ABSTRACT
This chapter includes the Late Iron and Classical, Hellenistic, Roman, Late Antique, Early Medieval, Medieval, Late Medieval, Ottoman and Early Modern, Nineteenth Century, Soviet, and Contemporary periods up to the present. It began ca. 2,400 years ago, when the elements of traditional ecological knowledge began appearing in written documents. These meant that a new type of knowledge, a formal one, had emerged. Over the last 24 centuries, formal knowledge about Georgia’s traditional ecological knowledge has grown with variable but ever-increasing speed and has accumulated in various texts, such as monographs, textbooks, articles, and databases. In contrast with this fast-growing body of information, traditional knowledge has shown remarkably little change. This is natural; the traditional equates with the conservation of already existing knowledge and practices. Indeed, although the traditional agriculture of Georgia has seen notable introductions of new domestic plants and animals from other countries and continents during the last 2,400 years, agricultural technologies such as irrigation, drainage, transhumance, food processing, and crop rotation have been conserved throughout this period and, although to a very reduced extent, continue today. Grapevine and wheat retain their primary economic and cultural importance, yet some plants (maize, potatoes, Mexican varieties of bean) and animals (poultry), introduced from other continents, have become an inseparable part of traditional subsistence economies. Certainly, the face of the country changed dramatically after Sovietisation, industrialisation, and post-industrial developments, yet these processes have not notably affected the traditional lifestyles that are still preserved in remote villages and communities.
