John Colarusso
Professor in the Anthropology Department of McMaster University, Ontario
Paper prepared for the conference. ‘The contemporary North Caucasus’ held at SOAS on 22-23 April 1993.
0263-4937/95/010075-22 © Society for Central Asian Studies Ltd.
The open white palm on the red background is a symbol of Abkhazian statehood, which was formed at the time of the Abkhazian Kingdom (VIII-X centuries) and encompasses twelve centuries. Such a representation is attested on the coloured Genoese “portalans” (sea-charts) of the XIII-XIV centuries. A dark-red flag with white palm flew in the Middle Ages above the town of Sebastopolis (otherwise San-Sebastian and the classical Dioskuria, which was founded by the ancient Greeks in the VI-V centuries BC), on which site stands today’s capital of Abkhazia, the city of Sukhum.
Read more: On the Historical Symbolism of the State Flag of the Republic of Abkhazia
From the 8th Century B.C
The Greeks established colonies in Abkhazia, a part of the Caucasian land then known as Colchis at the Eastern end of the Black Sea. Their cities, especially Dioscurias (now modern day Sukhum) grew to be prosperous trade centres.
1810
Abkhazia (quite separately from any region belonging to Georgia) comes under the protection of Tsarist Russia, and administers its own affairs until 1864.
