Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State Universit: Open Journal Systems / ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტი
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A Gold Figurine from a Kurgan of the Trialeti Culture
No full textThe Trialeti Culture of brilliant kurgans, spread in the South Caucasus region in the time interval of the Middle Bronze Age, is particularly distinguished by the highest level of goldsmiths’ work. It is characterized by essential innovations and a large number of unique patterns of high artistic craft, which clearly points to the emergence of a new cultural stream in toreutics. This fact is evident from the point of view of both artistic-stylistic and technical modelling of these significant artefacts. It should be noted that exactly in this respect the Trialeti Culture achieved considerable success even against the background of flourishing Near Eastern civilization of the same period.
The presented article is devoted to one particular type of toreutics – a study of an animal figurine made from a gold sheet. Accordingly, it is the first attempt to examine this unique sample of II, i.e. developed stage of Middle Bronze Age Trialeti Culture in order to state its origin.
The comparative stylistic and technical study of this exquisite item and the material obtained from the king’s burial of the Royal Cemetery at Ur (Sumer) makes it evident that the South Caucasian sample was created under the influence of the goldsmiths’ school known as Sumerian toreutics.
The work considers a valuable artefact of high artistic craft obtained from Tsalka kurgan # 5, excavated in the late 30s of XX century by academician B. Kuftin. It still remains unique on the vast territory of spreading of the Trialeti Culture.
The study discusses all possible versions in an attempt to find out why the production of metal figurine is so rare on the territory of South Caucasus compared to the other types of valuable metal toreutics. It is clear that the suggested viewpoint requires further interpretation.
The detailed study of the valuable Trialetian sample from the point of its decoration with the help of incrustation with the colored semi-precious stones used for modelling the eyes of the animal (presumably, Onager, i.e. Equus hemionus onager), reveals the similarity of the mentioned sample with the South Caucasian animal’s gold figurine discovered by Lord Leonard Woolley at the Royal Cemetery of Ur.
At the same time, it appears to be a strong argument and proof in favor of the existing cultural interconnections and exchange between the Near East and the South Caucasus in the period of the developed stage of Middle Bronze Age
THE PECULIARITIES OF THE CULTURAL DIPLOMACY ACTIVITY OF THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA IN THE CONTEXT OF REALIZATION OF EUROPEAN PATH
Get PDFThis article analyzes the peculiarities of the cultural diplomacy activity of the Republic of Moldova in the context of the realization of the European path. The authors investigate cultural diplomacy as a distinct sphere within the foreign policy of states, with specialized bodies and autonomous means. They set the strategic objectives of cultural diplomacy, distinguishing the tasks of cultural diplomacy. It analyzes the peculiarities of the activity of cultural diplomacy of the European Union and of the Republic of Moldova, as well as the general objectives and directions for developing the cultural policy of the Republic of Moldova. The main instruments of cooperation in the European area are bilateral and multilateral agreements and cultural collaboration programs with different countries. The practices of Moldovan cultural diplomacy in the European space are based on the fundamental objective, that of European integration, which has become the major force of political and social cohesion. The image and interests of the Republic of Moldova must be realized through proper cultural diplomacy and appropriate measures
European Integration and Identity Issues in Georgia
Get PDFThe purpose of the following paper is to analyze the issues of European Integration and identity in Georgia. On 14 June 2004 after a recommendation made by the Commission the Council decided to offer Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan the opportunity to participate in the European Neighborhood Policy. Georgia has gone through transition period since independence. With history, culture and traditions it has always been part of Europe. Public buildings in the capital of Tbilisi feature EU flags next to Georgian ones, a symbol of Georgia’s choices, like the former Prime Minister of Georgia, Zurab Zhvania once said on the occasion of Georgia’s accession to the Council of Europe: 'I am Georgian, therefore I am European'
Blurb as a Discourse Genre (on material from English and Georgian)
No full textThe paper examines 100 English (British & American) and Georgian novel blurbs from the perspectives of discourse analysis (Brown &Yule 1983), socio-semiotics (Holsanova et al 2006; Van Leeuwen 2006) and stylistics (Verdonk 2007), viz.: the paper aims to:
(a) reveal general discoursal peculiarities of the novel blurbs under discussion (for the given purpose the empirical data have been analysed from the standpoint of Hymesean context features – addressor, addressee, topic, channel, code, purpose, key);
(b) state recurrent frame structures evidenced in the given discourse subgenre;
(c) explore general stylistic peculiarities typical of the English and Georgian novel blurbs in question;
(d) analyse different ways the semiotic space is represented on the back covers of the novels under discussion: in this respect the following issues are examined: typographic peculiarities, specificity of punctuation usage, graphical means of paragraph arrangement, the ways the author’s photo is displayed on the semiotic space of novel blurbs.
The study has shown that, being one of the varieties of advertisement, novel blurbs are not homogeneous in character; there have been singled out 5 frame structures and consequently 5 subtypes of the subgenre in question, viz.: the blurb:
1. which is of hybrid nature combining the peculiarities of a book review and an advertisement; the given type is prevalent in the data and can be further subdivided;
2. mainly consisting of two or more excerpts taken from different reviews;
3. presenting the author’s biography and brief evaluation of his/her work;
4. imitating the author’s style;
5. compiled for a particular edition of a book, emphasizing the advantages of the edition in question.
All the 5 frame structures are evidenced in the English data, whereas in the Georgian data only types (1) and (3) are encountered.
The Georgian novel blurbs under discussion are more informative rather than persuasive, and stylistically and typographically plain. The English data reveals stylistic versatility ranging from dramatic plainness to metaphorically rich and flourishing style.
The observations have shown that on the back cover of a novel, as on a specific kind of semiotic space, meaning is created through the interplay of verbal and non-verbal means of expression; (a) in the English data such visual means as bold type, italics and capitalization serve to indicate the relevance of a particular piece of information.
(b) in English, as well as in Georgian novel blurbs, paragraphs are quite often separated by horizontal lines.
(c) in the English data the punctuation marks: a dash and dots are frequently used conveying the following meanings:
A dash is used with parenthetical clauses; precedes a relevant piece of information; indicates a suspense.
Dots are employed: to end an incompletely presented plot, thus intruiging a potential reader and stimulating him/her to buy the book; indicates a suspense in the narrative.
In the English data deviations from the norms of punctuation usage have been evidenced, e.g: omission of the Genitive case marker in the plural can be explained by the economy principle and redundancy factor ever active in language.
The usage of punctuation marks in the Georgian data follows the traditional rules typical of Standard Georgian.
Of particular interest are different ways the author’s photo is presented on the back cover, these are:
1. top left corner, in the given case the photo serves as the topic to the comment whose funcrion is performed by the text; the given distribution is mostly characteristic of the Georgian data.
2. in the top right corner the author’s photo is the bearer of the new information, having the identifying function, all the verbal information on the left is attributed to the author.
3. in the left bottom corner the author’s photo serves as the continuation of the preceding text.
4. in the middle of the cover a large photo of the author preceding or following the text serves as the agent
The Metamorphosis of European Identity or Demythologisation of a Construct
Get PDFModern societies, formed primarily as multi-unit entities in ethnic, confessional, and cultural senses, face the problem of integrating communities of other cultures, thus offering and testing various integration models based on the specifics of particular EU countries. This process has complicated immeasurably due to the unprecedented inflows of migrants, who have headed to the European continent from the countries of the Middle East and Africa in recent years. Against this background, the debate on the possibilities of integrating new inflows of migrants and, correspondingly, the prospects for their adaptation in the social and political space of the host countries of the European Union has been actualised with a new vigour. Otherwise, there is a danger of rupture of the entrenched interconnections and solidarity of people in a unified political space within the European nation-states
Heores of Batumi ( Events of March 18-20, in 1921) summary
No full text98 years from the battle for liberation of city. According to the agreement achieved between the head of government of the democratic republic of Georgia Noe Zhordania and chairmen of revolution committee Sergo Kavtaradze, on March 17, 1921, general Giorgi Mazniashvili (1873-1937) gathered soldiers and officers of the Georgian army again and, together with local volunteers, created military subdivision, which liberated Batumi from the foreigner conquerors.Military divisions were created hurriedly and specially. Names and surnames of warriors are not recorded, so the identity of participants and victims of this heroic epopee are still unknown. General Mazniashvili recollects that the number of died heroes was about 84. The military commissar ordered to bury them on the azizya square with a big ceremony, which was implemented on the second day… we buried only 44 killed person, because others were taken in their villages by their parents .
გაზეთი "სამუსლიმანო საქართველო" და აჭარის ავტონომიის საკითხი
Get PDFAs it can be easily seen in the article propaganda of irreversible autonomy in Adjara was artificially started in the region to make the population believe that autonomy was the only way for welfare and happiness.In the course of events the population of the region rejected the direct government introduced after restoration of jurisdiction of Georgia in 1920.Confrontation between the pro-Georgian and anti-Georgian forces, as well as ideological war set between the political organizations and propagandists extremely aggravated political situation in Adjara. Unfortunately, the Liberation Committee and its printing body agitated the idea of autonomy. Gradually the confrontation acquired the form of fight for autonomy due to the fact, that the fruits of autonomy were considered useful for political ambitions of the mentioned parties. Autonomy was a lever to reach the government seats in the region and was the only way to hit the target.The decision made by Georgian government on closing the newspaper “Muslim Georgia” (and also closure of ,,Sedai Mileti~) in the second half of 1920 refers to the fact that the information spread by the newspaper didn’t cope with the state interests
CONTRASTING THE USE OF VARYING METHODS OF CHARACTER ATTACKS IN NATIONAL POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS: A CASE STUDY OF THE USE OF IMAGES IN THE PRESIDENTIAL AND PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS OF GEORGIA, MOLDOVA, AND UKRAINE 2018 – 2019
Get PDFThe Georgian Presidential Elections of October 28, 2018, the Moldovan Parliamentary Elections of February 24, 2019 and the Ukrainian Presidential Elections of March 31, 2019 shared similar traits in the campaign tactics that were used. As with other campaigns in the post-Soviet region, parties from all sides of the political spectrum participated in the use of various forms of character attacks as an attempt to dissuade voters from voting for their opponents. These attacks were applied via all of the traditional means of attack: Speeches, social media, public advertisements and innuendo. The relative effectiveness of these attacks remains to be quantified; however, research indicates that some elements of attack remain consistently present across all three countries’ elections
From “Soviet-City” to “Cosmopolitan City” – Architecture as a Protagonist for the Emergence of New Centres of Power in South Caucasus
No full textDissolution of the Soviet Union is clearly most important breaking point of the end of the 20th century in terms of social and urban structures (Leach 1999: 112). By the end of the 20th century, when these coutries gained back their independence and started developing as democratic and fair states, they were confronted with the requirements of the current epoch; these are: democracy, stable economy, precise sciences and total communication. Given these circumstances, restructurization of Soviet cities into “modern city” models is noteworthy, which means creating something new, totally different from the old models and fundamentally change everything to create a new “Non-Soviet” person.
Therefore, it represented a dramatic blow to every sphere, including architecture and cities. Particularly noteworthy are transformation processes in the capital cities of South Caucasus, especially in Baku and Tbilisi.
It must be mentioned that urban development in Soviet countries was based on the Soviet rules. Under these rules the living space was used as the main weapon to control the population. The huge areas of soviet cities were managed from the following perspective – “the property of all or none!” which established unconscious dichotomy and caused a deep crisis of public culture after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
According to the same principle “for all or for none!”, in the 1960s, after Nikita Khrushchev’s Housing Reforms, theresidential blocks were not used elsewhere withsuch density as in Eastern Bloc countries. These homogenous living block propaganda created a type of Soviet City as a genre. In essence it is a series of similar buildings and settlements – the so called “micro-rayons”–which are considered as an ideal form for living. Architecture and cities should also convey the idea of prosperity, equality and beauty. That is why the USSR established itself as a “museum of dreams”, a “museum of hypotheses” – of never realized projects.
The form of the “museum of dreams” is so rooted in the mentality of former Soviet republics that after “Perestroika” they have made quite a special picture of themselves.
Bruce Grant in his essay The Edifice Complex: Architecture and the Political Life of Surplus in the New Baku, writes that Outside Moscow the world of abundance is nowhere more prominent than in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan (Grant 2014: 502). However, he is wrong, because Baku is one of the examples of post-Soviet cities and not a unique case to clarify the character of post-Soviet states. Characteristic examples of post-Sovietgeopolitical development are Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, whose state “welfare” and “wealth”are nowhere so present as in the capital cities of these countries: Astana and Ashgabat. They have turned into “Open Air Museums”, where the power of the government and the glory of the nation areheld almost sacral (Koch 2010: 769).
In South Caucasus not only Baku is the city which aims to be a center of cosmopolitan life, as Bruce Grant tells us in his essay (Grant 2014), Tbilisi also strives for that.
After “Perestroika” both cities, Tbilisi and Baku have undergone fundamental changes not only economically but also in architecture and urban planning. The largest sources of wellbeing for Baku are gas and oil projects (Grant 2014); while for Georgia they are mainly agriculture and tourism. The main problem is getting rid of the Soviet image; therefore, the structures of both cities are violated by the mass of constructions, but the main state concepts still remain symbolic for them. Exactly through these symbolic structures these countries show their individual place, strength and value in the world political composition. The difference is that we do not see such giant buildings in Tbilisi, which we see in Baku, where the pompous urban areas are created for business centers with the world’s largest buildings. But Baku will compete with the Black Sea city Batumiin Georgia, which also emphasizes its importance with modern architecture on the beach of the Black Sea . The whole power that Azerbaijan gets through gas and oil is expressed in its pompous architecture and in the sense of abundance linking itto the cities like new Doha, Dubai or Shanghai (Grant 2014: 502).
For Georgia Rike Park in Tbilisi is very symbolic. It is not gigantic, but is very peculiar together withthe “Bridge of Peace” . With the symbolic importance of this bridge in old Tbilisi Georgia underlines its transitory location between Europe and Asia, its strive for democracy and visualization of historical scale.
With the creation of new architectural buildings and urban areas, these cities represent some kind of evidence of reforms and transformation from the Soviet cities into “Global” ones.
The main tool for presenting a “European City”, “Modern City”, “Global City” is architecture. As architecture is the quickest way for creating a “Global City”, to reach this goal politicians do not avoid implementing multi-million-dollar projects with the participation of the so-called “Star-Architects” despite difficult social-economic conditions. With the help of most distinctive architectural projects these cities become “Place Brandings” for the world. For example, one of such projects accomplished in Tbilisi isthe Bridge of Peace, its author is the eminent Italian architect Michele De Luca. He also designed the Presidential Palace and the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs . Another famous Italian architect, Massimiliano Fuksas designed the Rike Concert Hall; an outstanding German architect, Jürgen Mayer-Hermann created Queen Tamar Airport in Mestia and so on. This is a general trend, which most rapidly deprives the generic look of a former Soviet town – it becomes free. On the way of transformation from the soviet city to the global metropolis the city landscape dramatically changes its structure. Very often local and traditional signs are disrespected and this becomes a cultural problem.
Through architecture the cityscape of Tbilisi makes a visible societal domination of two institutions: that is the Georgian Orthodox Church and the Government. In this respect, I would like to focus on the Presidential Palace and Sameba (Holy Trinity) Cathedral These two monuments are prominent due to their visual presentation, privileged location and stylistic peculiarities. Both structures are designed as “super monuments”, indicating to new life and time; they are trying to give a new face to the society. As architectural symbols both buildings fully determinethe skyline of the location. They greet everyone who enters Tbilisi. Before that this role belonged to Metekhi Church and King Vakhtang Gorgasali monument. This duality –conservative and monumental sacral architecture, on the one hand, and democratic, transparent and modern secular architecture, on the other – has become an indicator of Tbilisi’s nature, culture and, in general, of the essence of Georgia’s statehood