Editing Colchis (section)

== Geography and toponyms ==
Colchis, Kolkha, Qulḫa, or Kilkhi,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morritt |first=Robert D. |date=2017 |title=Stones that Speak |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M1EaBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA143 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publisher |isbn=9781443821766 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref>''The Pre-history of the Armenian People'', Igor Mikhailovich Diakonov, p.&nbsp;75</ref><ref>''Encyclopædia Britannica'', Volume 1, p.&nbsp;1040</ref><ref>''Archaeology at the North-east Anatolian Frontier'', Claudia Sagona, p.&nbsp;35</ref> which existed from the {{Circa|13th}}<ref name = morritt>Robert D. Morritt, ''Stones that Speak'', p. 143</ref> to the 1st centuries BC, is regarded as an early [[Georgians|ethnically Georgian]] polity; the name of the Colchians was used as the collective term for early [[Kartvelians|Kartvelian tribes]] which populated the eastern coast of the Black Sea in [[Greco-Roman ethnography]].<ref>Peter L. Roudik, ''Culture and Customs of the Caucasus'', p. 10, Greenwood, US (December 1, 2008), {{ISBN|9780313348853}}; Zev Katz, ''Handbook of Major Soviet Nationalities'', p. 163, the University of Michigan Free Fress, US (1975), {{ISBN|0029170907}}; Aleksandr Prokhorov. ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'', Volume 7, p.197, Macmillan, (1973); Ori Z. Soltes. ''National Treasures of Georgia'', p.30, Bloomsbury US (1999), {{ISBN|0856675016}}; Bohdan Nahaylo, Victor Swoboda. ''Soviet Disunion. A History of the Nationalities Problem in the USSR'', p. 11, Hamish Hamilton (1990), {{ISBN|0029224012}}</ref><ref name="Christopher Haas 2014"/><ref name="Charles Burney p. 194-94"/><ref name="The Cambridge Ancient History p. 255">''The Cambridge Ancient History'', John Anthony Crook, [[Elizabeth Rawson]], p. 255</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=David Marshall |last=Lang |title=The Georgians |pages=59, 75, 76–88 |publisher=Frederick A. Praeger |location=New York |date=1966}}</ref>

[[Ronald Grigor Suny]] identifies Colchis as an early Georgian state formation. Suny emphasizes that the Colchians were among the early Kartvelian-speaking tribes, the linguistic ancestors of modern Georgians. He highlights the cultural and political continuity between Colchis and later Georgian states, noting that Colchis, along with the eastern Georgian kingdom of Iberia, played a significant role in the ethnogenesis of the Georgian people.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Suny |first=Ronald Grigory |title=The Making of the Georgian Nation |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=1994 |isbn=9780253209153}}</ref>

According to [[Donald Rayfield]], the ethnic makeup of Colchis is "obscure" and Kartvelian names "are conspicuously absent from the few anthronyms found in Colchian burials."{{sfn|Rayfield|2012|p=15}} Instead, [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Anatolian languages|Anatolian]], [[Iranian languages|Iranian]], and possibly [[Abkhaz language|Abkhaz]] names are present.{{sfn|Rayfield|2012|p=15}}

The name Colchis is thought to have derived from the [[Urartian language|Urartian]] ''Qulḫa''.<ref>O, Lordkipanidze. (1991). ''Archeology in Georgia'', Weinheim, 110.</ref> In the mid-eighth century BC, [[Sarduri II]], the King of [[Urartu]], inscribed his victory over ''Qulḫa'' on a stele; however, the exact location of ''Qulḫa'' is disputed. Some scholars argue the name ''Qulḫa'' (Colchís) originally referred to a land to the west of Georgia.<ref>M. Salvini, Geschichte und Kultur der Urartäer (Darmstadt, 1995) 70f.</ref><ref>Bremmer, J. N. (2007). "The Myth of the Golden Fleece". ''Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions'', 6, 9–38.</ref> Others argue ''Qulḫa'' may have been located in the south, near modern [[Göle|Göle, Turkey]].<ref>Kemalettin Köroğlu. "The Northward Expansion of the Kingdom of Urartu and the Historical Geography of the Land of Qulha." Aralık 2000, Cilt LXIV - Sayı 241. [https://belleten.gov.tr/ozet/2574/eng]</ref>

According to Levan Gordeziani, while the Greek ''Colchis'' etymologically descends from Urartian ''Qulḫa'', the Greeks may have applied the name to a different region (and/or cultures) than the preceding Urartians had. Further confusion rests in possible differences in the Greeks' own usage of the name Colchis in political and mythological contexts (i.e. the relationship between "Aia-Colchis" and "the land of Colchis").<ref>Levan Gordzeiani. "Some Remarks on Qulḫa." ''Over the Mountains and Far Away: Studies in Near Eastern history and archaeology presented to Mirjo Salvini on the occasion of his 80th birthday.'' eds. Pavel S. Avetisyan, Roberto Dan and Yervand H. Grekyan. Archaeopress Archaeology. 2019. p. 242. [https://www.academia.edu/50125245/Some_Remarks_on_Qulh_a]</ref>

According to the scholar of Caucasian studies [[Cyril Toumanoff]]:

{{blockquote|Colchis appears as the first Caucasian State to have achieved the coalescence of the newcomer. Colchis can be justly regarded as not a proto-Georgian, but a Georgian (West Georgian) kingdom.&nbsp;... It would seem natural to seek the beginnings of Georgian social history in Colchis, the earliest Georgian formation.<ref name="CToumanoff"/>}}

According to most [[Classical antiquity|Classical-era]] sources, Colchis was bordered on the south-west by [[Pontus (region)|Pontus]], on the west by the [[Black Sea]], as far as the river Corax. To its north was the [[Caucasus Mountains|Greater Caucasus]], beyond which was [[Sarmatians|Sarmatia]]. On its east it bordered the Kingdom of Iberia and [[Moschia|Montes Moschici]] (now the [[Caucasus Mountains|Lesser Caucasus]]). The south of Colchis bordered [[Armenia]]. The westward extent of the country is considered differently by different authors: [[Strabo]] makes Colchis begin at [[Trabzon]], while [[Ptolemy]], on the other hand, extends [[Pontus (region)|Pontus]] to the [[Rioni River]].{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

Although some ancient authors consider [[Sukhumi|Dioscurias]] to be the extreme northern settlement point of Colchians (in an ethnic sense), nevertheless "they consider it as a point located on the territory of non-Colchian tribes ([[Heniochi]], [[Sanigs]])". Since in a later era the name "Colchians" was organically connected with the name "[[Laz people|Lazi]]", it should be remembered that Byzantine sources saw the northern limit of the spread of Laz people somewhere between the [[Phasis (town)|Phasis]] (modern. [[Poti]]) and Dioscurias".<ref>[[Giorgi Melikishvili]], ''History of ancient Georgia''. P. 64.</ref><ref>Anchabadze, Zurab Vianorovich. ''History and culture of ancient Abkhazia''. Moscow -1964. P. 132.</ref>

The Greek name {{Lang|grc-Latn|Kolchís|italic=no}} ({{Lang|grc|Κολχίς}}) is first used to describe a geographic area in the writings of [[Aeschylus]] and [[Pindar]]. Earlier writers speak of the "Kolchian" ({{Lang|grc|Κολχίδα}}) people and their mythical king [[Aeëtes]] ({{Lang|grc|Αἰήτης}}), as well as his [[eponym]]ous city ''Aea'' or ''Aia (''{{Lang|grc|Αἶα}}'')'',<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.perseus-grc1:1.2.2 |author=Herodotus |author-link=Herodotus |title=Herodotus, ''The Histories'', book 1, chapter 2, section 2 |website=perseus.tufts.edu |access-date=2020-04-07 |quote=They sailed in a long ship to Aea, a city of the Colchians, and to the river Phasis...}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Apollonius of Rhodes |author-link=Apollonius of Rhodes |title=Apollonius Rhodius: the Argonautica |date=2006 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=0-674-99001-3 |pages=II.417 |oclc=249603642 |quote="Kolchian Aia lies at the furthest limits of sea and earth,"}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:alphabetic+letter=*a:entry+group=43|title=Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, Α α, αἶα, αἶα|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=2020-04-07}}</ref> but don't make explicit references to a Kolchis nation or region. The main river was known as the [[Phasis (river)|Phasis]] (now [[Rioni River|Rioni]]) and was, according to some writers the southern boundary of Colchis, but more probably flowed through the middle of that country from the Caucasus west into the [[Euxine]], and the Anticites or Atticitus (now [[Kuban]]). [[Arrian]] mentions many others by name, but they would seem to have been little more than mountain torrents: the most important of them were Charieis, Chobus or Cobus, Singames, Tarsuras, Hippus, Astelephus, Chrysorrhoas, several of which are also noticed by [[Ptolemy]] and [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]]. The chief towns were [[Sukhumi|Dioscurias]] or Dioscuris (under the [[Roman Empire|Romans]] called Sebastopolis, now [[Sukhumi]]) on the seaboard of the Euxine, Sarapana (now [[Shorapani]]), [[Phasis (town)|Phasis]] (now [[Poti]]), Pityus (now [[Pitsunda]]), [[Apsaros]] (now [[Gonio (settlement)|Gonio]]), [[Vani|Surium]] (now [[Vani]]), Archaeopolis (now [[Nokalakevi]]), Macheiresis, and Cyta or Cutatisium or Aia (now [[Kutaisi]]), the traditional birthplace of [[Medea]]. [[Scylax of Caryanda|Scylax]] mentions also Mala or Male, which he, in contradiction to other writers, makes the birthplace of [[Medea]].{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}