Medea, Jason and the Argonauts in Georgia

 

If you are travelling in Georgia and especially if you go to Batumi on the Black Sea or to Kutaisi, the old capital of Colchis, then you cannot avoid Medea, Jason and the Argonauts. It is a very old story that does not necessarily correspond entirely to the legend. With the tragedy Medea by Euripides, Medea became notorious as a child murderer, but we do not know whether that was the case, after all the possible crime took place 3300 years ago.

For those who want to know the official version nowadays, I have quoted some Wikipedia articles in which you can find out more. But I have an old lexicon of symbols in which the story is told [1]. I will extract some parts from it and retell them, and there is also the book: Medea - Voices by Christa Wolf in German. She tells a completely different story, namely a Medea who did not kill her children, but this Medea also remains a child murderer for posterity. I want to address that too.

Jason's uncle Pelias ascends the throne after the death of King Aison, and in order to prevent Jason's inheritance claims, Pelias demands that he conquer the golden fleece, which is hung on an oak tree in Colchis and guarded by a fire-breathing dragon. The Argonauts set off with Jason and after numerous adventures they manage to reach Colchis. Jason is given another task, namely to plow the field of Ares with two bulls that have bronze legs and breathe fire, and to sow dragon's teeth. Numerous warriors emerge from the dragon teeth seeds. They are giants. But Medea gives him a miracle ointment that makes him safe from fire and iron. And he should immediately hurl rocks at them when the dragon's teeth turn into warriors. After these tasks, he returns, marries Medea and is able to obtain the Golden Fleece with her help. He returns to Greece. Jason later banishes Medea and she is said to have killed her children in her anger.

Let us return to a few details
The Golden Fleece
The Golden Fleece (Ancient Greek: Χρυσόμαλλον δέρας) is, according to legend, the fleece of the golden-wooled winged ram named Chrysomallos [2]. It came into the possession of King Aeëtes, who was Medea's father. The golden fleece was a symbol of power and royalty. However, it is possible that fleece was previously used to wash gold, or fleece was used so that gold would get caught in it.
Colchis
Colchis (Ancient Greek: Κολχίς) was a term used by ancient Greeks and Romans for the area that today corresponds to western Georgia [3]. The people spoke a Kartvelian language.
The Argonauts
The Argonauts [4] accompanied Jason on his quest for the Golden Fleece. Wikipedia lists 49 and indicates which sources provide the names in detail, as there is no definitive list. The action takes place before the Trojan War, which is historically documented, so that the time period "about 3300 years ago" comes from this. The name Argonauts comes from their ship, the Argo. This was named after the shipbuilder Argus. This Argus should not be confused with Argus Panoptes (Ancient Greek: Ἄργος Πανόπτης) [5], which has come down to  the present day through the meaning of Panoptes "all-seeing" and the term "with Argus eyes".
Medea
Medea [6] is the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, who falls in love with Jason, helps him to get the Golden Fleece, marries him, flees with him, kills her brother on the run, and after Jason leaves her for Glauke, the daughter of Kreon, kills her opponent Glauke with a robe that goes up in flames. This motif was taken up in the film Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time [7]. In the tragedy Medea by Euripides (premiered in 431 BC) [8], Medea kills Glauke with the robe, which also kills Kreon, and then her two sons. In Christa Wolf's Medea [9] Medea is the victim of an intrigue and did not kill her children. Her opponents in Corinth have Jason's children commemorated every seven years in the Temple of Hera, and thus also Medea as a child murderer. Is history boring?

Picture from "Lexikon der Symbole -
here Medea looks more like an Indian goddess.

You can probably discover a lot more if you travel just with Medea in mind, but I am happy with what I have seen and read up. Visiting museums is worthwhile.

This temple is from Armenia, however.

Links and Annotations:
[1] Wolfgang Bauer, Irmtraud Dümotz und Sergius Golowin:Lexikon der Symbole. Fourier, Wiesbaden 1994. ISBN 13: 9783921695548. The picture is from page 169.
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Fleece
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colchis   
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argonauts  
[5] Argus or Argos Panoptes is a many-eyed giant in Greek mythology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argus_Panoptes
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medea
[7] „At their celebratory banquet, Tus has Dastan give their father an embroidered robe. However, the robe is poisoned, fatally burning Sharaman.“ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Persia:_The_Sands_of_Time_(film)
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medea_(play)
[9] Christa Wolf: Medea. Stimmen. dtv, München 1998. ISBN: 9783423124447. There is an Enlish translation by John Cullen with an introduction by Margareth Atwood. First Trade Paperback Edition 1998. ISBN: 9780385518574.

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Abanotubani or the Ancient Bath District of Tbilisi

 

Abanotubani is an old district of Tbilisi and is located at the eastern bank of the Mtkvari River at the foot of Narikala fort across Metekhisubani (Church) [1]. Now a little more precisely: Abanotubani (Georgian აბანოთუბანი) comes from abano "bath" and ubani "district", the term refers to the bath district in the old town of the Georgian capital Tbilisi. And since I want to know everything even more precisely, I looked at the etymology of abano (აბანო) [2]: “From Old Georgian აბანოჲ (abanoy), from Proto-Georgian-Zan *ban- (whence also ბანაობს (banaobs), ბანა (bana) and their derivatives). Cognate with Mingrelian ბონუა (bonua, “to wash oneself”), აბანა (abana) and Laz ობონუ (obonu, “to wash oneself”).” Old Georgian (ႤႬႠჂ ႵႠႰႧႭჃႪႨ) is a literary language, which has been known from the 5th century AD onwards. I noticed that abano is phonetically identical to the Italian Abano. But Abano is a famous thermal spa in Italy [3]. The area was settled in the 9th century BC (Wiki in German). From the 6th century BC, Abano is known as a thermal spa (Wiki in Italian). The origin of Abano may be derived from Aponus, the god of thermal waters, which may be dated back the to the Indo-European root *ap, which means water. Now I ask myself if Abanotubani has been derived from the Abano Terme? Keep in mind that Georgian belongs to the Kartvelian languages and not the Indo-European languages.

As early as the 13th century, around 65 baths used the hot sulphur springs beneath the city, or the water at up to 46.5 °C that bubbles from a spring on Mtabori Mountain. Today, around 10% are still used. But at least you can still bathe there. Most tourists, including me, look at the domes of the baths from the outside, so there is plenty of activity there. Alexandre Dumas and Alexander Pushkin (Александр Серге́евич Пу́шкин) visited the baths. It is not known whether Alexander the Great was there [4]. If you want to read a detailed report about the baths, you have to translate a text from German, but Ingrid has written a nice travelogue [5].

It may look like a Madrasa, but it's a bath

Links and Annotations:
[1] In English there isn't much on the English page of Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abanotubani. You may look at the German page, which has an elaborated text: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abanotubani
[2] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%83%90%E1%83%91%E1%83%90%E1%83%9C%E1%83%9D
[3] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abano_Terme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abano_Terme https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abano_Terme
[4] This is of course nonsense on my part, since he passed by to the south and did not come close to the Caucasus.
[5] https://www.ingrids-welt.de/reise/geo/html/tb-baederviertel.htm I guess my text is a pretext to text something on linguistics rather than to inform on the baths – well, at least there are some pictures.
PS. You may have noticed that Abanotubani contains twice Proto-Georgian-Zan *ban-.
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Street Art in Tiblisi, Georgia

While travelling I hvee an open eye for street art. In Tiblisi (Georgia) I've come across some interesting examples. For me street art is a non-commercial form of art in public spaces, which is intented to remain there permanently to communicate with a wider group of people. It is often political and sometimes just funny, but sometimes annoying if it takes a wall that isn't intended for such art or if tags destroy a work of art. If you want to know more on street art in general, please look up the Wikipedia article [1].

There are also internet articles on street art in Tiblisi, which are different to what I am showing here. One is in English “Discovering Tbilisi’s Street Art Scene through Murals and Graffiti” [2] and as the writing of the Tiblisi is different one knows that the article originated in Georgia. There is also an article in German, which I like to recommend highly, lots of interesting pictures arranged with reference to the artists [3]. The Article is about the Street Art und Mural Festival.
 
I like the Mouse Electric Power Station and the connection to the electric meter boxes. There's also a strong wish to be part the EU; Georgia is part of Europe and has always been. One picture has the Russian "Путин – убийца детей", which means: "Putin is a child killer". I stumbled on a picture of a man and below was the Greek word „Βασανίζομαι“ [Vasanizomai], which means „I'm being tortured“, but relax, most problably picture and text aren't connected. „Βασανίζομαι“ is a song by Klavdia [4], which could lure me into listening to more Greek songs.

 

 

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_art
[2] Discovering Tbilisi’s Street Art Scene through Murals and Graffiti
https://visitgeorgia.ge/discovering-tbilisis-street-art-murals-graffiti/
[3] https://www.georgia-insight.eu/georgien/street-art-in-georgien You have to translate the text!
[4] Βασανίζομαι by Klavdia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcWpDghI7Rs  

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The Black Sea in Georgia and Ukraine

 

If I had grown up in the GDR and, at my age, had spent half my life in the GDR [1], I would be much more familiar with the Black Sea, because for the population east of the Iron Curtain, many holiday destinations that we in the West took for granted were inaccessible, but places like Constanța in Romania [2] or Varna (Варна) in Bulgaria [3], which are on the Black Sea, were accessible and therefore very popular. Interestingly, I did visit Odessa once and of course saw the famous Odessa steps that can be seen in the film “Battleship Potemkin” [4]. A friend invited me to a restaurant directly above the steps and we drank the best or most expensive vodka, but when I compare it with a cheap vodka from the supermarket, I can't taste any difference. So it's not worth drinking vodka. Then we visited Arkadia Beach [5], but the beach was sobering in terms of atmosphere (see picture), the water of the Black Sea was green because of the algae.

The Black Sea lies between Europe and Asia - at least according to the English page of Wikipedia [6]. That is not entirely correct, because the only part of Asia is part of Turkey. And the coastline there makes up less than 23% of the entire coastline of the Black Sea. The Black Sea is 436,000 square kilometers in size and is therefore about the size of Sweden. It goes down to a depth of 2212 meters.

On the trip through Georgia I came to the Black Sea for the first time before reaching Kobuleti (ქობულეთი), a beach resort. We drove to the beach and had a picnic there. It was very windy and overcast, later it cleared up a bit, but it was still inhospitable and the Black Sea did not look inviting. There was also a toilet [7] and it was probably the worst toilet of the whole trip; the situation was somewhat alleviated by the two puppies who had found a place to rest in front of the urinals. Later we drove to Batumi and the evening on the beach promenade was particularly beautiful and this is the first photo that I have included in this blog post. Batumi reconciled me with the Black Sea, on the one hand the beach and on the other hand through very beautiful views from the Botanical Garden. And I think I should comment on the Argonaut legend; perhaps when I write more about Batumi.

Links and Annotations:
[1] Officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR; Deutsche Demokratische Republik, DDR); 07.10.1949-03.10.1990.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Germany
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constan%C8%9Ba
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varna,_Bulgaria
[4] Battleship Potemkin (Russian: Броненосец „Потёмкин“), is a 1925 Soviet silent epic film. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleship_Potemkin The Potemkin Stairs or Potemkin Steps (Ukrainian: Потьо́мкінські схо́ди, Russian: Потёмкинская лестница) are considered a formal entrance into the city from the sea and are one of the symbols of Odesa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_Stairs  
[5] Black Sea and Arkadia Beach  https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2013/02/black-sea-and-arkadia-beach.html
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea  
[7] The coordinates according to Google Maps: N41.895975044329, E41.77132868614155

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Georgian Scripts and Language

 

We have already talked about the Armenian language and the Armenian alphabet [1]. Now I want to tell you more about the alphabets of Georgia, yes alphabets, and the Georgian language. But let's go back a bit.

Եթե նայեք Հայաստանի գրչին, ապա այն ամբողջովին տարբերվում է Վրաստանից. [If you look at the script in Armenia, it looks completely different from that in Georgia. ]

საქართველოს დამწერლობას თუ დააკვირდები, სომხურისგან სულ სხვანაირად გამოიყურება. [If you look at the script in Georgia, it looks completely different from that in Armenia.] [2]

In the blog post about Armenia, I mentioned Mesrop Mashtots, who invented the Armenian alphabet around 405 AD. He is also considered to have been the inventor of the alphabets for Caucasian Albanian and Georgian, although this is not undisputed [3]. Armenian is an Indo-European language and the only representative of the branch of Armenian languages [4]. Caucasian Albanian belongs to the Caucasian languages and bears no linguistic relationship with the Albanian language spoken in Albania, which belongs to the Indo-European family. The distinct Caucasian Albanian alphabet used 52 letters, but is extinct now [5].

After these excursions, I would like to come to the Georgian alphabets, because three writing systems have been developed: Asomtavruli, Nuskhuri and Mkhedruli, which were awarded the national status of intangible cultural heritage in Georgia by the UNESCO in 2015 [6]. Mkhedruli is the alphabet in use today, whereof 33 letters are used; previously there had been 38, but five of them are no longer needed today. They are arranged like the Greek alphabet and the letters that were needed for Georgian sounds were added. Asomtavruli and Nuskhuri are still used but only by the Georgian Orthodox Church for ceremonial religious texts or iconography. In summary, I have to qualify the above statement about the origin of the Georgian alphabets, because we do not know exactly how these alphabets developed.

Georgian or better Kartuli Ena (ქართული ენა), as the Georgians call their language, is the official language of Georgia [7]. Georgian belongs to the Kartvelian language family and the Karto-Zan subfamily; there are no connections to other language families. This is why this language and its preservation are of great cultural importance. It is estimated that there are 3.8 million speakers of Georgian, so there is hope for the preservation of the language.

For the linguistic nerds, I have a quote: “Georgian phonology features a rich consonant system, including aspirated, voiced, and ejective stops, affricates, and fricatives.“ Georgian is an agglutinative language. Nouns have seven cases and postpositions are used rather than prepositions. There is no grammatical gender [8] and no articles either. What makes it difficult for speakers of other languages are the clusters of consonants, especially at the beginning of words. The capital Tblisi (თბილისი) is therefore called Tbilisi in English (and in German formerly Tiflis).

Georgian shares another peculiarity with Basque, although otherwise the two languages have no connection, namely the vigesimal number system [9]. Yes, French and Danish also have parts of such a system. In French there is quatre vingt (80, i.e. 4x20) or quatre vingt onze (91), but not demi soixante for 30! But Maya and Aztec also used this system - that's where it's particularly interesting, unfortunately not here and now. I just found out that Dzongkha, the national language of Bhutan, also uses this system. And during a stay in Hunza I have been interested in the Burushaski language, which also has this system. A rudiment has been lost in Great Britain, because the British pound used to be worth 20 shillings.

I hope that Georgia and Armenia will move closer to the EU, because in my humble opinion they are an enrichment for Europe both linguistically and culturally.

Links and Annotations:
[1] Matenadaran, Mesrop Mashtots, Armenian Alphabet and Language
https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2024/10/matenadaran-mesrop-mashtots-armenian.html
[2] I had Google Translate create the two sentences.
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesrop_Mashtots
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_language
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_Albanian_language
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian_scripts There are examples of all three scripts in this article.
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian_language
[8] In Germany, gender is currently causing considerable problems in the populist parties.
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigesimal

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The Synagogue of Batumi in Georgia

 

On my journey through the Caucasus I visited many churches in Armenia and Georgia and also a synagogue, to be precise the Synagogue of Batumi (ბათუმის სინაგოგა) [1]. It was built in 1904, but was closed during the Soviet era from the end of the 1920s and later used as a sports facility. I remembered a visit to Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, where I had visited a Lutheran church  that had been altered to be a public swimming pool during the Soviet era [2]. The Synagogue of Batumi was handed back to the Jewish community of Batumi in 1993. It was then extensively renovated and painted white. The synagogue was reopened in 1998. The Batumi synagogue was added to the list of national monuments of Georgia in 2011.

There is not much to say about the interior. It's just a room where people (I guess men) meet to pray; there is an upper floor, traditionally for women. I was allowed to enter, but the young man who was controlling the entrance did not appear to be of Jewish faith, because he was not wearing a kippah (yarmulke). I was already wondering what the Jewish community in Batumi might be like. Later that day, just before I got to my hotel at the the circus, I saw an Orthodox Jew with his two daughters, aged around 9-11. The two girls were wearing identical clothes and I had seen something like this before in pictures of Orthodox Jewish families. But I had to be patient to answer my question about the Jewish community or the Jews in Georgia. However, I did find a very interesting article on Wikipedia in English about the history of the Jews in Georgia [3].

I would like to quote the first sentence of the Wikipedia article: “The Georgian Jews (Georgian: ქართველი ებრაელები, romanized: kartveli ebraelebi, Hebrew: יהדות גאורגיה, romanized: Yahadut Georgia) are a community of Jews who migrated to Georgia during the Babylonian captivity in the 6th century BCE.” The Jewish community in Batumi can therefore look back on a tradition that is 2,600 years old. This led to a distinction being made between traditions, as Ashkenazi Jews lived in Tblisi, for example, until the Soviet era. Of the approximately 60,000 Jews who lived in Georgia in the 1970s, most emigrated. In 2014, a census counted 1,405 Jews. In principle, the Jews in Georgia are one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world. For more on the history of the Jews in Georgia, please refer to the article on Wikipedia.

Traditionally, the Jews in Georgia spoke Judaeo-Georgian, known endonymically as Qivruli (Georgian: ყივრული ენა) and also known as Gruzinic, which contains many loanwords from Hebrew. Yiddish is a West Germanic language that developed in a similar way, but in addition to loanwords from Hebrew, it also contains loanwords from other languages. Judaeo-Georgian is sometimes denied classification as a separate language because when spoken it is very similar to Georgian. But it is also a written language and, like Yiddish, is written using the Hebrew alphabet.
The Wikipedia article has the text “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity ...”.
The Latin transliteration of Judaeo-Georgian is:
Qvela adamiani ibadeba tavisupali da tanasc̣ori tavisi ɣirsebita da uplebebit. Mat minič̣ebuli akvt goneba da sindisi da ertmanetis mimart unda ikceodnenʒmobis sulisḳvetebit
The Latin transliteration of Georgian is:
q’vela adamiani ibadeba tavisupali da tanasts’ori tavisi ghirsebita da uplebebit. mat minich’ebuli akvt goneba da sindisi da ertmanetis mimart anda iktseodnen dzmobis sulisk’vetebit.
It looks very similar, but as far as I understand it is not the whole truth. Everyday language will differ more than it is the case with a text concerning human rights. I have tried to illustrate this for Mandarin and Cantonese by translating it using Google Translate [4]. While the political text written in Cantonese is quite understandable for someone who speaks Mandarin, this is no longer the case for the part of the text from the kitchen.
What I've done in the previous paragraphs, one could almost call this a digression.
There are still around 85,000 speakers of Judaeo-Gregorian, most of whom now live in Israel.

The Jewish community in Batumi has a very long history. It is nice that there is still a community in Batumi. And who knows whether it will not make history one day, because the consulate of the Iranian state Islamic Republic of Iran is only about 130 m away around the corner. Yes, I would like to suggest that Iran and Israel hold peace negotiations in Batumi; it is such a beautiful city on the Black Sea that such an endeavor should be promising [5].

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synagoge_Batumi The German article on Wikipedia is more extensive than the English article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batumi_Synagogue
[2] From Church to Swimming Hall and back again https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2013/03/from-church-to-swimming-hall-and-back.html
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaeo-Georgian
[4] The US President has introduced the law to protect voles in Congress.
美國總統在國會提出了保護田鼠的法律。
Měiguó zǒngtǒng zài guóhuì tíchūle bǎohù tiánshǔ de fǎlǜ.
美國總統喺國會提出咗保護田鼠嘅法律。
mei5gwok3 zung2tung2 hai2 gwok3wui2 tai4ceot1 zo2 bou2wu6 tin4syu2 ge3 faat3leot6。
In the kitchen, the daughter accidentally had the soup spoon and that Dulcimer thrown into the trash bin.
在廚房裡，女兒不小心把湯匙和菜板丟進了垃圾桶。
Zài chúfáng lǐ, nǚ'ér bù xiǎoxīn bǎ tāngchí huo cài bǎn di ū jìnle lèsè tǒng.
喺廚房入面，個女唔小心將個湯匙同砧板丟咗落垃圾桶度。
hai2 cyu4fong4 jap6min6，go3 neoi2 m4 siu2sam1 zoeng1 go3 tong1ci4 tung4 baan2 diu1 zo2 lok6 laap6saap3 tung2 dou6。
[5] I know that I am a dreamer. [Scio me somniare.]
 
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Grusinian or Better Georgian Tea

 

Recently I've written a blogpost on tea in German with the same title [1]. It is also an account on my recent travels through Georgia, so I tranlated and enhanced the German text into what follows.

Since I was travelling through Georgia, I read up on Georgian tea, which is not that easy [2]. Georgia used to be the fifth largest tea producer in the world, but I'm getting ahead of myself here. Older readers may still know the tea as Grusinian tea, which goes back to the Russian term (Грузинский чай), but it's better to say Georgian tea (in Georgian: ქართული ჩაი), which is pronounced "kartuli chai".

The German Wikipedia article has a paragraph about Georgian tea [3], in which we learn that tea has been grown in Georgia in its own hybrids since the middle of the 19th century, that this tea had gained popularity, and that during the Soviet Union up to 152,000 tonnes (new estimation) were produced annually. The market and cultivation collapsed with the downfall of the Soviet Union and again during the Caucasus War in 2008. The Georgian tea producer Gurieli is once again growing tea near Zugdidi, mainly for the Georgian market. Zugdidi (Georgian: ზუგდიდი) [4] is a small town in western Georgia, on the border with Abkhazia and is about 110 m above sea level. But that doesn't mean anything, because the altitude rises quickly to the east of the town, so it is difficult to judge the quality of the tea from Zugdidi's altitude.

There are two articles on Wikipedia in Russian and Georgian that are very different from each other and that I had translated in order to be able to evaluate them [5]. I have also evaluated commercial sites on the Internet [6]. In this context, I would like to point out the two articles about old tea tins from Georgia [7]. And I've found now, looking more into English articles one overview article by Paul Rimple on a commercial site called „culinary backstreets“: „Something Brewing: Georgia’s Tea Renaissance“ [8].

I have to choose from the extensive history of tea cultivation and there are four phases: the very early, when tea arrived in Georgia (19th century), the early 20th century, the Soviet era and the state of tea in Georgia today.
The first tea bushes were planted in 1809 in Mamiya V. Guriel's garden. The Guriel brand is now Georgia's leading tea producer. Miha Eristavi smuggled seeds from China and established the first tea plantation in Georgia's west in 1847, because the climate was favorable. In the second half of the 19th century, the construction of the railway line proved to be an important factor in the development of the tea regions. I had previously read similar thoughts about India and Ceylon [9].
At the end of the 19th century, Lao Jinzhao came to Georgia at the age of 23 and devoted himself to tea cultivation there. He came from a Chinese noble family, but I have not been able to find the correct Chinese spelling of his name; I've tried several combinations of Chinese characters, but could not find him mentioned in Chinese. Some of his personal items are on display in the Ajara Museum in Batumi [10]. In 1900, his tea won at the Paris World Exhibition.
There were already tea plantations at the beginning of the Soviet era, which were expanded in the 1930s. In the 1970s, two developments could be observed: in addition to the increase in the volume of Georgian tea production, there also was a progressive loss of quality. During the mechanical tea harvest, not only the upper, young leaves and tips were harvested, but also the lower, old and coarse leaves, and sometimes even twigs. In addition, harvesting also took place during wet weather, which of couse reduces the quality of the tea.
After independence, sales markets disappeared and many plantations became overgrown. In 1993-1995 and 2008, the wars led to a drastic reduction in tea production. Today, if you look carefully at the landscape, you drive past old plantations by bus or train; sorry no pictures, I've just checked the memory card for failed and uncopied pictures from the bus. A lot of infrastructure has been lost. The recultivation of the overgrown tea fields is hardly affordable for a farmer with a normal income. In addition to the economic consequences, there are also social consequences, because tea-growing culture was an essential part of life and identification in many villages.

Today, tea is being grown again in Georgia, mainly for domestic consumption, which has not yet been met, and little for export, from which the country's economy could benefit. Traditionally, more green tea was produced than black tea. There was also very little yellow tea. There are also organic teas, which are produced by at least one small company. Paul Rimple writes about „ an old Georgian technique, by using a wide-bottomed glass wine decanter for extraction control“ and serving the tea into wine glasses. Tea is widely served in glass instead of porcelain in Europe as well the Middle East including Turkey.

Georgia's black tea tastes mild and a little sour. „You gotta try it!“

Links and Annotations:
[1] Grusinischer oder besser georgischer Tee https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2024/10/grusinischer-oder-besser-georgischer-tee.html
[2] OK, you can make it easy for yourself, but then you won't learn much. And I'm not one of those people who make it too easy for themselves.
[3] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarzer_Tee#Georgien The article is in German and is the section on Georgian tea, which the English article does not have.
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zugdidi
[5] https://ka.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%83%A5%E1%83%90%E1%83%A0%E1%83%97%E1%83%A3%E1%83%9A%E1%83%98_%E1%83%A9%E1%83%90%E1%83%98 and https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%93%D1%80%D1%83%D0%B7%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D1%87%D0%B0%D0%B9
[6] https://www.georgia-insight.eu/georgien/kueche/tee and https://www.die-teeseite.de/tee-aus-georgien.php
[7] https://www.tea-terra.ru/2013/07/02/1766/#more-1766 and https://radion-gz-china.livejournal.com/256671.html
[8] https://culinarybackstreets.com/cities-category/tbilisi/2018/something-brewing/ Published on February 06, 2018.
[9] William H. Ukers, All About Tea, 2 volumes. New York 1935. May now be viewed in digital form: https://www.univie.ac.at/Geschichte/China-Bibliographie/blog/2018/03/22/ukers-all-about-tea/
[10] https://ajaramuseums.ge/en/museums/brothers/Lao-Jin-Zhao-and-Georgian-tea and
https://ajaramuseums.ge/en/museums/brothers/Personal-belongings-of-Lao-Jinjao
PS: The first picture shows flowers on a tea bush in Batumi's Botanical Garden.
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The Lesser and the Greater Caucasus

 

Mount Kazbek

My journey through Armenia and Georgia took me particularly to the Greater and Lesser Caucasus, or rather the German-speaking tour guide spoke of “dem Kleinen und dem großen Kaukasus”, which in German sounds very similar to “der kleine und der große Klaus”. That is the German title of a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen; in Danish and in English this similarity isn't as striking [1].

The Caucasus is an important region that separates Asia Minor from Europe. It is hard to imagine that there is a region that belongs to Europe so far to the east. Turkey stretches its entire length in between; there are over 1700 kilometers between Tbilisi and Istanbul. This region, which lies between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, has been very interesting historically: at the moment I would like to concentrate more on geography.

Mt. Kazbek glowing in the morning

The Lesser Caucasus lies in the south and is approximately 600 km long [2]. It is home to Armenia's highest peak, Mount Aragat at 4,090 m. And between the Lesser and Greater Caucasus there is another mountain range that does not run roughly east-west, but rather north-south. It is called Lichi or Surami Mountains [3]. Interestingly, this range isn't verry high; it reaches up to 2,470 m. And the pass that you have to drive over between Tbilisi and Butami, or rather Kutaisi, is only 949 m high. Nevertheless, it is a very rugged mountain range and the Chinese are currently building the modern Silk Road. More than 90 tunnels and more than 50 new bridges are needed, slopes are being removed or at least road has to be protected from rock avalanches with concrete covering. It is a major project and I may want to report on it at length. To the north lies the Greater Caucasus [4], which is about 1,100 km long. To the east of it lies Mount Elbrus; this is the highest mountain in the region (and in Europe, by the way) at 5642 m. Mount Kazbek is in Georgia at 5047 m. Mount Aragas is the highest mountain in Armenia at 4090 m, as already mentioned, and is located in the Lesser Caucasus.

And what about Ararat? Ararat is not in the Caucasus, because it is of volcanic origin and is located in today's Turkey, but it is the national mountain of Armenia. It can be seen from Turkey, Armenia and Iran. I had seen it first from Iran [5] and only now from Armenia. Noah is said to have landed with the ark on Mount Ararat [6]. The word comes from Hebrew or later from the Assyrian word Urartu: Armenian Մասիս Masis or Արարատ Ararat [7].

Mount Ararat as seen from Armenia
(enhanced photography)

Mount Ararat as seen from Iran

Links and Annotations:
[1] Der kleine Klaus und der große Klaus (dänisch: Lille Claus og Store Claus. Englisch: Little Claus and Big Claus), a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, published in Danish in 1835. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_kleine_Klaus_und_der_gro%C3%9Fe_Klaus and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Claus_and_Big_Claus 
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesser_Caucasus
[3] „Likhi Range (Georgian: ლიხის ქედი, romanized: likhis kedi) or Surami Range (Georgian: სურამის ქედი, romanized: suramis kedi) is a mountain range in Georgia … .“ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Likhi_Range Fun fact: The imitation crab meat surimi (Japanese すり身) sounds only roughly like the mountains.
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasus_Mountains
[5] A Visit to the Armenian St. Thaddeus Monastery in Iran
https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2018/10/a-visit-to-armenian-st-thaddeus.html
[6] You can read it like this in the Hebrew Bible: https://biblehub.com/genesis/8-4.htm or in the New American Standard Bible: https://biblehub.com/nasb/genesis/8.htm or in the Luther translation of 2017 and the Einheitsübersetzung (German): https://www.bibleserver.com/EU.LUT/1.Mose8%2C4
[7] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ararat und https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Ararat

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Beer in Georgia

I recently visited Georgia and Armenia and somehow I have to start reporting on this trip. Today I'll start with something innocuous, namely beer in Georgia. While there are some types of beer that are brewed locally in Armenia, I couldn't find any in Georgia at first. That's not surprising, because Georgia has been a land of wine for 8,000 years. I'll write about one type of wine and how it's made later. I didn't like modern Georgian wine at all, so I looked for beer and found two strange Russian beers that somehow imitate German and Czech beers. The correct title of this blog post should actually be Russian beers in Georgia. But on the other hand, on my last evening I found the Georgian beer Kazbegi, which also tasted good, but I'll turn to the two Russian beers now.

The first beer is labelled: „Brander Bier - Deutsches Premium Lager - Gebraut mit deutschem Hopfen - Qualitätsbier - 4,5% - Gebraut in Russland von den Baltika Brauereien in St. Petersburg“ ["Brander Beer - German Premium Lager - Brewed with German Hops - Quality Beer - 4.5% - Brewed in Russia by Baltika Breweries in St. Petersburg"]. Interestingly, this Russian beer has a lot of German written on it, because they want to make it look like it was a German beer. This is far from being the case. The other interesting point is that it is brewed by Baltika Breweries in St. Petersburg. Baltica produces pleasant lagers, such as No. 3 and No. 7. But I did not like this Brander beer at all.

The other beer was Zatecky Gus. I thought it was a Polish beer, but that has been a far guess. It is also a Russian beer, but they make it look like a Czech beer. There is a Czech entry on Wikipedia [1]. This beer is also produced by Baltica. The name of the beer refers to the tradition of adding Žatec hops to the beer, and this is a key point in the Wikipedia article, because it does not mean that it is exclusively made with Žatec hops, but rather that it is probably added to the beer in homeopathic doses. Zatecky Gus is available in the Czech Republic in the Tesco supermarket chain; I assume that it is a beer in the lower price segment. The name is always given in Latin and not Cyrillic letters. There is also a hint of Czech in the beer advertisements, or at least that is what you think if you are Russian (or German), because Czech words are used. And you can also hear that in a commercial [2]. If you are Czech, however, you will hear that it is pseudo-Czech, i.e. just invented for the commercial.
In any case, this beer also tasted catastrophic, I can't put it any other way. Both beers are bad. They are worse than beers that I know from Russia. Why is that? Maybe so that there are cheap beers in Russia.

These are two beers that you should forget about, especially since Georgia also offers beers from Austria, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and other countries. You could also just drink Baltika, which is much better. Or as mentioned above: the Georgian beer Kazbegi (ყაზბეგი).

Links and Annotations:
[1] Zatecky Gus https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BDateck%C3%BD_Gus
[2] Quoted from [1] Реклама Zatecky Gus | Жатецкий гусь безалкогольный "Хорошечно". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlaJ6vJGzpQ

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