HISTORY: Prehistoric Tbilisi: The Crossroads of Ancient Eurasian Cultures (berkeley.edu)

Lecture | February 19 | 12-1 p.m. | Stephens Hall, 220 (Geballe Room)

Speaker: Mikheil Abramishvili, Director, Tbilisi Archaeological Museum

Sponsors: Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, Institute of (ISEEES), Townsend Center for the Humanities, Middle Eastern Studies, Center for

Tbilisi, the capital city of Georgia, has witnessed a long history of human occupation, due in large part by its favorable location on the crossroads of ancient Eurasian trade routes. Today we have more than two hundred archaeological sites in the city and its outskirts, ranging from the Chalcolithic period to the Middle Ages, which attest to Tbilisi's importance as one of a very few ancient capital cities inhabited continuously for about 6,000 years. Archaeological investigations in the city show that the territory of Tbilisi was the meeting point of the Bronze and Iron Age cultures of the Caucasus, as well as a bridge for long distance trade relations between the East and the West. Besides illustrating the rich archaeological heritage of the city, Professor Abramishvili will focus on the problems of salvage and preservation of archaeological sites of Tbilisi during the current rapid development of the city.

Born and educated in Tbilisi (Georgia) Mikheil Abramishvili has been the director of the Tbilisi Archaeological Museum (now part of the Georgian National Museum) since 1988 and the chairman of the Tbilisi Archaeological Society since 2004. Apart from his full time involvement in practical archaeology excavating sites in Tbilisi, ranging from the Bronze Age to the Medieval period, curating the museum’s collections and striving for the preservation of archaeological sites in the city, Mikheil Abramishvili’s research interests comprise the development of ancient metallurgy, trade relations and religious beliefs in the Old World. Currently he is a Fulbright scholar at the New York University Institute for the Study of the Ancient World and his research is focused on the Bronze Age relations between the South Caucasus, the Near East and the Aegean. These cross-cultural issues have been partially addressed during his scholarship visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2005-06), the German Archaeological Institute departments in Berlin (2006) and Athens (2005) and the University of Heidelberg (1997), and during his British Academy Visiting Professorship at the University of Oxford (1996). Although his current work is mainly based on archaeological evidence, it also integrates religious studies, mythology, historical records and comparative linguistics.

Event Contact: 510-642-3230

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