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Georgia is due to hold a second round of presidential elections on Wednesday as a crucial test for its increasingly unpopular party led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Here are five points about the culture and history of this small nation nestled between the Black Sea and the Caucasus Mountains.
– & # 39; The first Europeans & # 39; –
Georgians jokingly claim the title of "first Europeans" because of the discovery in the medieval town of Dmanisi, southwest of the capital Tbilisi, of fossilized bones dating back nearly two million years .
Before the discovery, there was no direct evidence that hominins – a term including humans and chimpanzees – had been roaming in Europe since the birthplace of Africa more than 800,000 years ago.
The well preserved fossils of Dmanisi have revolutionized the current theories of human evolution by proving that primitive man was one and the same species with a wide range of styles, rather than several distinct species.
– The gold fleece –
The first Georgian kingdom of Colchis occupies an important place in classical Greek and Roman mythology as a country of the golden fleece, magical symbol of authority and royalty.
An ancient Greek tale describes the Golden Fleece quest by the hero Jason and his crew who traveled to Colchis aboard a ship called Argo. They acquired the fleece with the help of the magician Medea, daughter of King Colchis, Aeetes.
Other "Georgian" characters from Greek mythology include the Circe witch, the Cretan queen Pasiphae, her Persian brother, and the children Ariadne, Phaedrus, and Minotaur.
– The queen and the poet –
Georgia traces its history at least until the 13th century BC, but was at the height of its power between the 11th and 13th century, reaching its zenith under Queen Tamar.
The first sovereign woman of the country laid the foundation for the creation of a Georgian parliament and university, abolished the death penalty and protected the country from foreign invaders.
She was glorified by the 12th century Georgian national poet Shota Rustaveli in her epic poem "The Knight with Panther Skin", which is still considered in Georgia as the preeminent masterpiece of the literary tradition from the country.
– Cradle of wine –
The oldest traces of winemaking in the world have been discovered in 8,000-year-old pottery jars discovered in Georgia, making the tradition almost millennia older than previously thought.
The ceramic fragments containing traces of wine – some with grape motifs – were discovered at two archaeological sites in Georgia by an international team of scientists.
The first Georgians mulched the grapes in their entirety – juices, skins, pips, stalks and others – and left the mixture fermented in large terracotta vases, called "kvevri", stored in underground pits to keep the liquid cool.
The technique is still used in Georgia and in 2013, it was on the list of "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity" of UNESCO.
– Nuts and nuts –
Thanks to its sumptuous wines and unique cuisine that combines local cuisine styles with influences from Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Georgia has become an emerging culinary tourist destination after regaining its independence from the Union. Soviet in 1991.
The most popular dishes include juicy khinkali dumplings, pizza-like cheese bread khatchapuri and a wide variety of nut dishes, such as roast chicken with walnut sauce, fried aubergines with walnuts spicy and pomegranate seeds, as well as spinach with spiny garlic mixed with powdered nuts.
© 2018 AFP
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