Dmanisi
Skulls found at Dmanisi in southern Georgia are among the oldest human remains outside Africa.
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History
A short history of Georgia
Georgia's story runs from some of the earliest humans outside Africa to a modern republic. Knowing a few key moments makes every church, fortress and toast more meaningful.
Timeline
The first wine
Neolithic villages south of Tbilisi made wine in clay jars, the earliest known evidence of grape winemaking.
Colchis and Iberia
The western kingdom of Colchis, rich in gold, became the Greek land of the Golden Fleece. In the east rose Kartli, known to the Greeks and Romans as Iberia.
Christianity
Inspired by Saint Nino, King Mirian III of Iberia made Christianity the state religion, one of the first kingdoms to do so.
Alphabet and Tbilisi
The earliest dated Georgian inscriptions appear. King Vakhtang Gorgasali founds Tbilisi, later the capital.
The Golden Age
David IV "the Builder" united the country and defeated the Seljuks at Didgori in 1121. Under Queen Tamar the kingdom reached from the Black Sea to the Caspian. Shota Rustaveli wrote the national epic, The Knight in the Panther's Skin.
Invasions
Mongols, Timur, then the Ottoman and Persian empires fought over a divided Georgia. In 1795 Persian forces sacked Tbilisi.
Russian Empire
Eastern Georgia was annexed by the Russian Empire, and the rest of the country followed during the 19th century.
First Republic
The Democratic Republic of Georgia declared independence on 26 May 1918, now Independence Day. In 1921 the Red Army invaded.
Soviet period
Georgia was a Soviet republic, known for wine, tea, citrus, Black Sea resorts and a strong film and art scene.
Independence restored
Georgia declared independence from the USSR and has since built a market economy and a fast-growing tourism industry.
Things worth knowing
The name. Georgians call their country Sakartvelo, "land of the Kartvelians". The English name "Georgia" probably comes from the Persian gurj; it is often linked to Saint George, the country's patron saint, whose red cross appears on the five-cross flag.
The alphabet. Georgian has been written in three scripts over time. The modern one, Mkhedruli, has 33 letters and no capitals. The three scripts together were inscribed by UNESCO as intangible heritage in 2016.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The historic monuments of Mtskheta; Gelati Monastery; Upper Svaneti; and the Colchic rainforests and wetlands on the Black Sea coast.