meskheti

Meskheti is a mountainous area and a province in the South-West of Georgia. Ancient Georgian tribes of Meshech (later Moskh) and Mosiniks were indigenous population of this region (4th-2nd millennia BC). Majority of the modern Georgian population (Meskhs) of Meskheti are descendants of these ancient tribes. Mosiniks were one of the inventors of iron metallurgy. In 2nd millenium Moskhs were challenging power of Hittites attacking their empire from the north-east. When Hittites collapsed under strikes of Sea Peoples the Moskhs (Mushks) invaded the Hatti heartland in Central Anatolia and founded there a kingdom until the ~400 years later when the last king Mita was forced by fierce northern nomadic tribes to retreat to west to Phrygia. There he came known to Hellenes as King Midas of Phrygia, some historians believe. However by most accounts Midas was the son of King Gordias of Phrygia and lived ~100 years before. The Mushk's (Mushk-Phrygian) kingdom ends with Mitas death. The heartland of Mosiniks stays away from the Anatolian state of Mushks as part of the ancient Georgian Kingdom Diaokhi and a part of Urartu - 2nd millennium-4th century BC, in the 4th century BC-6th century AD - part of the Kingdom of Iberia. In the 10th-15 centuries this region was a part of the united Georgian Kingdom. In the 16th century Meskhety was occupied and annexed by the Ottoman Empire. In 1829-1917 the region was a part of Tbilisi Province (Tiflisskaia Gubernia), in 1918-1921 part of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, in 1921-1990 part of the Georgian SSR. Since 1990 Meskheti (Samtskhe-Javakheti) is a province of the republic of Georgia.

Meskheti

See also