgotten. They stood there in perfect adoration of this unusual perfection of beauty and being unable to resist any longer the force which drew them nearer and nearer to the happy land, they descended into the gorge of Pankisse. On the River Bazzarisse-Tskali they chanced to come upon a detachment of Tartar frontier guards, who immediately surrounded the newcomers, and having dealt with them in the most insulting and truly shameful manner, again chased them into the mountains from which they had come.

Arriving at home, the indignant Toushines made a halt near that river, where the nation usually assembled when it was necessary to decide some important affairs. Here did they also announce the facts of their perilous adventure and demand a revenge. Soon by the summons of the Elder there came together not only the Toushines, but also the Pchaves and Kersourians, called in to give their advice. They all unanimously decided to take terrible revenge for the insult inflicted on their countrymen. The Pchaves and Khevsourians promised their assistance and with general consent the whole army was divided into two parts. One division was to conceal itself in the gorge of Pankiss, while the other should direct itself towards the Baktrionan fortress, which was situated to the east of Alazana and was in those remote times considered a very powerful fortification. Nowadays we can judge of it only by its ruins, which, however, all testify its past grandeur and mightiness. It was impossible to cross the river otherwise than over the bridge, which the sly Tartars covered with ashes in order to always find out the exact number and direction of new arrivals. But this ingenious slyness was not long hidden from the searching eye of Zesva, the valiant leader of the detachment. He ordered to stop the horses near the outer gates and, riding at full speed across the bridge, he succeeded in hiding himself in a valley before the Tartars found time to appear. The latter, guiding themselves by the direction of the traces, started in pursuit of their antagonists, but with every step getting farther and farther away from those to capture which was their intense desire. In the meantime the night came on and, profiting by the darkness, the Toushines reached the foot of the very fortress without being noticed by anyone. Having ordered his warriors to rest, Zesva, without breaking the silence, took up a hammer, covered it with cow-hair felt, unloaded from his horse a very large maprasha (i.e., a pair of sacks tied unto the steed) filled with strong iron tusks and knocked the first great nail into the battlements of the fortress, and standing upon it and reaching as high as possible he made a second one stick, and thus he continued until he had made himself a kind of ladder of iron hooks to the tip-top of the high rampart wall, whence he jumped down and in a flash threw open the heavy gates. Like a rushing stream did the Toushines make their way into the fortress, while the first rays of the rising sun were falling upon the grim old fortifications. The Tartars, half asleep, ran out into a field, but in vain for now they were met by the Pchaves and Khevsoures, who had ventured out from the gorge of Pankisse. The Tartars, surrounded on all sides, were exterminated to the last one and the field of honor of Allavanne, on which the glorious fight had taken place, was from now on known under the name of "Gatzvetila" (from the word "gatsveta"—"they are killing").

The magnanimous and lion-hearted Zesva handed out all the rich booty of this ever-memorable day to his faithful allies, i.e., the Pchaves and Khevsoures, while Gatzvetila became the common property of all Toushines. Nowadays this historic spot is known under the designation, "Field of Allavanna." Some people pretend that this name comes from the Georgian word "ali," i.e., "flame," as on this field, after the fire of the battle, the Tartar blood went on smoking for a long time; others say this name originates from the Kshtinskian words "al"=vladyka and "va"=here. This latter supposition, it seems to me, must be nearer in approaching the truth, as Allvani was one of the country palaces of Tamara, the ruins of which were not kept, although traditions confirm the existence of a palace on the above-mentioned field.

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Two Songs by Lela Tataraidze

2009-01-13T18:12:00.004+04:00

Lela Tataraidze is Tusheti's most famous singer. She was first described to me as

TuSeTis jeniper lopez

i.e. "Tusheti's Jennifer Lopez" - some indication of her fame and popularity! She was born in Dano, a small, nearly abandoned hamlet in Pirikiti Tusheti. Like most Tush families, hers had no doubt been spending the harsh winters down in the valley of the Alazani, in Kvemo Alvani (where her house - and indeed her mother! - are still to be seen). Her haunting songs are THE music played by all the Tush, irrespective of origin (Tchaghma, Pirikiti, Gometsri, Tsova, Tbilisi Tush, etc.), and some of them - particularly "How beautiful is Tusheti!" - have come to represent the very soul of Tusheti - indeed, to the detriment of other Tush artists: Ask any Georgian (or Tush) to name a singer from Tusheti, and every single one will come up with Lela Tataraidze. But ask them to name a singer from Tusheti other than Lela Tataraidze, however, and you will most likely draw a blank.
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Here are two of her many songs:

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"ra lamazia tusheti", or "How beautiful is Tusheti", and a lamentation for the death of several [Tush] people carried away in an avalanche (in the 1970s or -80s, I believe).
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For more traditional Georgian songs - not from Tusheti, however - please see my previous post on two songs by Sandro Kavsadze.
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Old Books on the Caucasus online

2009-01-13T15:12:00.011+04:00

The Internet Archive provides hitherto unbelievable access to many rare and out-of-print books on the Caucasus, including some absolute classics, such as the first English edition of Xavier Hommaire de Hell's Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian Sea, the Crimea, the Caucasus, &c. (published by Chapman and Hall 1847), Albert Frederick Mummery's My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus (published by Thomas Nelson and Sons), Elim Pavlovich Demidov's Hunting Trips in the Caucasus (published by R. Ward Ltd. in 1898), the two volumes of Douglas William Freshfield's The Exploration of the Caucasus, etc. etc.
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Some of these works can be downloaded as PDFs (and therefore subsequently printed at home), others not, but all of them are available to read or consult online!

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The following is a list of books on the Caucasus found on The Internet Archive (almost all of them uploaded by a registered user called "tpb"):
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ABERCROMBY, A Trip through the Eastern Caucasus, with a Chapter on the Languages of the Country (1889)
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BADDELEY, The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus (1908)
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BODENSTEDT, Les Peuples du Caucase et leur Guerre d'Indépendance contre la Russie (1859)
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CAROL, Colonisation russe - Les Deux Routes du Caucase, Notes d'un Touriste (1899)
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CUNYNGHAME, Travels in the Eastern Caucasus, on the Caspian and Black Seas, Especially in Daghestan and on the Frontiers of Persia and Turkey in the Summer of 1871 (1872)
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CURTIS, Around the Black Sea, Asia Minor, Armenia, Caucasus, Circassia, Daghestan, the Crimea, Roumania (c.1911)
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DANA, Eastern Journeys - Some Notes of Travel in Russia, in the Caucasus, and to Jerusalem (1898)
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DECHY, Kaukasus - Reisen und Forschungen im kaukasischen Hochgebirge Vol. I (1905) (Volume 2 is unfortunately not online.)
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DEMIDOV, Hunting Trips in the Caucasus (1898)
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DITSON, Circassia, or A Tour to the Caucasus (1850)
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DUBOIS DE MONTPEREUX, Voyage autour du Caucase, chez les Tcherkesses et les Abkhases, en Colchide, en Georgie, en Armenie et en Crimée (6 Volumes!, published between 1839 and 1845)
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EICHWALD, Reise auf dem Caspischen Meere und in dem Caucasus (1838)
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FARSON, The Lost World of the Caucasus (1958)
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FAVRE, Chaîne du Caucase (1875)
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FIELD, Contributions to the Anthropology of Iran (1939)
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FRANCOIS, Mémoire sur la Genèse des Eaux Minérales et des Emanations Salines des Groupes Nord du Caucase (1875)
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FRANKL, Die Mineralquellen des Kaukasus (1864)
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FRESHFIELD, The Exploration of the Caucasus (2 Volumes, 1902)
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FRESHFIELD, Travels in the Central Caucasus and Bashan, including Visits to Ararat and Tabreez and Ascents of Kazbek and Elbruz (1869)
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FREYGANG, Letters from the Caucasus and Georgia (1823)
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FRIEDRICHSEN, Die Grenzmarken des europäischen Russlands, ihre geographische Eigenart und ihre Bedeutung für den Weltkrieg (1915)
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GHAMBASHIDZE, The Caucasian Petroleum Industry and its Importance to Eastern Europe and Asia (1918)
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GOLOVIN, The Caucasus (1854)
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GRAHAM, A Vagabond in the Caucasus (1911)
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GULBAT, Caucasian Legends (1904)
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GÜLDENSTÄDT, Dr. J.A. Güldenstädts Beschreibung der kaukasischen Länder, umgearb., herausg. und mit Anmerkungen begleitet von J. Klaproth (1834)
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GÜLDENSTÄDT, Reisen durch Russland und im Caucasischen Gebirge (2 Volumes, published between 1787 and 1791)
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HAHN, Bilder aus dem Kaukasus - Neue Studien zur Kenntnis Kaukasiens (1900)
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HALEN, Memoirs of Don Juan van Halen; Comprising the Narrative of his Imprisonment in the Dungeons of the Inquisition at Madrid, and of his Escape, his Journey to Russia, his Campaign with the Army of the Caucasus, &c. &c. (2 Volumes, 1830)
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HERBERT, Casuals in the Caucasus - The Diary of a Sporting Holiday (1912)
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HODGETTS, Round about Armenia - The Record of a Journey across the Balkans through Turkey, the Caucasus, and Persia in 1895 (1896)
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HOLBROOK, Through Turkestan and the Caucasus - A Letter from Frederick Holbrook to His Wife (1916)
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HOMMAIRE DE HELL, Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian, the Crimea, the Caucasus, &c. (1847)
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HONE, DICKINSON, Persia in Revolution - With Notes of Travel in the Caucasus (1910)
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ISCHCHANIAN, Nationaler Bestand, berufsmässige Gruppierung und soziale Gliederung der kaukasischen Völker; statistisch-ökonomische Untersuchungen (1914)
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KARAWAJEV, Beiträge zur Ameisenfauna des Kaukasus, nebst einigen Bemerkungen über andere palaearktische Formen (Fortsetzung.) (1926)
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KEPPEN, Geographische Verbreitung der Holzgewachse des europäischen Russlands und des Kaukasus (2 Volumes, 1888)
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KLAPROTH, Reise in den Kaukasus und nach Georgien - Unternommen in den Jahren 1807 und 1808 (2 Volumes, published between 1812 and 1814)
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KLAPROTH, Tableau Historique, Géographique, Ethnographique et Politique du Caucase et des Provinces Limitrophes entre la Russie et la Perse (1827)
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KOECHLIN-SCHWARTZ, Un Touriste au Caucase - Volga, Caspienne, Caucase (c.1881)
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LANGE, Die Mineralwässer des Kaukasus (1875)
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LECLERCQ, Du Caucase aux Monts Alaï - Transcaspie-Boukharie-Ferganah (1890)
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LERMONTOV, Sketches of Russian Life in the Caucasus, by a Russe (1853)
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LYALL, Travels in Russia, the Krimea, the Caucasus, and Georgia (2 Volumes, 1825)
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MAISTRE, Les Prisonniers du Caucase (1907)
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MOSER, The Caucasus and Its People (1856)
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MOUNSEY, A Journey Through the Caucasus and the Interior of Persia (1872)
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MUMMERY, My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus (1913)
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NIJEHOLT, Voyage en Russie, au Caucase et en Perse, dans la Mésopotamie, le Kurdistan, la Syrie, La Palestine et la Turquie (1874)
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NORMAN, All the Russias - Travels and Studies in Contemporary European Russia, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus, & Central Asia, with 137 Illustrations, chiefly from the Author's Photographs (1902)
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OHSSON, Des Peuples du Caucase et des Pays au Nord de la Mer Noire et de la Mer Caspienne (1828)
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PHILLIPPS-WOLLEY, Savage Svânetia (2 Volumes, 1883)
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PHILLIPPS-WOLLEY, Sport in the Crimea and Caucasus (1881)
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POPOV, Two New Fossil Ants from Caucasus (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) (1933)
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POTOCKI, Voyage dans les Steps d'Astrakhan et du Caucase - Histoire primitive des Peuples qui ont habité anterieurement ces Contrées. Nouveau Périple du Pont-Euxin. Par le Comte Jean Potocki. Ouvrages publiés et accompagnés de Notes et de Tables par M. Klaproth Vol. I (1829) (Volume 2 is - alas! - not online.)
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RADDE, Vier Vorträge über den Kaukasus, gehalten im Winter 1873-4 (1874)
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REINEGGS, Allgemeine historisch-topographische Beschreibung des Kaukasus Vol. II (1797) (Volume 1 is not online.)
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RITTER, Die Vorhalle europaeischer Voelkergeschichten vor Herodotus, um den Kaukasus und an den Gestaden des Pontus (1820)
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SAINT-MARTIN, Recherches sur les Populations Primitives et les plus anciennes Traditions du Caucase (1847)
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SAVAGE, Prince Schamyl's Wooing - A Story of the Caucasus-Russo-Turkish War (1892)
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SAVILE, Half round the Old World, being some Account of a Tour in Russia, the Caucasus, Persia, and Turkey (1867)
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SEMENOV-TIAN-SHANSKII, La Russie Extra-Européenne et Polaire - Siberie, Caucase, Asie Centrale (1900)
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SMIRNOW, Guide aux Eaux Minérales du Caucase (1869)
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STERN, Vom Kaukasus zum Hindukusch (1893)
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ST-SAUVEUR, Excursion en Crimée et sur les Cotes du Caucase au mois de Juillet 1836 (1837)
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TELFER, The Crimea and Transcaucasia; being the narrative of a journey in the Kouban, in Gouria, Georgia, Armenia, Ossety, Imeritia, Swannety, and Mingrelia, and in the Tauric range Vol. I (1876) (Volume 2 is - alas! - not online.)
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THIELMANN, Le Caucase, la Perse, et la Turquie d'Asie (1880)
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TOLSTOY, A Russian proprietor, and other stories (c.1887) (Includes A Prisoner in the Caucasus.)
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TOLSTOY, More Tales from Tolstoi, translated from the Russian with an Enlarged Biography of the Author by R. Nisbet Bain (With Photogravure Portrait) (1903) (Includes The Captive in the Caucasus.)
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TOLSTOY, The Cossacks; a tale of the Caucasus in the year 1852 (c.1888)
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VERDEREVSKII, Captivity of two Russian princesses in the Caucasus, tr. from the Russian of E.A. Verderevskii by H.S. Edwards (1857)
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WAGNER, Der Kaukasus und das Land der Kosaken in den Jahren 1843 bis 1846 (2 Volumes, 1848)
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WAGNER, Reise nach Kolchis und nach den deutschen Colonien jenseits des Kaukasus (1850)
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WALDVOGEL, Reisebilder aus dem Kaukasus (1897)
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(87 books, totalling 1.35GB)
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Caucasian Beer

2009-01-13T12:51:00.009+04:00

Stand aside SabMiller, InBev, and all you other industrial brewing complexes! The following is a picture of a scale model (1:10) of an Ossetian brewery, "built according to documents of the Caucasus traveller [sic] [Adolf] Dirr" from the Deutsches Museum - Masterpieces of Science and Technology in Munich.

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The Deutsches Museum's caption reads:
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Ossetic Brewery in the Caucasus, around 1900
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The Ossets, a tribe living in the Central Caucasus, used the simplest brewing methods around 1900, whose essential characteristics are reminiscent of processes still common today. The processes are malting the grain, preparing the wort, mashing and purification, and producing the beer (cooling, fermenting, and storing).
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(http://www.deutsches-museum.de/en/exhibitions/werkstoffe-produktion/agriculture/brewing/?0=)
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In all fairness to large, modern brewers, however, Kazbegi (one of Georgia's largest brewers - if not the largest) has written some interesting short articles on the important, symbolic and ritual place which beer occupies in Georgian traditions, which can be read here on their website. I reproduce these articles here in full:

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Beer in Georgia
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The Role of Beer in the Life of Mountain People
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All important festivities or cult rituals were connected with beer in Georgia. It played an important role under many different circumstances: it was drunk to toast to a new arrival in a family or even to hostile families when being reconciled. It was thought that by drinking beer they would get rid of any impurities. It is interesting, that when it was impossible to reconcile the enemies by help of mediators, the enemies would be brought to the holy place. The offender would be offered a mug of beer that would mean that the culprit had to make the first step towards the reconciliation and utter the following words: "Here is to your respect" and that would mean that the person admitted his guilt. Therefore, beer played a major role in this process, which obviously proves its significance.
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One more tradition was spread in Khevsureti: in village Akhieli, they put up a show depicting "kidnapping". They formed two groups, one of them would kidnap a woman, and the other would be "fighting" them. In this theatrical show, one man had to be "wounded" and as a treatment, he had to take beer. As for the "kidnapped woman", she would also be offered some beer to drink. Even women who were mourning were involved in this cheerful game and the beer they drank would symbolize respect towards them and the relief of their grief. One oldest tradition was initiation, i.e. declaration of maturity of an adolescent. In Khevsureti the youngster at the age of fourteen was allowed to drink beer. It meant that this person would belong to the list of beer drinkers so that during the brewing process he would be taken into account. Small children were also given a little mug of beer during festivities and they would be marked with coal on the forehead, so that they did not drink a second mug.
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One oldest tradition was initiation, i.e. declaration of maturity of an adolescent. In Khevsureti the youngster at the age of fourteen was allowed to drink beer. It meant that this person would belong to the list of beer drinkers so that during the brewing process he would be taken into account. Small children were also given a little mug of beer during festivities and they would be marked with coal on the forehead, so that they did not drink a second mug.

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Vessels for drinking Beer
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The ritual and cult function of beer is closely connected with beer drinking vessels, the most important of which is a specially adorned silver bowl, the so-called chalice, decorated with different jewelry: silver coins, chains and some other accessories coming from a Georgian national costume.
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It is only allowed to draw beer from the cask with the silver chalice, since it is a sacred vessel, but if a man has sinned, he will never allow himself to drink beer from it. In prayers, the bowl is referred to as a holy chalice. Its sacral meaning is seen from the following ritual: once a year it is brought out in front of the congregation and the whole community welcomes it by paying homage to it. The chalice is thought to be coming from heaven, being directly connected with the origin of the cult, it bears the sign of the God's children and the cross emerges from it. "This heavenly chalice" (or the sign of a cross) appears in front of the community in the image of a dove. When the chieftain holds the chalice, it acquires a special power. To express veneration towards the chalice it is adorned with jewels. The empty chalice is filled with beer and the folks receive communion, then everybody drinks from it, which symbolizes the idea of the unity of the community. Drinking from the chalice also has its rules: the folks have to kneel and drink so, without touching the chalice with hands.
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The flag of the holy image occupies an important place in the ritual of mountains and is considered the greatest sanctity. The flag is adorned by silver coins, chains, beads, bells and crosses that had been sacrificed by people. Sometimes its handle is crowned by the spearhead of a lance or sometimes by a cross. In Khevsureti they disassemble the flag and keep it so. Before its use, the chieftain or a master assembles it and during the process he has to keep silence, i.e. he has no right to speak to someone. When ready, the flag is brought out and the chieftain starts the ceremonial service.
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The Khevsurians believe that the flag has been snatched from the demons' world and that it bodes victory. Generally, it is a symbol of bravery and is a sacred relic that accompanies the folks in battles. At the same time, the power of holy image is embodied in it. It is the main attribute and the symbol of unity and eternity. No festivity is held without the flag. The jingling sounds coming from it arouse respect and joy in believers' hearts and bode that the secret power of the holy image and grace go to each of them.
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It is well known, that the ritual vessels and religious attributes were sacred and had a great value. That is why the treasurer had a great responsibility for guarding them. As the treasure was sacred, it had to be hidden secretly and could only be exposed during festivities to perform rituals. The treasure of some of the churches was quite valuable. The more valuable the treasure they possessed the more powerful and influential the church would be. According to Vakhushti Batonishvili, Pshavi Lashari church had a rich treasury. Together with beer drinking vessels, they possessed silver and gold crosses, books and icons. All this treasure had been sacrificed by individual people and this way the church gained more and more wealth. The treasure was so sacred that it was not allowed to sell or give away any of the items. The study of materials connected with beer production in Georgian mountains clearly proves the fact, that the role of beer and its use in cult rituals has distinctly established traditional forms. It undoubtedly indicates that the drink has been consumed in Georgia from immemorial times.
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The Role of Beer in Rituals
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The chief of clan carried out all the rituals connected with beer. Chieftain's position was the most responsible and sacred. He carried out the mission on people's order and in the first place, the chieftain was entrusted with being a mediator between holy cross and people. The chieftain had to be purified before the religious festivals, which in terms of Christianity meant observing the Lent. This is why the chieftain had to stay in the monk's cloister in seclusion, and could consume only little food, appropriate for fasting.
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During the festival, the beer was brewed inside the house of worship and then, after it had been blessed, it would be taken out for everybody to drink. If the holy place was well protected against wind and rain where people would feel comfortable, the feast would take place there , if not, then the beer would be taken to the attic of one of the houses, the table would be laid and all the village folks would gather there by evening. The young boys would bring beer to the holy place. On their return, everybody would greet them and offer the drink, fill the tuns, which later would be taken to the village. The people in the village would be standing to welcome the arrival of the beer, chanting some welcoming words in chorus. The brewers would be seated in front of the fire. Then all kinds of drinking pots would be brought out and everybody would start toasting. The first toast would go to the perished.
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The role of beer is clearly seen in the rituals of Tusheti and Pshav – Khevsureti dedicated to the perished during such ceremonies as wakes, last rites, funeral repasts. The most interesting one among them is in Tusheti called Ludi-aludebi. The main idea of this ritual is to express the reverence towards the perished. In such events, they lay the table, bemoan (remembering all the good deeds of the deceased person) and then hold the horse race. In the house of the deceased person a big repast was held, the guests arrived, drank beer and when all was over, the hosts would see the guests off until the end of the village. There they once again filled the beer mugs and toasted to the beer brewers. - The fact that beer has such a wide context, once again proves that it had been the oldest cult drink in the mountains of Georgia, which was closely connected with the earliest form of religious faith – animism.
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Traditions connected with Beer
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The people of mountains of Georgia – Khevsuris, Tushis, Pshavis, Gudamakharis and Mokheves held their traditional festivities with the beer brewed by them. The multitude of such festivals affected the beer quality and its development.
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The initial concept of the alcoholic drink is to perform a religious act, which ethnographic science interprets as communion with Gods, through the sacred, divine drink, which was considered the most consecrated offering. As well as that, for the prehistoric animist man, for whom the nature was personified, the arousal with the alcoholic drink meant the conception of the deity, thus intensifying its importance as of the religious-cult drink. This is clearly felt in all festivities. The predestination of such gatherings is much broader than that of a feast; they played a big role in the establishment of steadfast traditions of hospitality, in strengthening bravery and heroism, building relative links and generally, enhancing spirituality. Such was the predestination of festivals in the mountains of Georgia, the traditions of which had been strictly followed and over a long time resulted in the establishment of a uniform system of celebrations in the mountains, abundantly featuring archaic ritual cult customs and practical economic activities, among which beer brewing is the central one.
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History of the Georgian Beer
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Beer industry has reached the highest stage of development in the contemporary world. In the food ration of millions of people, beer occupies an indispensable place and has become a national drink. Thousands of sorts of beer are bottled all over the world. This greatest industry takes its origin from ancient Eastern civilizations.
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What were the preconditions of beer consumption in Georgia, what is its genesis and how did the Georgians contribute to the development of this important culture.
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Successful development of beer production requires having wheat culture and the developed agricultural tools connected with it, as well as the establishment of cultural-genetic links with those centers, where beer industry emerged.
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Ages and ages ago, the Greeks had noticed the Georgians' aptitude for agriculture. Having seen wine fountains in Aeetes's palace and a plough, which was so perfectly forged from hardened steel aroused an ardent interest in the Argonauts who arrived in Colkhis. Perhaps this was not the only reason, that later they called the Georgians "Georgias", which means a farmer or a land cultivator in Greek.
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Out of 17 varieties of wheat known in the world, 12 were grown in Georgia. Local varieties, Makha and Zanduri developed from wild sorts into cultural crop. It is a unique phenomenon, an established fact of selection, which gives an interesting picture of the development of a diversified economy over the long time. In archaeological materials of Georgia, there is the evidence that grain existed back in VII-VI millennium.
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Scientists believe that one of the seven oldest centers where farming emerged and developed was in the Middle East, where Georgia belonged. In Georgian archaeological monuments on the hills of Amirani, Arkhalo, Urbnisi and Shulaveri, in the settlements of Neolithic period, were traced the ruins of oldest dwellings with wheat storage pits and farming tools. This indicates that those dwellers, the predecessors of oldest Georgian tribes, about nine thousand years ago were familiar with wheat culture and had their own ways of its growing and storage. The world science has no other data about any older grain-growing center. All this proves that, the people with grain-growing culture could have been closer to the cradle of beer making than any other people.
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Beer culture in Georgia was introduced from the countries of ancient world. It is under no doubt today, that oriental beer counts the oldest age, and all the archaeological, historical, epigraphic and ethnographic materials clearly testify economic-social links of ancestral tribes of Georgians with these nations.
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It is quite understandable why Georgian mountain has preserved the tradition of beer consumption to our days: Georgia had a classical grape-growing and winemaking culture in the plain. According to the established opinion in ethnography, the area where vineyards are spread is considered the plain, while other territories belong to a mountainous zone. That is why beer production originated in the mountain and occupied the major place in the routine life of the natives.
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The Holy Lands
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People in the mountains celebrated festivities with the harvest yielded in the fields on the holy territory within the house of worship. Part of the harvested crops was used in ritual bread baking and beer brewing. The first spring works in Khevsureti started by plowing cornfield. On a Friday, the chief of the community would stand on the flat deck roof of one of the houses and announce the beginning of plowing. It was an obligatory work for all, and once the people finished plowing the area, then they would start working on their own patches of land.
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It is interesting to note, that as the process of harvest served the divine deeds, it acquired a ritual character. When it was the time to reap the fields, the chief of clan would announce so and appoint the day of reaping. By this time the beer would have been brewed, the parish would get together, select the sacrificial animals and would sacrifice to the deity. The chief would open the beer cask and fill the silver chalices, light the candles nearby the offerings, and chief say prayers. Everybody would toast with beer to the glory of the house of worship. Then the chief would go out into the field with the sickle, cut some barley, and then hand the sickle to the reapers. The latter were offered the drink by people carrying the tuns with beer. Reaping was accompanied with songs. After the process was finished, one of the reapers would start chanting, "God bless the Iakhsar and the Iakhsar bless your people" (Iakhsar is one of the pagan deities of the people of Tusheti, Khevsureti, Pshavi) and the people around would start echoing and this meant that the reaping was over.
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The crop harvested in the holy field was considered sacred. If the house of worship had its own barn, the harvest would be stored there. If not, then it would be taken to the cleanest attic of one of the houses, which was strictly guarded. It was such a sacred product that its theft, appropriation or wasting in any way was strictly precluded. The most of the wheat crop was used in beer brewery, which was the main ritual drink and no blessings and toasting would be possible without this drink at the feasts.
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The culture (cult?) and rituals which surround the consumption of alcohol in Georgia and in the wider Caucasus have spawned a wealth of studies, most of them undertaken by academics not immune to the attractions of a little "informal" research, and some of whom style themselves "supraologists" (from the Georgian word supra, meaning "a meal" in the sense of "a feast")! Most are available online, such as Georgian Drinking Culture, written by Prof. Manning (Associate Professor of Anthropology at Trent University in the U.S., and editor of the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology), The Autocrat of the Banquet Table, written by Prof. Tuite (Professor of Ethnolinguistics at the University of Montreal in Canada), and various articles written by Florian Muehlfried (Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, some of which are available here).