From: Rex H. McTyeire
Message: 3296
Date: 2000-08-20
Thanks to all that responded. The only problem with the Taurians is that the people being described in the web site seemed to be located in the area of Colchis, the far eastern shore of the Black Sea, not the Crimea.OK.. Looking at it again for my own benefit: It seems the people the Greeks found there, looking at the river fed plain south of the Caucasus, were called Colchians or Kolkhida, as possibly the largest identifiable group before Urartu, Media then Armenia and Georgia. Described as the Kingdom of Kolkis(Colchis) a collection of tribal groups under local chiefs, and one regional leader. Greek legend names Aeetes as a known king. It was defined as filling that plain bordered by the Black Sea, The Greater Caucasus to the north, and Lesser Caucasus to the south, or the valley of the Phasis River (modern Riuni). The plain is still called Kolkhida after the ancient kingdom. The agricultural and cattle raising society is also linked with early metallurgy and great wealth, contributing to: Greek legends of the Golden Fleece; and Milesian colonization. One of the oldest cities iof Transcaucasia, Kutaisi lies on the Rioni, and served as capital for a succession of kingdoms in the part of Georgia: Colchis, Kartli (Iberia), Abkhazia, and ImeretiaPaleolithic occupation is archaeologically indicated, as well as Neolithic agriculture by settled tribes. Bronze age ca 3rd millennium BC. 2nd millennium BC burial site excavations seem to support the legend of wealth with finely wrought gold and silver. The first identifiable peoples seem to be the Diauhi and the Kulkha, referred to in Assyrian annals (1st millennium BC) and later Urartu (Armenia) references. The Diauhi later define the province of Tao, and the Kulkha are apparently the primary direct forerunners of the Kolkis/Colchis, to the point of possibly just being an earlier version of the same name. The area received a major influx from Anatolia following 7th century BC disruptions south of the Black Sea.