Abkhazia in the Early Middle Ages

A well-known Abkhazian scientific, professor Georgiy Amichba has contributed one more work to the Abkhazological literature - "Abkhazia in the Early Middle Ages". I have this book before me, just printed. The book is very useful both for specialists-historians, and for everyone who is interested in the cultural heritage and historical past of the Abkhazian people.

With accuracy peculiar to him, having used archeological, ethnographic, folklore material and the available written sources, the scientist has collected a huge factual material, analyzed it and reconstructed the process of consolidation of the Abkhazian tribes into one nation, pointed out the factors which led to the creation of the Abkhazian Kingdom. It is well known that the state is based on the success of its economy, on the management, on the creative work of its people.

In his book Georgiy Amichba speaks about the values common to all Abkhazians, about the interrelation between the nature and the humans, about the influence of circumstance in the development of a society. The author also shows the contribution of the original Abkhazian culture in the treasury of the world civilization.

In the chronological period of the 6th - 10th centuries discussed by the author, the people of Abkhazia had already been engaged in all spheres of human activity. This concerns the dwellings, the clothes, the food, the crafts, the agriculture, the cattle breeding, the town-planning, the construction of roads and communications, as well as the maintenance of internal and external relations. The author used all available literature which either directly or indirectly dealt with the history of Abkhazia. This book was the last inspiration of our friend and colleague, the eminent researcher and the follower of the school of the great Zurab Anchabadze, Georgiy Dzidzariya and Shalwa Inal-ipa. Georgiy Aleksandrovich has gone, and we are all left with our memory about this man, and with the painfull feeling of the loss.

Luiza Avidzba,

Lecturer of the chair of the Middle Age history at the Abkhazian State University