Dvals
Encyclopedia
The Dvals were an old people
in the Caucasus
, their lands lying on both sides of the central Greater Caucasus
mountains, somewhere between the Darial
and Mamison
gorges. This historic territory mostly covers today’s South Ossetia
, a breakaway region of Georgia
and part of North Ossetia-Alania
, Russian Federation, as well as some neighboring lands in Georgia’s historic regions of Racha
and Khevi
.
The ethnonym survived to our days as "Tual" and "Urs-Tual" ( meaning "white Tuals") which are historical regions of Ossetia
. Also Georgian surname Dvali and Ossetian Tuallagov/Twallægtæ come from the name of Dvals.
The Dvals are sometimes tentatively linked to the Talae of Pliny the Elder
and Ptolemy
who placed them in Sarmatia Asiatica
.
began to spread among the Dvals in the mid-6th century, under Georgian influence.
When the Mongols
destroyed, in the 13th-14th centuries, the Alanian kingdom in the Northern Caucasus, the Ossetes migrated towards and over the Caucasus mountains, forming in part of Dvaletia their community called Tualläg. The Dvals were pushed southward and, as a result, the process of their assimilation
into the Georgians and Ossetes accelerated and was completed by the early 18th century. The term Dvaleti(a), retaining only a geographic meaning, then narrowed to refer solely to the area around the Kudaro valley in the west (modern-day Java
district in South Ossetia).
Whether or not the Dvals spoke a language classified as Nakh or as Scythian, there is, however, a common agreement, that they were not equivalent to Ossetians (who now, with Georgians, live on their former territory), as the people commonly accepted as the ancestors of the Ossetians, the Scythian-speaking Alans, are always referred to as a separate people from the Dvals by modern and contemporary historians.
Backing the theory that the Dvals were Nakh includes numerous sources.
, and created several fine examples of old Georgian manuscripts, e.g. The Months and The Vitae of St Basil (John the Dval, circa 1055), and the so-called Labechini Gospels (George the Dval, 13th century). Another famous Dval calligrapher was Vola Tliag ( meaning "Vola from Tli
") who worked over Kapelle of Nuzal.
The Orthodox church venerates also the memory of St Nicholas of Dvaletia, a Dval monk from the Georgian monastery at Jerusalem, who was martyred, on October 19, 1314, at the order of Amir Denghiz for having preached Christianity. He was canonized by both Alanian and Georgian churches.
People
People is a plurality of human beings or other beings possessing enough qualities constituting personhood. It has two usages:* as the plural of person or a group of people People is a plurality of human beings or other beings possessing enough qualities constituting personhood. It has two usages:*...
in the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
, their lands lying on both sides of the central Greater Caucasus
Greater Caucasus
Greater Caucasus , sometimes translated as "Caucasus Major", "Big Caucasus" or "Large Caucasus") is the major mountain range of the Caucasus Mountains....
mountains, somewhere between the Darial
Darial Gorge
The Darial Gorge is the gorge on the border between Russia and Georgia. It is at the east base of Mount Kazbek, pierced by the river Terek for a distance of 8 metres between vertical walls of rock and is located South of present-day...
and Mamison
Mamison Pass
Mamison Pass is a high mountainous pass in the central Greater Caucasus crest, on the Georgia-Russia border. It is crossed by the Ossetian Military Road, a highway that links Kutaisi, Georgia, with Alagir, Russian Federation. Its peak is 2,911 m....
gorges. This historic territory mostly covers today’s South Ossetia
South Ossetia
South Ossetia or Tskhinvali Region is a disputed region and partly recognized state in the South Caucasus, located in the territory of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the former Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic....
, a breakaway region of Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
and part of North Ossetia-Alania
North Ossetia-Alania
The Republic of North Ossetia–Alania is a federal subject of Russia . Its population according to the 2010 Census was 712,877.-Name:...
, Russian Federation, as well as some neighboring lands in Georgia’s historic regions of Racha
Racha
Racha is a highland area in western Georgia, located in the upper Rioni river valley and hemmed in by the Greater Caucasus mountains...
and Khevi
Khevi
Khevi is a small historical-geographic area in northeastern Georgia. It is included in the modern-day Kazbegi district, Mtskheta-Mtianeti region...
.
Etymology
The name of the Dvals comes from the old Georgian annals, their land called Dvaletia (დვალეთი. Dvalet`i) after them.The ethnonym survived to our days as "Tual" and "Urs-Tual" ( meaning "white Tuals") which are historical regions of Ossetia
Ossetia
Ossetia Ossetic: Ир, Ирыстон Ir, Iryston; Russian: Осетия, Osetiya; Georgian: ოსეთი, Oset'i) is an ethnolinguistic region located on both sides of the Greater Caucasus Mountains, largely inhabited by the Ossetians. The Ossetian language is part of the Eastern Iranian branch of the Indo-European...
. Also Georgian surname Dvali and Ossetian Tuallagov/Twallægtæ come from the name of Dvals.
The Dvals are sometimes tentatively linked to the Talae of Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
and Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
who placed them in Sarmatia Asiatica
Sarmatia
Sarmatia or Sarmatian can refer to:* the land of Sarmatians, western Scythia as described by many classical authors, such as Herodotus in the 5th century BC* Sarmatian languages, part of Scythian languages...
.
History
They were regarded as vassals of the Georgian crown and paid a tribute, while the Georgian kings fortified their fortresses and mountain passes securing the strategic “Dvaletian road”. ChristianityChristianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
began to spread among the Dvals in the mid-6th century, under Georgian influence.
When the Mongols
Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire , initially named as Greater Mongol State was a great empire during the 13th and 14th centuries...
destroyed, in the 13th-14th centuries, the Alanian kingdom in the Northern Caucasus, the Ossetes migrated towards and over the Caucasus mountains, forming in part of Dvaletia their community called Tualläg. The Dvals were pushed southward and, as a result, the process of their assimilation
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
into the Georgians and Ossetes accelerated and was completed by the early 18th century. The term Dvaleti(a), retaining only a geographic meaning, then narrowed to refer solely to the area around the Kudaro valley in the west (modern-day Java
Java, Georgia
Java or Dzau is a town of approximately 1,500 people in South Ossetia. According to Georgia's current official administrative division, Java is a main town of Java district in the north of Shida Kartli region. According to the South Ossetian side Dzau is an administrative center of Dzau district...
district in South Ossetia).
Language and origin
Dvals language origin is disputed. There are two main theories. Generally, the dispute over the language of the Dvals is practically synonymous with the dispute over their ethnic origin. On both sides there are accusations of a lack of objectivity and the politicization of linguistics. The two versions are that they either spoke a Nakh language (like the modern Vainakh languages, Batsbi, and the language of the Malkh and Hers and possibly others) or spoke a language akin to Ossetic, a Scythian language.Whether or not the Dvals spoke a language classified as Nakh or as Scythian, there is, however, a common agreement, that they were not equivalent to Ossetians (who now, with Georgians, live on their former territory), as the people commonly accepted as the ancestors of the Ossetians, the Scythian-speaking Alans, are always referred to as a separate people from the Dvals by modern and contemporary historians.
Nakh version
According to a number of historians and linguists, the Dvals probably spoke a Nakh language Gamrekeli (a Georgian historian) provides the typical version of the Nakh theory, stating that the Dvals had a language clearly distinct from that of the Ossetes (who eventually migrated onto their land) and akin (but not equivalent to) to the Vainakh languages.Backing the theory that the Dvals were Nakh includes numerous sources.
- The people directly to their West (the MalkhMalkhThe Malkh were an ancient nation, living in the Western/Central North Caucasus. They are usually regarded as the Westernmost Nakh people , and there name has a Nakh root . Their name may have actually been something closer to "Melkhi", but the common rendering is "Malkh"...
; in the northern part of their territory in Southern North Ossetia-"Alania"; not the South Caucasian part where the Svans bordered them) are already more or less confirmed to be Nakh in origin.
- There is evidence produced by the German Caucasologist, Heinz Fähnrich, of extensive Nakh-Svan contact (thus, in order to have extensive contact with the Svans, enough for the strong Nakh influence detected by Fähnrich in Svan, a Nakh people must have lived close to them; however, without the Dvals or at least a people who lived on their territory before them being Nakh, this could not have happened, as the Malkh, the closest people, lived across one of the most difficult parts of the Caucasus, and to this day the modern inhabitants of Malkhia and the Svans have little if any contact with each other) before the advent of Iranian-speaking invaders. The Georgian historian Melikishvilli argued, using the similarity of the tribe to the old Vainakh clan Dvali, that the Dvals were akin to the Vainakh (i.e. a Nakh people) but distinct and that a remnant of them became absorbed by the Vainakh proper (as was confirmed happened with actually confirmed Nakh peoples, such as the MalkhMalkhThe Malkh were an ancient nation, living in the Western/Central North Caucasus. They are usually regarded as the Westernmost Nakh people , and there name has a Nakh root . Their name may have actually been something closer to "Melkhi", but the common rendering is "Malkh"...
after they declined). - Kuznetsov notes the presence of NakhNakh peoplesNakh peoples are a group of historical and modern ethnic groups speaking Nakh languages and sharing certain cultural traits...
placenames in SouthSouth OssetiaSouth Ossetia or Tskhinvali Region is a disputed region and partly recognized state in the South Caucasus, located in the territory of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the former Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic....
and North Ossetia: including Tsei, Leah and Leah-hee (Liakhvi). - Almost all historians agree that the Dvals were not Alans. If they were really Scythians, it would be unlikely that they would have diverged so sharply in such a small area (especially considering that in the Caucasus, many peoples that are no longer ethnically identical and had been separate for a long period already were still considered the same).
Ossetian version
Another theory is that the Dvals were Ossetian speaking people. According to this, they were among first Ossetes to settle to southern Caucasus. Evidence for the Ossetian theory also draws from various elements:- In 1957 example of text thought by some to be Dval found in Dvaleti. It was text written on Syrian-nestorian writing system.
- Original text, provided by Turchanikov:
- hcawj acgar ama[r]di a jnn mishnq jtkajin ish kwtwn ljkchh khnkn dan aljka ja ctj (m) mhhh at r k jz azj
- Translation to english
- Modern Ossetic form:
- Xwycwy agcar amardi a jyn mysinag y tyxa jyn yz kotton ...
- Translation to english
- Much of former Dvaleti is now populated by Ossetes (i.e., although Dvals were clearly not Alans, similarity could have aided the assimilation of the remainder of the conquered Dvals)
- Modern day Ossetes living in the old territory of the Dvals (who some believe to be partially descended from the Dvals), called Tuals in the north and Urs-Tuals in the south, speak the Tual dialect of the Ossetic languageOssetic languageOssetian , also sometimes called Ossete, is an East Iranian language spoken in Ossetia, a region on the slopes of the Caucasus Mountains....
.
Accomplishments
The most prominent Dvals were, perhaps, the 11th-13th calligraphers – John, Michael, Stephen, and George – who worked at various Georgian Orthodox monasteries abroad, chiefly in Jerusalem and at the Mount AthosMount Athos
Mount Athos is a mountain and peninsula in Macedonia, Greece. A World Heritage Site, it is home to 20 Eastern Orthodox monasteries and forms a self-governed monastic state within the sovereignty of the Hellenic Republic. Spiritually, Mount Athos comes under the direct jurisdiction of the...
, and created several fine examples of old Georgian manuscripts, e.g. The Months and The Vitae of St Basil (John the Dval, circa 1055), and the so-called Labechini Gospels (George the Dval, 13th century). Another famous Dval calligrapher was Vola Tliag ( meaning "Vola from Tli
TLI
TLI may refer to:* Thallium iodide, a Thallium compound* Transport Layer Interface, a networking application programming interface.* Trans Lunar Injection, a propulsive maneuver used to set a spacecraft on a trajectory which will arrive at the Moon....
") who worked over Kapelle of Nuzal.
The Orthodox church venerates also the memory of St Nicholas of Dvaletia, a Dval monk from the Georgian monastery at Jerusalem, who was martyred, on October 19, 1314, at the order of Amir Denghiz for having preached Christianity. He was canonized by both Alanian and Georgian churches.
Further reading
- Gagloity Y. Formation of the southern branch of Ossetian people
- Gamrekeli V. N., The Dvals and Dvaletia in the 1st to 15th centuries A.D., Tbilisi, 1961 (A monograph in Russian)
- Vaneev Z. To the question on Dvals (A criticism of Gamrekrli in Russian)
- Tekhov B. V., Studies in old history and archaeology of South Ossetia, Tbilisi, 1971 (A momograph in Russian)
- Vaneev Z. Selected works on the history of the Ossetian people, Tskhinvali, 1989 (A monograph in Russian)
- Graham Smith, Edward A Allworth, Vivien A Law, Annette Bohr, Andrew Wilson, Nation-Building in the Post-Soviet Borderlands: The Politics of National Identities, Cambridge University Press (September 10, 1998), ISBN 0-521-59968-7, page 60
- Dzatiaty R. Role of the towers in the social structure of society (in Russian)