Colchis
Colchis ეგრისი Egrisi | |||||||||
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| 13th century BC–131 AD | |||||||||
Colchis and Iberia | |||||||||
| Capital | Aea | ||||||||
| Common languages | Proto-Kartvelian language, Zan languages, Svan language Greek (widespread, decrees, numismatics), many others | ||||||||
| Historical era | Iron Age, Classical antiquity | ||||||||
• Consolidation of Colchian tribes | 13th century BC | ||||||||
• Conquest of Diauehi | 750 BC | ||||||||
• Two invasions of Sardur II of Urartu | 744/743 BC | ||||||||
| 720 BC | |||||||||
• Conquest of Mithridates VI | After 70 BC | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 131 AD | ||||||||
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| Today part of | |||||||||
| Part of a series on the |
| History of Georgia |
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In classical antiquity and Greco-Roman geography, Colchis[a] (/ˈkɒlkɪs/; Ancient Greek: Κολχίς) was an exonym for the Georgian polity[b] of Egrisi[c] (Georgian: ეგრისი) located on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia.
Its population, the Colchians, are generally thought to have been an early Kartvelian-speaking tribe ancestral to contemporary western Georgians, namely Svans and Zans. 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.
According to Rayfield, the first mention of Colchis is during the reign of the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I of the Middle Assyrian Empire(1245–1209 BC) when he mentions "40 kings by the Upper [Black] Sea". 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.