Niko Marr

Niko (Nikoloz) Marr (1864-1934), Linguist, philologist, archeologist and historian, Member of the Academy of Sciences of Russia (1912). He was born in Dablatsikhe village of Georgia, to Scottish father and Georgian mother. In 1890, he graduated from the Faculty of Oriental Languages of the University of Petersburg. After the graduation he held the position of privat-docent at the same University. In 1894-96 he worked in the libraries of Vatican, Rome and the University of Strasbourg. In 1898, as a member of the expedition of N. Kondakov, N. Mari traveled to Mt. Athos to examine the Georgian manuscripts; in 1902 – he accompanied I. Javakhishvili to Mt. Sinai. Starting from 1913 he was employed as a Dean of the Faculty of Oriental Languages of the University of Petersburg. In 1920-1930 N. Marr was the Director of the Public Library of Leningrad; in 1930 he was appointed the Vice President of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

N. Marr studied the links of Georgian language with other languages of the world. In 1888-1916 he brought forward the problem of affinity of Georgian language to Semitic languages and dubbed Kartvelian languages as ‘Japhetic languages’. In his work Japhetic Caucasus and the third Ethnic Element in the Creation of Mediterranean Culture

(1920), he argued that Japhetic ethnic element was much older than Semitic and Indo-European ones. Starting from 1921 he headed the Japhetic Institute (later – the Institute of Language and Reasoning), which was founded by him. N. Marr fostered the ‘New Linguistic School’, which viewed language as a superstructure and a class phenomenon. The 1950 linguistic debates, in which J. Stalin participated as well, rejected the assumptions of his doctrine.

N. Marr’s name is linked with the discovery of the text of Giorgi Merchule’s hagiographic composition The Life of Grigol Khandzteli in the library of the Patriarchy of Jerusalem.

N. Marr’s contribution to the development of Georgian and Armenian philology is undisputable. He is the author of researches on Kartvelian languages (written in the Russian language). He also carried out research in the field of Rustvelology, Georgian history and archeology (Anis and Varnik sepulchral excavations). N. Marr deciphered the cuneiform inscription of Sarduri II, King of Urartu (760-730 B.C.), discovered by I. Orbeli, where the country of Kulkha (Kolkha i.e. Colchis) was mentioned.

Niko Marr is buried in St. Petersburg.