Gudamaqari Explained

Gudamaqari
Native Name:გუდამაყარი
Other Name:Gudamakari
Settlement Type:Historical region
Pushpin Map:Georgia Mtskheta-Mtianeti#Georgia (country)
Pushpin Relief:yes
Coordinates:42.4378°N 44.75°W
Coordinates Footnotes:
An approximate geographical area.
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Type1:Mkhare
Subdivision Name1:Mtskheta-Mtianeti
Seat:Bursachiri (village)
Seat Type:Capital
Population Density Km2:auto
Parts Type:Districts
Parts Style:para

Gudamaq'ari (Gudamakari;[1] Georgian: გუდამაყარი) is a small historical geographic area in northeast Georgia on the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus Mountains. Located along the river valley of Aragvi, it is bordered by Mtiuleti on the west, Khevi on the north, Khevsureti and Pshavi on the east, and Khando and Ch'artali communities on the south. Gudamaq'ari is sometimes viewed as a part of Mtiuleti. Modern administrative subdivision of Georgia places the area in the Mtskheta-Mtianeti mkhare (region).

History

The inhabitants of Gudamaq’ari – Gudamaq’relebi (გუდამაყრელები) – are first chronicled by the 11th century Georgian historian Leonti Mroveli in connection with the conversion of Iberia/Kartli by St. Nino in the 330s.[2] A strategic road running through this area played an important role in medieval Georgia and was much later, under the Imperial Russian rule, connected to the Georgian Military Road.[3] [4] [5]

Notes and References

  1. http://wikimapia.org/11669111/Gudamakari Gudamakari
  2. [Marjory Wardrop|Wardrop, Margery]
  3. https://web.archive.org/web/20100401060945/http://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/exhibitions/photo2/photo2_intro.html Hearst Museum, Berkeley
  4. Shorena Kurtsikidze & Vakhtang Chikovani, Ethnography and Folklore of the Georgia-Chechnya Border: Images, Customs, Myths & Folk Tales of the Peripheries, Munich: Lincom Europa, 2008.
  5. Images from the Georgia-Chechnya Border, 1970-1980: Visual Anthropology of the Peripheries