Vol. 41 (2021)
Georgian Religious Literature

On the Inscription of Grakliani

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  • Gocha Kuchukhidze
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48614/lr.41.2021.21-29

Published 2021-12-20

Keywords

  • Origins of the Georgian Alphabet,
  • Grakliani Inscription

How to Cite

Kuchukhidze, G. (2021). On the Inscription of Grakliani. Literary Researches, 41, 21–29. https://doi.org/10.48614/lr.41.2021.21-29

Abstract

 

The article focuses on the inscription found during the archaelogical excavations on Gracliani Hill, Georgia, in 2015. The inscription is executed on the altar of a pagan temple. In the author’s view the signs on the alter represent the letters of the Kartuli (Georgian) Asomtavruli alphabet. The graphs are assumed to form the following sequence: “z a d n š h x c g h w e ” . In several places (four in number) a Georgian method of abbreviation (karagma) is used. The full form should be read as “zaden šehxecigh we” meaning “Zaden help him (her, them)”. Zaden is one of the famous deities of pagan Kartli (Iberia).

Archaeologists date the temple to approximately the 1st millennium BC, while the Miami Laboratory provides the dates of XI-X centuries BC. The period of executing the inscription is irrelevant, because in many scholars’ views Asomtavruli alphabet originated in the pagan era.

The paper presents the results of my preliminary observations, which, in the future, may
become modified, made more exact and clarified.

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