Georgian alphabet (Asomtavruli)
Alfabeto georgiano (asomtavruli)
- Date
- century V (inscripciones de 430 y 493); tradición del century III a.C. · confidence low
- Place
- Mtskheta, Mtskheta-Mtianeti, Georgia
- Credited to
- Tradition: King Parnavaz I; actual authorship unknown
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
The first alphabet of Georgian, with rounded letters, from which the Nuskhuri and Mkhedruli scripts descend, still in use. Its oldest dated inscriptions, such as Bir el Qutt (c. 430), are from the 5th century.
Georgian tradition attributes it to Parnavaz I (3rd century BC), and Armenian tradition to Mashtots; most specialists place it in the 5th century on the basis of the inscriptions, although some propose an earlier origin (3rd-1st century BC) based on disputed inscriptions.
What it led to
- the Georgian Bible and literature of the 5th century
- evolution to Mkhedruli, used today by about four million people
- the Christian identity of Caucasian Iberia