Toponymic Searches on the Border of Svaneti and Abkhazia

Abstract

The purpose of our paper is to study and analyze the documents containing toponymic information of the border areas of two historical sides of Georgia - Svaneti and Abkhazia: church four-chapters, written references written on lectionary sheets, materials obtained as a result of ethnographic expedition.

 The research focuses on the issues of determining the historical borders of Svaneti and Abkhazia, their changes over the centuries, and their relationship in this context. The research revealed new circumstances in the study of the borders of "Free Svaneti", border toponyms with Abkhazia, land ownership. The references are distinguished by the abundance of toponymic units, which helped us in their loca­li­zation, onomastic search and specifying the places on the border strip.

The work uses the methods of critical analysis of the source and historical-compa­ra­tive research. The scientific novelty of the work is based on the study and analysis of the written sources preserved in Svaneti, on the basis of which it was possible to separate the toponymically bounded sources into a separate group and reveal the bor­der toponymy in the northwest of Svaneti with Abkhazia. For the first time, the co­n­tent aspects of documents containing border toponymy were studied in detail. In addi­tion to written sources and toponymy, it is important to analyze the features of free land ownership forms and other traditional characteristics in determining the his­to­rical geography of Upper Svaneti, which is possible with ethnographic material.

In the written monuments of Svaneti, in the documents written on four heads, in to­po­nymy and ethnographic data, the historical picture of the alternation of the border of Svaneti and Abkhazia in different eras is clearly visible. Nevertheless, ethno­g­ra­phic and toponomic studies on the ground, on the Upper Svaneti-Abkhazia border and in the Dali valley, should reveal more material in the issue of clarifying the boundaries of the two historical sides of Georgia - Svaneti and Abkhazia.