Georgii Aleksandrovich Melikishvili

Born Dec. 30, 1918, in Tbilisi. Soviet historian. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR (1961). Member of the CPSU since 1946.

Melikishvili graduated from the University of Tbilisi in 1939. In 1944 he became a research worker at the I. A. Dzhavakhishvili Institute of History, Archaeology, and Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR. In 1961 he became head of the institute’s division of ancient history, and in 1965 the institute’s director.

Melikishvili’s principal works deal with the ancient history of the Middle East and Transcaucasia, primarily of Georgia (in particular, the work On the Question of the Most Ancient Population of Georgia, Caucasia, and the Middle East, 1965). His NairiUrartu (1954) has made a significant contribution to modern Urartic studies. A recipient of the Lenin Prize (1957), Melikishvili has been awarded the order of the Badge of Honor and various medals.