The History Museum, Rabati Castle

The Ivane Javakhishvili Samtskhe-Javakheti History Museum is the best part of Rabati Castle, in my opinion. While the rest of the fortress is a mixture of historical architecture and questionable “restoration” decisions, the museum, housed in a new rectangular building below the castle keep, is much more careful to provide dates and context for everything it displays. The subject matter is the human history of Samtskhe-Javakheti province, from prehistory to the early twentieth century. With five millenia worth of civilization in the region, there’s a magnificent wealth of objects to display.

Mace or sceptre heads, Bronze Age

The museum favours glass display cases and dramatic spotlighting, which challenged my limited photography skills, but I managed to get a few good pictures.

Bronze buckles, 2nd to 4th century CE.
A Parakletike, a book of Orthodox Christian lithurgy from the 12th or 13th century, in Georgian .
The Beka-Aghbugha Law, a compilation of the customary law of Samtskhe dating from 1296-1386. This particular manuscript dates from a later century, as the earliest surviving copy was written in 1672. (It’s not clear from the label whether this is that manuscript.)
Head of a mace, or gurzi, 16th or 17th century.
Sword, eighteenth century?
Armoured gauntlet with vambrace, 18th century.
Flintlocks, Caucasian (left) and Turkish (right), 18th-19th century.
Torah from Akhaltsikhe, late 19th or early 20th century.
The regalia of a bishop of the Armenian Orthodox Church, 19th century.
Armenian tar (stringed instrument), 19th century.

ETA: I have a Photobucket album with more of my pictures from this museum.

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