科尔基斯

神话

在希腊神话中，科尔喀斯是阿尔戈英雄前去寻找金羊毛的目的地。阿尔戈英雄的领袖，伊阿宋，在美狄亚的帮助下取得原属于科尔喀斯国王埃厄忒斯的金羊毛。

历史

科尔喀斯曾经历过波斯帝国与本都王国的统治。本都王国被罗马帝国灭亡后，科尔喀斯成为罗马卡帕多西亚行省的一部分。与此同时，科尔喀斯东南方的伊比利亚王国成为罗马帝国的附庸国。罗马帝国灭亡后科尔喀斯被称为拉齐卡。

In classical antiquity and Greco-Roman geography, Colchis (; Ancient Greek: Κολχίς) was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi (Georgian: ეგრისი) located on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia also including the region of Abkhazia.

Its population, the Colchians, are generally believed to have been primarily early Zan-speaking tribes, ancestral to the modern Laz and Mingrelian peoples. According to David Marshall Lang: "one of the most important elements in the modern Georgian nation, the Colchians were probably established in the Caucasus by the Middle Bronze Age."

It has been described in modern scholarship as "the earliest Georgian formation", which, along with the Kingdom of Iberia, would later contribute significantly to the development of the Kingdom of Georgia and the Georgian nation.

Colchis is known in Greek mythology as the destination of the Argonauts, as well as the home to Medea and the Golden Fleece. It was also described as a land rich with gold, iron, timber and honey that would export its resources mostly to ancient Hellenic city-states. Colchis likely had a diverse population. According to Greek and Roman sources, between 70 and 300 languages were spoken in Dioscourias (modern Sukhumi) alone.

Colchis territory is mostly assigned to what is now the western part of Georgia and encompasses the present-day Georgian provinces of Samegrelo, Imereti, Guria, Adjara, Svaneti, Racha; Abkhazia; modern Russia's Sochi and Tuapse districts; and present-day Turkey’s Artvin, Rize, and Trabzon provinces.

Geography and toponyms

Colchis, Kolkha, Qulḫa, or Kilkhi, which existed from the c. 13th to the 1st centuries BC, is regarded as an early ethnically Georgian polity; the name of the Colchians was used as the collective term for early Kartvelian tribes which populated the eastern coast of the Black Sea in Greco-Roman ethnography.

Ronald Grigor Suny identifies Colchis as an early Georgian state formation.……

Physical-geographic characteristics

In physical geography, Colchis is usually defined as the area east of the Black Sea coast, restricted from the north by the southwestern slopes of the Greater Caucasus, from the south by the northern slopes of the Lesser Caucasus in Georgia and Eastern Black Sea (Karadeniz) Mountains in Turkey, and from the east by Likhi Range, connecting the Greater and the Lesser Caucasus.……

Economy, agriculture and natural resources

Millet was the main staple crop in Colchis. Wheat grew in certain regions and was also imported by sea. Similarly, local wines were produced and some wines were brought from overseas. The Colchian plain provided ample grazing land for cattle and horses, with the name of Phasis associated with fine horses.……

History

Prehistory and earliest references

The eastern Black Sea region in antiquity was home to the well-developed Bronze Age culture known as the Colchian culture, related to the neighbouring Koban culture, that emerged toward the Middle Bronze Age. In at least some parts of Colchis, the process of urbanization seems to have been well advanced by the end of the second millennium BC.……

Numismatics

Colchian coins, the oldest of which were dated to the middle of the 6th century BC, served as the primary source of evidence for the Colchian state. A reassessment of the coins, however, has revealed that these early "Colchian" coins actually represent the production of an Achaemenid satrapy.

Rulers

Little is known of the rulers of Colchis.

In mythology

From the fifth century BC onwards, Colchis was identified as Aea, the mythical home of Aeëtes, Medea, the Golden Fleece, and the fire-breathing Colchis bulls and was the destination of the Argonauts.

Colchis also is thought to be a possible homeland of the Amazons. Amazons also were said to be of Scythian origin from Colchis.