GEO

Projects

Digitization

OPEN or ONGOING PROJECTS

Ethnology

Today, precious manuscripts of the Research Institute of History and Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of Georgia are like a bleeding wound on the side of Kartvelian culture due to many years of inattention, neglect, and poor storage conditions. 
In 2001, Dr. Meskhi initiated the process of protecting, and storing these cultural treasures, beginning with the digitizing of archival material. Since then, over a 1000 pages of text have been put into an electronic format. A book has also been published.  
At a meeting in August 2006, Dr Meskhi and Dr Vazha Kiknadze, Director of the Institute, and Dr Teimuraz Jojua, Vice Director, decided to formalize a cooperative relationship between the Research Institute of History and Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of Georgia and the Center for Research of Kartvelian Civilization, beginning in November 2006 when the reorganization of the Institute is complete. 


Database

The Center for Research of Kartvelian Civilization plans to create the first database encompassing all the fields necessary to conduct the investigation of the Kartvelian civilization, particularly its beginnings, contacts, and the contribution of Kartvelian civilization to the development of the ancient world. 
Non-Georgian scholars will be able to access material they may need to incorporate in their work with the help of English summaries. 
The database will include the following major fields with subsequent detailed subdivisions:

  • History: Kartvelian people – their genesis and contacts with the ancient world.
  • Linguistics:
    • Kartvelian languages and their genesis.
    • Kartvelian and ancient languages.
  • Paleography: Kartvelian and world writing systems.

Recovery of Kartvelian Material

Archival Material
Due to Soviet policy a number of scholarly works which give tremendous insights into the vital role of Kartvelian languages and culture in the development of world civilization have never been published. Fortunately, some of them survived Soviet censorship and purging to be available for study, after decades of being forgotten or suppressed. 
One such monograph is David Chikovani’s manuscript on world hydro-names. This document was kept in Georgia’s State Archive and I had the good fortune of reading it some 15 years ago. This and similar works could have altered the course of development of many branches of science if they had been published and disseminated in time.
The Center for Research of Kartvelian Civilization is committed to a search of archival vaults, and to recovering and publishing all heretofore neglected works.