18

Boris Kuftin
Scholar of Georgian Archaeology
History > Otar Japaridze
Academician Boris Kuftin made unique and invaluable contributions to the study of the ancient past of Georgia, the Caucasus and the
Near East. After he moved to Georgia permanently in the 1930s, his enormous potential as an unrivalled scientific scholar of the ancient
world became evident. He had already been known widely as an ethnographer, then when he began focusing on the archaeology of
Georgia and the wider Caucasus his scientific interests changed radically. Many of his fundamental works created a new foundation for
studies of this region and improved the bases of research on Georgia’s ancient cultures.

B
oris Kuftin was born in the town gave him the responsibility for devising decision. The archaeological study of
of Samara in 1892 and graduated the exhibition plan. Trialeti exposed the historical roots
from a secondary school in the After Kuftin moved to Georgia he fo- of Georgia and the whole Caucasus
town of Orenburg in 1909. He continued cused fully on Georgian archaeology as much older than had been known.
his studies at the Faculty of Physics and and in 1934 he participated in the ar- In 1941, five years after the excava-
Mathematics at Moscow University, and chaeological expedition to Abkhazia, tions had begun, Kuftin published his
because of his participation in the stu- studying Bronze Age sites. He concen- brilliant study, “Archaeological Excava-
dents’ revolutionary movement in 1910- trated for many years on the Trialeti re- tions in Trialeti”, dedicated to the cheri-
1912 he was expelled. He emigrated to gion. As a result of a government pro- shed memory of Ivane Javakhishvili. He
Europe, and lived in France, Switzerland ject to build the Khrami Hydroelectric was awarded Stalin’s Prize for the book,
and Italy. After his return he continued Power Plant, a significant part of Tsalka the first Soviet archaeologist to receive
to study at Moscow University and gra- Plateau was to be flooded. This is why, this honour. In 1946, he was elected a
duated in 1914. He was invited by his in 1936, the project for an archaeolo- full member of the Academy of Scien-
university “to prepare for professorship” gical examination of the plateau was ces of Georgia.
under Prof. G. Anuchin in the fields of prioritized and Javakhishvili entrus- In Trialeti, Kuftin studied the sites
archaeology, anthropology and geo- ted Kuftin with the supervision of the of different periods, and based on the
graphy. During this period the Georgian expedition. This proved to be a wise analyses of the materials he attemp-
scholar Giorgi Nioradze was also on
the faculty and their acquaintance de-
termined his future, leading to Kuftin’s
decision to move to Georgia. In 1928,
he was elected to the position of Profes-
sor of Ethnography, yet the repressions
against Moscow-based professors in
1929-1930 did not pass him by and he
left Moscow. These were the hardest
years in Kuftin’s life, and Prof. Nioradze
supported him. In 1933 Kuftin became
a Scientific Consultant to the Georgian
State Museum at a time when prepara-
tory works for an archaeological exhibi-
tion were underway, supervised by the
founder of the Tbilisi State University
Ivane Javakhishvili. Kuftin became acti-
vely involved in these activities and was
Excavations of a Trialeti burial mound, 1938
highly esteemed by Javakhishvili, who
Famous archaeologist Boris Kuftin (1892-1953)
Photo from Irakli Vartagava’s personal archives kept in the National Parliamentary GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM 19
Library of Georgia photo archives

Excavations of a Trialeti burial mound, 1937
ted to establish the periodic timeline
from the Stone Age until the beginning
of the Middle Ages. The chronological
system he developed proved so rele-
vant that it is still used today. Based
on the discoveries in the Trialeti, the
previously unknown Kura-Araxes and
Trialeti cultures were identified that
predate the Late Bronze Age.
Thus, a new stage in research on the
ancient history of Georgia and the wi-
der Caucasus began at that time; until
then the prevailing belief was that the
Caucasus had been populated relati-
vely late, towards the end of the Bron-
ze Age. Kuftin attributed the Trialeti
mound burials with their rich contents
to the Middle Bronze Age and deter-
mined their date as the first half of the
2nd millennium BC. He discovered that
a more ancient culture had been there
even before this period, dating to the
3rd millennium BC. Based on the area
covered by this culture in the South
Caucasus, he called it the “Kura-Araxes
20 GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM
Fragments of ornamented ceramic dishware, Trialeti, 1937
culture”. Tribes of this culture spread
out widely within the Caucasus and to
the south beyond. No other Caucasian
culture before or afterwards was as ex-
tensive as the Kura-Araxes culture. To
the south it reached the Mediterrane-
an Sea, Syria and Israel. Apparently the
Kura-Araxes culture played an impor-
tant role in the ancient history of the
Caucasus and had a certain influence
on the past of Western Asia. It appears
to be one of the widest spread cultures
of that period in the Near East. This is
why the issue of the original location
and the ethnic identity of the tribes
of this culture created a keen interest.
This culture is likely to have originated
in the eastern part of the South Cau-
casus, between the Kura and Araxes
Rivers. Through his exceptional dedi-
cation, Kuftin was thus the first to dis-
cover and study this vast and unique
culture.
Boris Kuftin studied archaeological
collections of extensive materials from
all over the Caucasus at the Museum of
Georgia and as a result he published
an exceptionally notable work “On the
Problem of Ancient Roots of the Ge-
orgian Culture Based on Archaeologi-
cal Data” dedicated specifically to the
study of the Bronze Age culture of the
Caucasus. Based on the archaeologi-
cal data he shows where to search for
the oldest roots of Georgian culture.
Prevalent types of metal items were
identified for each stage of Bronze Age
culture. Working in comparison with
Western Asia materials, the stages of
development of the Bronze Age cultu-
re in Georgia and the wider Caucasus
were identified. He concluded that
“the beautiful homeland of the Geor-
gian nation should at the same time be
considered the ancient homeland of its
culture”. In his opinion, the origins of
the Georgian people’s ancient history Boris Kuftin with his wife, Valentina Stashenko
had to be looked for locally.
Kuftin’s great contribution to the ar-
chaeological study of Western Georgia remains of a multi-layered Bronze Age work. In 1953, while on holiday in the
included a remarkable two-volume settlement, Namazga Tepe for three Baltics, Boris Kuftin died in a tragic ac-
study on the antiquities of Colchis, years and during that short period he cident. His last request was to be bu-
“Materials for the Archaeology of Col- dedicated several notable works to the ried in his second homeland, Georgia.
chis”. He studied dolmens in Abkhazia settlement, and dated the Namazga His wife did not wish to live after losing
and attempted to date them correc- Tepe culture. This dating continues to the man she loved, and she also left
tly, and was the first to research the be pertinent. instructions to be buried in Georgia.
remains of settlements on the Colchis Academician Kuftin’s wife, Valenti- The tragic end of this family was truly a
Plain, making significant advances in na Steshenko-Kuftina, was a Professor shock to many; they had contributed to
our understanding of Colchic culture. at the Tbilisi Conservatory of Music, Georgia with an unequalled scientific
In the late 1940s, Kuftin was invited composer and famous pianist. Howe- and musical legacy. Their graves are in
to participate in an archaeological ex- ver, she also participated in almost all Tbilisi’s Vake Cemetery, and a street in
pedition in the south of Turkmenistan of his expeditions and remained invol- Old Tbilisi is named after Academician
in Central Asia. There he studied the ved in active and productive scientific Boris Kuftin.
GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM 21