Targamos
Targamos (Togarmah) – a descendant of the biblical Noah; the ethnarch of the Caucasian peoples according to the work of Leontius Mroveli, The Life of the Georgian Kings and of the Primary Fathers and Kinsmen. Mroveli notes that the common ancestor of the Georgians and other Caucasians was Targamos, the grandson of Noah’s son Japheth and the "son of Tarshish." Following the destruction of the Tower of Babel and the diversification of human languages, Targamos migrated north with his entire kin and settled between two mountains—Ararat and Masis. His allotted land was bordered to the east by the Caspian (Gurgen) Sea, to the west by the Pontus (Black) Sea, and to the north by the Caucasus Mountains.
As his progeny multiplied, the territory around Ararat and Masis could "no longer contain" them. Consequently, Targamos divided his domain among his eight sons: Haos, Kartlos, Bardos, Movakan, Lek, Heros, Kavkas, and Egros. To Kartlos, he granted the land bordered to the east by Hereti and the Berduji River; to the west by the Black Sea; to the south by the mountains following the source of the Berduji River extending westward, and the range between Klarjeti and Tao reaching the sea; and to the north by the Ghado and the Lesser Mountain (the Likhi Range), which branches from the Caucasus and joins the Ghado.
The peoples inhabiting the Caucasus are said to descend from these sons: the Haosians (Armenians) from Haos, the Georgians from Kartlos, the Leks from Lek, the Ranians from Bardos, the Movakanians from Movakan, the Herians from Heros, the Caucasians from Kavkas, and the Mingrelians from Egros.
Modern archaeological research confirms that the boundaries of the territories belonging to Kartlos and his descendants, as described in Mroveli’s work, coincide with the distribution limits of archaeological cultures from the 2nd millennium BCE to the first half of the 1st millennium BCE. Linguistic data, folk toponymy, and oral traditions—which Leontius utilized extensively as the living historical memory of the people—further support the autochthonous nature and kinship of these "Targamosians." Targamos is also mentioned in Vakhushti Bagrationi’s work, Description of the Kingdom of Georgia.
Sources: ლეონტი მროველი, „ცხოვრება ქართველთა მეფეთა“, ქართლის ცხოვრება, ტ. I, თბ; 1955; ვახუშტი ბატონიშვილი, „აღწერა სამეფოსა საქართველოსა“, ქართლის ცხოვრება, ტ. IV, თბ., 1973.
Literature: ა ბ ა შ ი ძ ე ზ., ბ ა ხ ტ ა ძ ე მ., ჯ ა ნ ე ლ ი ძ ე ო., საქართველო და ქართველები, თბ., 2013; კავკასია ქართულ წყაროებში (ენციკლოპედიური ლექსიკონი), თბ., 2012; მოსე ხორენელი, სომხეთის ისტორია, თბ., 1984.
G. Chinchaladze
