This is the first full history of the ancient Georgia ever to be written outside Georgia itself. It is also an introduction to the substantial archaeological work that has been carried out in Georgia in recent decades. The principal purpose of this book is to open up ancient Georgia for the world of scholarship at large. It is not only the history of a neglected region, but also a sustained attempt to inform topics and issues that are more familiar to the historians of antiquity: myths of the periphery, Caucasian mountains and their passes, Greek colonization, the Persian, Athenian, and Selecuid empires, Pompey's conquest of Mithridates' empire, the development of the Roman frontier in the eastern Black Sea region, Roman diplomancy in Iberia, the Christianization of Iberia, Sassanian ambitions in Transcaucasia and Byzantine warfare there. The author has lived in Georgia for substantial periods during the last decade: he has made extensive use of scholarship in Georgian and Russian, and has first-hand knowledge of most of the sites which he discusses.
No one outside Russia has ever written a comprehensive account of the origins and ancient history of the state of Georgia. This exciting and important book is the first ever complete scholarly work on ancient Georgia, the mythical home of Medea and Prometheus, and historically at the centre of the successive struggles for power by the Persians, Greeks, Romans, and later the Byzantine Empire. The author is one of the few western archaeologists to have first-hand knowledge of most of the sites discussed, and the book is illustrated with many exciting new photographs of finds and places. The book will open up this area for the world of scholarship at large for the first time, and is a major contribution to archaeology.
No one outside Russia has ever written a comprehensive account of the origins and ancient history of the state of Georgia. This exciting and important book is the first ever complete scholarly work on ancient Georgia, the mythical home of Medea and Prometheus, and historically at the centre of the successive struggles for power by the Persians, Greeks, Romans, and later the Byzantine Empire. The author is one of the few western archaeologists to have first-hand knowledge of most of the sites discussed, and the book is illustrated with many exciting new photographs of finds and places. The book will open up this area for the world of scholarship at large for the first time, and is a major contribution to archaeology.