Kutaisi State Historical Museum

The historical museum in Kutaisi was closed for refurbishment during our visit, but they have installed a temporary display, with the most important pieces of the collection. There are lots of items from a long history, Bronze age to 19^th Century, but my interest was predominantly the Medieval metal collection. In the 10^th to 12^th Century, Georgian gold and silver smiths reached high levels of artistic expression, especially with the chisel technique, used to create relief in the designs by hammering from the front of the metal. Most of this was used to create gold and silver icons, sometimes metal only, sometimes decorated with precious and semi-precious stones. Many of the examples in the museum come from the mountainous areas of Svaneti and Racha.