ARTIFACTS OF KARTVELIAN ARCHAISM (III MILLENNIUM BC - IV CENTURY BC)

Abstract

The cultural center has been a city since ancient times, a protected and enclosed area, which was designed and built by architect according to the idea of a “Kurumi” (chief priest) or king.

        The structure of the city - streets, temples, fences, towers, dwellings should have been related to the environment. The city was built on the sea (e.g., Phasis), the lake (e.g., Tushfa), and mostly on the river (e.g., in Kutaisi and Mtskheta), the fortress, the temple and the altar - on a mountain or a hill, in some places - on the rock (e.g., Uplistsikhe).

        It was most ideal if the location of the city combined water and mountains. Such was Mtskheta, which was established as a religious and governmental center, between the mountains, at the confluence of two rivers - the Mtkvari and the Aragvi, at the confluence of the roads coming east, west and north.

        As it is noticed, the kings of Iberia, as well as the chiefs of the tribes, were the chief priests. The caste of priests possessed the mystery of divine and real knowledge invented and managed rituals, holidays, customs, and daily life.

        So - the cosmology of the ancient Kartvelian tribes, the perception and vision of the world is reflected in the language and linguistic consciousness, dwellings, cults and rituals, artifacts, tombs, which keeps track of contact with foreign cultures.