Colchian Artifacts from the Colchis Culture (3000-1250 BC) and the Kingdom of Colchis (1250-164 BC)

Colchian culture - 3000-1250 BC Kingdom of Colchis - 1250-164 BC. Colchian culture (Georgian: კოლხური კულტურა; 3000-1250 BC) is Neolithic - an early Bronze Age culture of the western Caucasus, mostly in western Georgia and Eastern Turkey. It was partially succeeded by the Koban culture in northern and central Caucasus. Koban also was the very related culture to Colchian. It is named after the ancient geographic region of Colchis, which covered a large area along the Black Sea coast. It is mainly known for highly developed bronze production and artistic craftsmanship. There are many items of copper and bronze found in ancient graves. Graves found and studied have been located in the Abkhazia region, the Sukhumi mountain complexes, the Racha highlands where brick tiles and graffiti have been found, and the Colchian plains (კოლხეთის დაბლობი) where collective graves have been found. Collective graves occurred during the Colchian period of the Kingdom of Colchis (8th century to 6th century BC). In these graves bronze items were found that represented foreign trade occurred with the Colchian culture. At this time an increase in the production of weapons and agricultural tools is seen. Evidence of copper mining has been found in Racha, Abkhazia, Svaneti, and Adjara. Ruins of palaces are present in the Colchian Plains. Colchian culture is characterized by Colchian axes, sickles, short spears, flat axes, bow-shaped and cylindrical axes, belts, bracelets, bearings, and statuettes. The items are often painted and sometimes even with the sculptural expression expressing the religious ideas of the Colchis. Kingdom of Colchis In pre-Hellenistic Greco-Roman geography, Colchis (Kolkhida) was an exonym (foreign name) for the Georgian State of Egrisi or Aia located on the coast of the Black Sea, centred in present-day western Georgia. It has been described in modern scholarship as “the earliest Georgian formation“ which, along with the Kingdom of Iberia, would later contribute significantly to the development of the medieval Georgian statehood and the Georgian nation. Internationally, Colchis is perhaps best known for its role in Greek mythology, most notably as the destination of the Argonauts, as well as the home to Medea and the Golden fleece. It was also described as a land rich with gold, iron, timber and honey that could export its resources mostly to ancient Greece. Colchis was populated by Colchians, an early Kartvelian-speaking tribe, ancestral to the contemporary western Georgians, namely Svans and Zans. Its geography is mostly assigned to what is now the western part of Georgia and encompasses the present-day Georgian provinces of Samegrelo, Imereti, Guria, Adjara, Abkhazeti, Svaneti, Racha; modern Russia’s Sochi and Tuapse districts; and present-day Turkey’s Rize, Trabzon and Artvin provinces. Colchís, or Qulḫa which existed from the c. 13th to the 1st centuries BC is regarded as an early ethnically Georgian polity;[by whom? – Discuss] the name of the Colchians was used as the collective term for early Kartvelian tribes which populated the eastern coast of the Black Sea in Greco-Roman ethnography. The name Colchis is thought to have derived from the Urartian Qulḫa, pronounced as “Kolcha“.[15] In the late eighth century BC, Sarduri II the King of Urartu, inscribed his victory over Qulḫa on a stele; however, the exact location of Qulḫa is disputed. Some scholars argue the name Qulḫa (Colchís) originally referred to a land to the west of Georgia. According to the scholar of Caucasian studies Cyril Toumanoff: Colchis appears as the first Caucasian State to have achieved the coalescence of the newcomer. Colchis can be justly regarded as not a proto-Georgian, but a Georgian (West Georgian) kingdom. It would seem natural to seek the beginnings of Georgian social history in Colchis, one of the earliest Georgian political formation. Rulers of Colchis: Mythological rulers 1) Titans 2) Helios Known Historical Rulers 3) Aeëtes (Aeetis) - approx. 1250 BC. (Aeetes was called the kings of Colchis generally) 4) Absyrtus 5) Egialeus 6) Medea 7) Perses 8. Medus 9) Menertas - 535-495 BC. 10) Megaron - 495-460 BC. 11) Saulaces I - 460-420 BC. 12) Akes - IV century BC. 13) Kuji - 325-280 BC. 14) Basileus Aku I - 230-205 BC. 15) Saulaces II - 205-190 BC. 16) Aku II - 190-180 BC. 17) Akusilokh - 179-164 BC