Abstracts - International Initiative for Georgian Cultural Studies

forces fighting for the unification of the country. A three-nave basilica in honor of the prince was constructed
in the centre of the city in the 10 th century.
The 1230s saw the end of this long period of advancement in Uplistsikhe. ”And it was a city until
Genghis,” said the 18 th century historian and geographer, Prince Vakushti Bagrationi. This period was
followed by an irrevocable decline. In the late Middle Ages, the city’s structures became a monastery
belonging to Svetitskhoveli at Mtskheta, and were later passed on from one king or feudal lord to another.
Beginning in the 19 th century, the city was finally deserted.
Regular archaeological investigations of the site commenced in 1957 and continue to the present day.
Mariam Gvelesiani
Georgian National Museum. Georgia
For the Interpretation of an Anthropomorphic Figure from Katlanikhevi
The Great Mother of Nature or the female deity associated with femininity used to be worshipped as the
“Great Mother Nana” in Georgia. “Nana”, which derives from the Sumerian goddess “Innana”, as well as
its transliterated forms-Nano, Ana, Nena, Nino, Nina and Nane- means “mother” in Persian, Armenian, Tatar,
Tajik, Turkish as well as west Georgian dialects. That this cult was worshipped in the Chalcolithic Age
(fifth millennium BC) is evidenced by female anthropomorphic, so-called “naturalistic”, figurines from
Khramis Didi-Gora, which are considered to be images of the Great Mother, guardian of nature. They find
parallels with contemporaneous figurines unearthed in Mesopotamia, Persia, Asia Minor, and Armenia.
It has been accepted in scientific literature that the hypostasis of the Sun-woman, which ranks second
in the triad of ancient Georgian deities (God – the moon, the Sun-Woman and Kviria) is the Great Mother
Nana. Consequently, the latter is perceived as a female deity associated with the Sun. Therefore according
to archaeological inventory, worship of its cult is linked to solar attributes (circular shrines, spindleweights,
cart wheels, disco-shaped items, etc).
The theory of sameness of the cult of Nana and the Sun deity was developed based on the findings of a
mono-disciplinary study, namely the analysis of ethnographic evidence, and without the consideration of a
systemic line of the genesis, development, transformation and synchronization of Mother Nana in a broader
context of culture and civilizations. Such approach has therefore yielded results different from those adopted
in international scholarly circles, where the correlation between this well-known female deity and the
Moon, rather than the Sun, is supported by sound arguments. The supposition that Nana/Innana (the same
as Ishtar) is the female deity associated with the Moon in the civilizations neighboring Georgia is backed by
the iconography of Nana/Innana’s Persian correlate Anahita, her Greek correlate during the Hellenic period,
Artemid, and her Central Asian correlate, the deity Nano, in the form of a crescent above the heads of the
figures of these divinities.
Clay hot-reliefs with female heads found in the first structure of Katlanikhevi at the ancient settlement
of Uplistsikhe are considered by Prof. D. Khakhutaishvili as works of ritual fine arts. The scholar makes
particular note of the Great Mother Nana in his analysis of the disco-shaped items unearthed together,
which he associates with the material manifestation of the solar cult. Of special note is a small ox figurine
found nearby, which offers evidence suggesting an entirely different interpretation of the identification of
the figurine as the Great Mother Nana (identification with the moon).
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ANCIENT GEORGIA