The

Simon Janashia Simon Janashia ( ka, სიმონ ჯანაშია; July 13, 1900 – November 5, 1947) was a Georgian historian and public figure. He was a professor of history and one of the founding members of the Georgian Academy of Sciences. Janashi ...

Museum of Georgia ( ka, სიმონ ჯანაშიას სახელობის საქართველოს მუზეუმი), formerly known as the State Museum of History of Georgia, is one of the main history museums in Tbilisi,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, which displays the country's principal archaeological findings. The museum evolved from the museum of the Caucasian Department of the

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries * Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and p ...

Imperial Geographic Society, founded on May 10, 1852, and converted into the Caucasian Museum on the initiative of the German explorer

Gustav Radde Gustav Ferdinand Richard Radde (27 November 1831 – 2 March 1903) was a German naturalist and Siberian explorer. Radde's warbler and several other species are named after him. Biography Radde was born in Danzig, the son of a schoolmaster. He h ...

in 1865. After Georgia regained independence from Russia (1918), the museum was renamed into the Museum of Georgia in 1919. Noe Kipiani was the first director of the museum. A bulk of its collection was evacuated by the Government of Georgia to Europe following the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

takeover of the country in 1921, and was returned to

Soviet Georgia The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (Georgian SSR; ka, საქართველოს საბჭოთა სოციალისტური რესპუბლიკა, tr; russian: Грузинская Советская Соц� ...

through the efforts of the Georgian émigré scholar

Ekvtime Takaishvili Ekvtime Takaishvili (also spelled Taqaishvili) () (January 5, 1862 – February 21, 1953) was a Georgian historian, archaeologist and public benefactor. Born in the village of Likhauri in the western Georgian province of Guria to a local noblema ...

in 1945. In 1947, the museum was named after the late Georgian historian Simon Janashia. The museum suffered significantly during the years of post-Soviet turmoil in Georgia early in the 1990s: It was first damaged in fighting during the military coup in 1991–2, followed by the destruction of part of its collection by fire. In 2004, the Janashia Museum was integrated with other leading Georgian museums under a joint management system of the

Georgian National Museum The Georgian National Museum ( ka, საქართველოს ეროვნული მუზეუმი, tr) unifies several leading museums in Georgia. The museum was established within the framework of structural, institutional, and l ...

. The museum occupies chronologically and stylistically diverse buildings in downtown Tbilisi, with the main exhibition located in

Rustaveli Avenue Rustaveli Avenue ( ka, რუსთაველის გამზირი, ''Rust'avelis Gamziri''), formerly known as ''Golovin Street'', is the central avenue in Tbilisi named after the medieval Georgian poet, Shota Rustaveli. The avenue s ...

. This latter edifice was designed utilizing elements of medieval Georgian décor by the architect Nikolay Severov in 1910 in the place of an older building authored by A. Zaltsman. The museum houses hundreds of thousands of Georgian and Caucasian archaeological and ethnographical artifacts. A permanent exhibition chronologically follows the development of Georgia's material culture from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

to the early 20th century. Some of the museum's most valuable exhibits include the

Homo Ergaster ''Homo ergaster'' is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Africa in the Early Pleistocene. Whether ''H. ergaster'' constitutes a species of its own or should be subsumed into '' H. erectus'' is an ongoing and unresol ...

fossils discovered at Dmanisi; the Akhalgori hoard of the 5th century BC which contains unique examples of jewelry, blending

Achaemenid The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest em ...

and local inspirations; a collection of approximately 80,000 coins, chiefly of Georgian minting; medieval icons and goldsmith pieces brought here from various archeological sites in Georgia; Shukhuti's mosaic, a bath mosaic from the village of

Shukhuti Shukhuti ( Georgian: ) is a village community near Lanchkhuti, Guria, Georgia, which includes the villages of Zemo Shukhuti and Kvemo Shukhuti. The area produces limestone, which is used for making lime. History The area has been inhabited since ...

that dates from the 4th-5th century; and a lapidary which includes one of the world's richest collection of Urartian inscriptions.

References

Janashia Museum of Georgia
Georgian National Museum website

Ministry of Culture, Sports and Monument Protection of Georgia website {{Authority control Museums established in 1852 Museums in Tbilisi Rustaveli Avenue History museums in Georgia (country) 1852 establishments in the Russian Empire Tourist attractions in Tbilisi