(22 Aug 2020) LEAD IN:
Despite the coronavirus pandemic a new museum has opened in Georgia.
It's based in the region of Bolnisi, which has a history going back to the Stone Age and encompasses the arrival of German settlers in the 1800s.
STORY-LINE:
This is the new museum, in Georgia's historic region of Bolnisi.
Cultural artefacts excavated in the region over the years are finally under one roof.
These ancient stone tools catch the attention of visitors - originally they would have been used to excavate ores in mines.
"I am happy to say that in Georgia we are opening new museums even during the pandemic time. This Bolnisi museum represents a model of new regional museums. Here you can see both nature and culture. It is somewhere like Georgia where we have very big natural diversity and uninterrupted culture. We are telling here the history of the region but we are putting it in history of Georgia and also in a global big picture," says David Lordkipanidze, director of Georgia's National Museum.
The permanent exhibition shows the nature of the region, the history of early hominins, the emergence of agriculture, ancient metallurgy, and the Bronze Age cultures.
Early Christian architecture and examples of Georgian inscription and stone objects from the medieval era are also on display, as well as artefacts from the ancient Sakdrisi mining site - believed to be the world's oldest gold mine.
"We are telling here the history of early agriculture and representing traces of the earliest wine. We are representing here also the story of early mining and earliest metallurgy as well as Georgian medieval history. The first inscription of Georgian alphabet has been found in this region. And we are telling history of medieval time very active, cultural and strategic centre which was connected with Silk road," explains Lordkipanidze.
Excavation work carried out by a group of Georgian and German scientists dated the site between the 34th to the 28th centuries BC.
The last hall of the exhibition is dedicated to the history of the German settlers who emigrated to the province in the 19th century.
Vladimir Chkhetiani, a guide at Bolnisi Museum, explains:
"Local Germans were studying various professions and also initially when they were travelling to Georgia, men of many professions accompanied them and they formed the main groups of colonists."
The first German colonists arrived in Georgia in 1817 and over the decades created thirteen settlements including Ekaterinefield which is now known as Bolnisi.
"In 1862, they revived the work in the mine in the village of Foladauri, which was closed for tens of years. The mine resumed work and for several years functioned on a very serious level. But due to the exhaustion of ore, it had to stop. In 1922, after Georgia was put under Soviet rule, this place changed its name and instead of Ekaterinefield was named after (Roza) Luxemburg. But in 1941, immediately after the Soviet Union became engaged in war with Germans, all German settlers in the south Caucasus were deported to Central Asia," explains Chkhetiani.
According to historians, there were several factors why Germans decided to travel to the South Caucasus including religious freedom and economic reasons.
Russian Empress Catherine II invited foreigners to settle in the new territories acquired by the Russian Empire including Georgia.
Russia covered their travel expenses and promised freedoms such as exemption from military service and various taxes.
The houses of the German colonists remain in Bolnisi and are easily recognisable but over the years have become rundown.
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