Georgian treasure has started to travel around Europe, as the Georgian National Museum has sent the exhibition “From the Land of the Golden Fleece, Tomb Treasures of Ancient Georgia” to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, Great Britain. During next three months, the British population will be able to discover aspects of Colchian culture such as metalworking, religious rituals and wine making.

The exhibition presents priceless material obtained from excavations held in Vani, a town in Western Georgia that once contained the major city of Colchis, the fabled land of Golden Fleece. Archaeologists think that Vani has been populated since 8th century BC. The exhibit displays gold and silver jewellery, sculpture and funerary items derived from tombs and sanctuaries of the 5th to the 1st centuries BC. The twenty-eight graves discovered so far are from a period when Vani was at the height of its prosperity. Prosperous graves sheltered goods like locally produced gold and luxurious gifts from neighbouring countries.

The most eye-catching part of the exhibition is ancient Colchian jewellery, showing off a blend of Georgian and Greek cultures and styles of antiquity. A more precise expression of ancient Colchian culture is represented in sculptures and other artistic items obtained from the same excavations. Yet another source of pride and joy that Vani excavations have brought to Georgia is proof of blooming viniculture in ancient Colchis, as proved by jars dating to the 6th millennium BC, with the residue of wine still preserved on their inner surfaces. The majority of the 140 treasures have never left the borders of Georgia before now. Their journey to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge makes Great Britain the first foreign land to get a chance to host these “mythical wonders.”

The exhibition caused quite a fuss in Britain. As art and history lovers flooded the museum, local media commemorated the exhibition as “Ultimate in Bling” (BBC). The Times Magazine even put it on a list of Top Five Museums for the first week of October.

On Tuesday, October 30, the Georgian National Museum announced the launch of scientific research in the region of Marneuli, the results of which are expected to designate Georgia as the country where viniculture was first born. The project is accomplished by the brand new Georgian Wine Foundation, Georgia, the Cradle of Wine, founded by Georgian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Georgian National Museum. The foundation also invited Professor Patrick E. McGovern from the University of Philadelphia, who read a lecture about the quest for the motherland of wine.

Georgia is a country where wine is much loved, respected and appreciated. Over centuries, wine has been integrated into religious ceremonies and different festivities that are a part of everyday life. The “Holy Liquid,” as Georgians call it, has managed to dominate society and social life. For this reason, Georgian people are anxious to take pride in being the citizens of the first country where the magic began many centuries ago.

As Professor McGovern explained, the research is held on the molecular level. Scientists have worked out a genome of the antecedent species of grapes that the first wine was ever made with. The DNA of the material obtained from archeological expeditions will be compared to the genome. In popular language, the one closest to it will bring its country the honor of being the cradle of wine. At this point, four countries are competing for the title: Georgia, Iran, Turkey and Armenia.

Starting on September 24, Tbilisi Historical Museum Karvasla is presenting an exhibition of unique perfume bottles called “Essences Insensees” (Insane Essence). The exhibition features fashionable works of art created by 12 modern artists, plus two exclusive items by Bugatti presented by the perfumery Ici-Paris. “Essences Insensees” was brought to Tbilisi in collaboration with the French Embassy in Tbilisi, A. Dumas French Culture Center and the Georgian National Museum.

The entrance of the Tbilisi History Museum Karvasla was filled with an intense, blended smell of different perfumes and the exhibition hall had way more intrigue going on as 14 priceless items of art were on display and overwhelming the visitors with their unique and extravagant designs. However, priceless is not totally correct definition for the perfumes presented at the exhibition, since two of them are currently on sale at Ici Paris stores across Georgia. “Ici Paris will be presenting two perfumes by Bugatti at the exhibition. One of them is stored in a 24 carat gold bottle and costs 6,000 GEL, the second one is less expensive and only costs 4,500 GEL,” stated Khatia Shamugia, a representative of the store at the press conference held for the occasion.

The Georgian National Museum is processing a project to protect and preserve frescoes that were discovered in a monastery built in the caves of a desert area in Kakheti near the border with Azerbaijan.

The David Gareji complex lies some 70 km southeast of Tbilisi, tucked inside the rocks and caves of the area.

The monastery was discovered inside a labyrinth of caves during an archeological expedition in November 1996.

In the western part of the David Gareji complex, the White Desert Monastery was unearthed. It is believed to date back to the 7th and 8th centuries. It may well be that some smaller churches or other such buildings remain undiscovered.

Wine, Worship, and Sacrifice: The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani

 

The ancient kingdom of Colchis — now the western half of the modern Republic of Georgia — is best remembered as the destination of Jason and the Argonauts, who crossed the Black Sea in search of the mythical Golden Fleece.

There's no fleece but plenty of gold to be found among the treasures in Wine, Worship, and Sacrifice: The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Featuring more than 100 objects dating from the eighth to the second century B.C., the traveling exhibition offers a fascinating glimpse into an area that lay between ancient Greece and Persia and was influenced by both.

The jewelry, sculpture, pottery and funerary items on view were found in four graves and the principal sanctuary in the religious and administrative center of Vani, a site that has been regularly excavated over the past 70 years.

They demonstrate that Vani was a cosmopolitan city that valued exquisite craftsmanship and could both import and produce it. A bronze statuette of a satyr was imported from Greece, then altered in Vani to suit local rituals. The satyr's tail was removed, and he was outfitted with Colchian gold bracelets and a torque before being wrapped in a shroud and buried in a sanctuary pit.

 

On June 12, 2008 the National Museum of Georgia Director David Lortkipanidze will be awarded by the president of Italy Giorgio Napolitano with a special prize from the scientific academy “Accademia dei Lincei” in Rome. David Lortkipanisdze’s fourth international prize manifests his special achievement in the field of anthropology.

In 2007 Lortkipanidze became an honorable member of the Academy of Science of US, received a Rolex preemie and was awarded by the Prince of Monaco.

Founded in 1603 by Federico Cesi, Accademia dei Lincei, (literally the “Academy of the Lynxes”) was the first academy of sciences to persist in Italy, and a locus for the incipient scientific revolution. The academy was named after the lynx, an animal whose sharp vision symbolizes the observational prowess required by science. In 1871, the academy became its country’s official scientific academy.

On May 30 the auditorium of the Georgian National Museum hosted a meeting dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Alexandre (Lali) Javaxishvili – famous Georgian archeologist, a member of the Georgian Academy of Science and “A person who devoted all his life to the museum,” as Otar Jafaridze an academician and a good friend of Javakhishvili said.

Son of the famous Ivane Javakhishvili, the founder of Tbilisi State Univerity, Lali Javakhishviuli really continued the tradition of the family, the tradition of serving the country, cherishing its culture and history.

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