Studies on Middle Iranian Onomastics in Greek Inscriptions of (Pre)-Christian Georgia

Historical accounts of pre-Islamic Iran and Ancient Georgia have the most ancient tradition. Dissemination of Iranian culture, already distinguished from the Achaemenid epoch, became deeper and stronger later, during Hellenistic and Parthian periods.
Rich archaeological materials, numismatic data and epigraphic monuments found on the territory of Ancient Georgia (Mtskheta-Armazi, Bagineti, Samtavro, Uplistsikhe, Zghuderi) attest the existence of multifarious cultural contacts between members of Iranian-speaking upper-class and autochthonous Kartvelians from Arsacid times on.
In this respect, Aramaic (II c BC-III c AD) and Greek epigraphic monuments (I-II cc AD) are particularly interesting.
They were made on different objects: steles (an epitaph and a victory stele), bone plates, wine-pitchers, silver bowls, household items, stones of sanctuary buildings and sarcophagi, jewels (golden rings and bracelets). They are distinguished by their form and content. Some of them are quite extensive, such as Armazi steles, Vespasian’s stele (I c AD).
The Aramaic and Greek inscriptions of Georgia shed light on a number of cultural-historical problems of pre-Christian Georgia (Iberia) and its interrelations with Ancient Iran and Rome. These monuments attest several administrative terminology, also titles, personal and geographic names, mostly of Middle Iranian origin.
Iranian personal names of Aramaic and Greek inscriptions of Georgia reflect various dialect layers - south-western, north-western and north-eastern. Most of them are two-stem compounds and could be classified semantically as theophoric (Mithraic, Zoroastrian), also names with military or heroic connotation and names indicating qualities.
The paper presents a systematic structural-typological, historical-etymological, semantic, and distributive analysis of Middle Iranian proper names attested in the inscriptions (such as, Bazuk, Amazasp, Bevrazuria, Karpak, Asparuk, Šaragas, Burz(en)-Mihr, Ātūrpat(pet), etc.) with the cultural-historical context of their penetration.