On Some Questions Concerning the Ethnic Identity and Settlement of the Abkhazians (Regarding P. Ingorokva’s Giorgi Merchule), by Ketevan Lomtatidze
Ketevan Lomtatidze (1911 – 2007) was a Georgian linguist, Caucasiologist, specialist in Kartvelian and Abkhaz studies.
In his 1954 book Giorgi Merchule, Georgian scholar Pavle Ingorokva argued that the Abkhazians who lived in ancient and medieval western Transcaucasia were not the same people as the contemporary Abkhazians. He maintained that they were Georgian tribes who spoke a Kartvelian language.
This interpretation drew strong criticism from a number of prominent Georgian and Abkhaz scholars. Among them were the distinguished Abkhazologist Ketevan Lomtatidze, as well as Nikoloz Berdzenishvili, Varlam Dondua, Georgy Soselia, Khukhut Bgazhba and Zurab Achba, also known as Anchabadze.
In this article, Lomtatidze examines Ingorokva’s claims in detail, drawing on linguistic, historical and ethnographic evidence. She challenges his interpretation of the identity and historical settlement of the Abkhazians, while stressing their deep roots in their homeland, their distinct language and cultural traditions, and their long contribution to the wider cultural history of the Caucasus.
The article was written in Georgian and first published in Mnatobi, No. 12, Tbilisi, 1956, pp. 132–139. It has now been translated into English by AbkhazWorld.
The full article in PDF can be downloaded by clicking here (310 KB)
See also:
+ Questions of Abkhazian history in the book by P. Ingorokva ‘Georgi Merchule - Georgian writer of the 10th century’, by Zurab Anchabadze
+ Rewriting History? A Critique of Modern Georgian Historiography on Abkhazia
+ Giorgi Soselia's Critique of Pavle Ingorokva's 'Giorgi Merchule' and the Misrepresentation of Abkhazian History
+ The Coast That Kept Its Name
Ketevan Lomtatidze was a distinguished Georgian linguist and Caucasus scholar. She was born on 11 February 1911 and died on 22 September 2007. Her research focused particularly on the Kartvelian languages and on Abkhaz and Abaza linguistics.
Lomtatidze graduated from the Faculty of Philology at Tbilisi State University in 1931, specialising in the Abkhaz and Abaza languages. Through decades of research, she became recognised as one of the leading authorities in these fields.
In 1945, she became the first woman in Georgia to receive the degree of Doctor of Sciences. She later served as Director of the Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR from 1953 to 1963 and again from 1975 to 1987.
Her contribution to linguistics was recognised in 1984, when she received the Dmitry Gulia State Prize of Abkhazia. A prolific scholar, Lomtatidze published around 400 works, including eight books, in Georgian, Abkhaz, Russian, English and German.
Her research interests extended beyond Georgian dialectology to the Abkhaz-Abaza, Adyghe-Kabardian and Ubykh languages. She also examined the genetic and typological relationships between Georgian and the languages traditionally grouped under the term “Ibero-Caucasian”, while making important contributions to both general Caucasian studies and theoretical linguistics.
Between 1937 and 1957, Lomtatidze devoted much of her work to Abkhaz studies, carrying out field research initiated by Academician Simon Janashia. She studied the Abzhui and Bzyb dialects of Abkhaz, as well as the Tapanta and Ashkhar dialects of Abaza, and developed an exceptional command of both languages. Her knowledge was reportedly so precise that she could often identify a speaker’s village of origin from subtle features of their speech.