Caucasian peoples

Both results of archaeological, linguistic, historical and anthropological investigations show that before the Indo-European expansion, before the end of the 2nd millennium BC, in the 4th-2nd millennia BC, the related Proto-Iberian tribes were inhabited Asia Minor, the Caucasus and the Aegean Basin (Khaldi (or Khalib), Tubal (or Tabal), Urartu, Geniokhs, Kasks, Mosiniks, Tibarens, Meshech (or Mesekh/Moskh), Hattian, Pelasgians, Hurits, etc.). As a result of the Indo-European expansion, after the end of the 2nd millennium BC happened assimilation of the part of the Proto-Iberian tribes. This were on the most part of Asia Minor and the Aegean Basin. The Proto-Iberian tribes have kept their originality and statehood in the Caucasus (the Ibero-Caucasian peoples).

Very important were investigations of the historians and linguists of the 19th century (Fritz Hommel and others). They proposed the terms Alarodian languages and Alarodian tribes. They asserted that Alarodian languages were languages of the indigenous non-IndoEuropean tribes of ancient Asia Minor and the Caucasus (Proto-Iberian tribes).

The Georgian Kingdoms of Iberia and Egrisi were founded between the 6th and 4th centuries BC, in the territory of modern Georgia and the historical Georgian region of Tao-Klarjeti). These succeeded to the Kingdoms of Diaokhi (Eastern and South-Eastern Georgia and Tao-Klarjeti (now territory of Turkey)) and Kolkha (Western Georgia) were founded around the end of the 2nd millenium BC and begining of the 1st millenium BC. Prior to these Khaldis (Khalibs) and Tabbals (Tubbals) were among the oldest metal-using tribes of the world.

One of the Ibero-Caucasian peoples were the Caucasian Albanians, ancient population of modern Azerbaijan. Caucasian Albania was one of the first countries where Christianity was adopted in the 4th century. As a result of the expansion of Turks In the 8th-11th centuries happened assimilation of the Caucasian Albanians.

Important sources for reconstructing a history for the Caucasian (Ibero-Caucasian) peoples are: the well-known works of Homer, Herodotus, Strabo and Xenophon, the old Georgian chronicles of "Kartlis Tskhovreba" ("History of Georgia"), some Armenian sources, etc.

Indigenous (Ibero-Caucasian) peoples of the modern Caucasus are: Georgians, Abkhazs, Adigey, Cherkezs, Abaza, Chechens, Ingushs, ethnographic and linguistic groups of Dagestan (Avars, Laks, Dargans, Tabasarans, Lezgs, Aguls, Tsakhurs, Udis and Rutuls).

See also

• Caucasian race
• Iberian-Caucasian languages

Literature

• Adelina Svanidze. "Materials for history of the Alarodian tribes" (a monograph), Tbilisi, 1937 (in Russian)
• Ivane Javakhishvili. "Historical-Ethnological problems of Georgia, Caucasus and Near East" (a monograph), Tbilisi, 1950, 335 pp (in Georgian and Russian)
• Giorgi Melikishvili. "Nairi-Urartu" (a monograph), Tbilisi, 1954, 500 pp (in Russian)
• Giorgi Melikishvili. "For the History of ancient Georgia" (a monograph), Tbilisi, 1959, 507 pp (in Russian)
• Malkhaz G. Abdushelishvili. "The genesis of the aboriginal population of the Caucasus in the light of anthropological data" (a monograph), Tokyo, 1968 (in English)
• Guram Kvirkvelia. "Foreign scientists about the metallurgy of oldest Georgian tribes" (a monograph), Tbilisi, 1976, 90 pp (in Georgian, Russian summary)
• Vakhtang Itonishvili. "Essayes from the history of the Caucasus" (a monograph), Tbilisi, 2002, 284 pp (in Georgian)
• Diakonoff I.M., Starostin S.A. "Hurro-Urartian as an Eastern Caucasian Language".- "Munchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft", Beiheft, N.F., 12, 1986
• H. Fahnrich. Zur genealogischen Einordnung der Hattischen und Kassitischen Sprache.- "Georgica", 3, Jena-Tbilisi, 1980 (in German)
• Akaki Urushadze. "The Country of the Enchantress Media", Tbilisi, 1984, 25 pp (in Russian and English)

Links

• For problems on the interrelation of Caucasian and Anatolian Bronze-age cultures

Referenced By