The National Archives of Georgia (
Georgian: საქართველოს ეროვნული არქივი, romanized:sakartvelos erovnuli arkivi) is the
legal entity of
public law under the
Ministry of Justice of the nation of
Georgia. The National Archives holds written
documents,
film documents,
photos, and audio records, with a collection totaling more than five million items. The documents in the Archives are official, and their preservation has been established by law. Some of the preserved documents include texts from the First Republic,
scientific archives, the parish books that hold information about the
christening and the death of citizens, the gospel of the 9th century,
Anchi gospel (12th century), Kings' deeds, private letters, verdicts, other legal monuments, photos from the 19th century, first film documents, and the documents of different state or private structures.
The History of the National Archives
According to documents within the Archives, the law that established what is now the national archives was passed and the archives were established by the government of what was then the
Democratic Republic of Georgia on April 23, 1920. Following Sovietization, a decree passed on July 1, 1921 governed the archival procedures under the Georgian SSR. As of 2004, operations of the archive fell within the State Department of Archives of Georgia, a part of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia and Law 71 by the Minister, passed on March 12, 2007, established the National Archives of Georgia as a legal entity.[1]
A new building was constructed in the 1960s as the prior building did not meet fire and other codes for historic preservation.[2] A 2023 fire destroyed some items and raised concern for renewed criticism about the state of the archives' buildings.[3]
A new media center was announced in 2017 to showcase the archive's extensive film collection and the theatre opened in 2018.[4][5]
Collection
Neumatic Hymns, 10th-11th cc.Triodion 13th-14th cc. Georgian manuscriptLectionary, 10th c. 1446/350Psalter, 10th c. 1446/171
The Central Historical Archive, located in Tibilisi, is the main hub for historical documents and the archives contain many documents pertaining to the ancient history of what is now Georgia.[6][7]
Among the items in the collection are:
The gospel of 1534 is the earliest among the dated manuscripts. Its leather cover is decorated with silver cross.[citation needed]
the Neumatic Hymns, a manuscript with musical notes believed to date to the 10th or 11th century that shows Georgian musical notes. A similar note system is preserved only in few old Georgian manuscripts (hymns by
Mikael Modrekili, Neumatic hirmologion, etc.). These musical notes could be read based on an oral tradition survived in separate families up to the 19 c.[citation needed][7]
The Triodion is a 13th or 14th century
Georgian manuscript known technically as
fond #1446,
manuscript #322. The work has 41 pages made of
parchment, with printing in black ink composed of angular
Nuskhuri script. Its dimensions are 220 mm x 142 mm. All pages of the manuscript are
palimpsests; the lower layer of the text is
Armenian, and represents an Armenian translation of the
lectionary; the palimpsest text is written vertically in relation to the upper layer of the text. Two upper pages of the Georgian text form one page of the lower Armenian text. The
Terminus ante quem for the Armenian manuscript is the 9th or 10th century. The Armenian translation of the lectionary, together with the Georgian and
Albanian translations, has preserved an account of the oldest,
Jerusalemliturgical practice.[citation needed]
Lectionary 1446/350 is a 10th-century
Parchment fragment, documented as "fond #1446,
manuscript #350) 2 pp. parchment; fragment; dimensions: 233x180;
Asomtavruli; ink – brown; title and initials – with cinnabar; written in two columns; ruling lines are discernible." This fragment, reflecting the oldest
Jerusalemliturgical tradition, is a valuable asset to fill in gaps in the overall picture of the entire cultural heritage. Due to the establishment of the
Constantinopolitan liturgical tradition, the Jerusalem
lectionary was withdrawn from the service and was left in oblivion, so that its
Greek version is not preserved. Lectionaries in
Georgian,
Armenian and
Albanian, on the one hand, provide a perfect possibility to get some idea of the liturgical practice of an early date and, on the other hand, to reconstruct older translations of the
Old and
New Testamentpericopes, than were known to date from separate
manuscripts or their fragments.[citation needed] In 2015 Lectionary 1446/350 was inscribed to
UNESCO Memory of the World Register.
Psalter 10th c., fond #1446, manuscript #171) 2 pp. parchment; fragment; dimensions: 207x138;
Asomtavruli; ink – brown; title and initials – with cinnabar; ruling lines are discernible. The fragmentary preserved text is a pre-athonite translation of the Psalter. Another part of this manuscript, also fragmented, is kept at Korneli Kekelidze, the National Centre of Manuscripts where it's indexed as (S-5222, S-5223)[8] and these fragments were inscribed in the
UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2012.
The manuscript is dated from the 10th c.; in terms of the text version, it follows one of the earliest Georgian translations of the Psalter. In 2015 Psalter 1446/171 was inscribed to
UNESCO Memory of the World Register.
In 2006, the Archives expanded to include the Central Historical Archive of Georgia and the National Archive of Kutaisi, also known as the Kutaisis State Historical Archives.[9][10]