Vanir

I thought about for a while: is everybody tired of hearing about
Snorri's ideas of the Aesir living on the Don and fighting Vanir to
the east of them; but on the other hand, if someone should speculate
on the origins of the Vanir, so ...

in
http://www.alekseevmanuscript.com/ChapterVIII.html

you find:

"
Kingdom of Vani
As per Alexeev, the Kingdom of Vani 5 is in existence in the
seventh/sixth century BC and lasts until the first century AD. This
kingdom is located in Georgia close to the Black Sea; Vani is also
the name of a town. This kingdom is influenced by Greece but it also
has its native cultural traditions 6. Linguists do not know which
languages were spoken [Arutiunov says the language most probably was
early Zanic]; however, inscriptions on gravestones are in Greek. This
site has been excavated for thirty years revealing a great square
with architecture similar to Greece. The Vani people are metal users.
Iron is used for tools, with an occasional implement made of bronze;
bronze is considered very valuable. Thus in the early Iron Age there
is a mixing of a new tradition of iron with the old tradition of
bronze.
"

http://www.alekseevmanuscript.com/ChapterVII.html
on "Zalic" or Zanic":

"
Kartli is the name of an ancient kingdom in the first century AD.
Georgian is spoken in Georgia proper and Megrelian (Mingrelian) is
spoken in western Georgia. Svanian is spoken in the central mountain
region north of the Megrelian area. Georgian, Megrelian, and Svanian
belong to the Kartic = Kartvelian Family. HOLLIS adds the Laz
language to the Kartvelian group. Arutiunov comments that Laz and
Megrelian are two dialects of a single language arbitrarily called
Zanic.
"


So they might have been Kartvelian speakers.

Torsten