# Abkhazian State Museum
- URL: https://explore-georgia.ge/en/places/abkhazian-state-museum
- Type: place to visit
- Region: Abkhazia

The Abkhazian State Museum stands in the centre of Sukhumi and is the museum of history and local studies of the autonomous republic. It had five exhibition departments, nature, archaeology, ancient history, ethnography and the history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in eighteen halls, and its branches are the Sukhumi art gallery, the Panteleimon cathedral of New Athos and the Yasochka memorial museum in Gulripshi. In 1990 the collections held more than 164 thousand objects; today the stores contain more than a hundred thousand items, ceramics, metal, textiles and documents, monuments not only of the peoples of Abkhazia and the Caucasus but of ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Byzantium and Sasanian Iran.

The pride of the display is the bone tools of the Acheulean site of Yashtkhva, one of the oldest in the former Soviet Union, the Mesolithic bone harpoons of the Cold Grotto and the "chief's staff" made from the forearm of a cave bear, the metalwork of the dolmen culture of the end of the third millennium BC, found in the South Caucasus only in Abkhazia, hoards of Middle Bronze Age axes and ornamented axes on bronze hafts, the ritual daggers of Lykhny, Bronze Age finds from the Ochamchire settlement and the Eshera ossuary, and the gold objects of the Baghlani grave. From antiquity the museum keeps the fifth-century BC marble stela raised from the floor of Sukhumi bay in 1953 and the female bust from Eshera, an Assyrian bronze griffin shield of the sixth century BC and a Greek helmet; there are collections of Tsebelda pottery and glass, and in numismatics Colchian tetri, Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Georgian coins, among them a unique coin of Vamek Dadiani. The natural history department shows fossil mackerel skeletons 50 million years old and a collection of cave bear remains from the caves of Pskhu.

## History

The idea of a museum in Sukhumi arose in the 1860s, when lovers of the region's history and nature began collecting objects from the population; before the Russo-Turkish war of 1877–1878 the collection was taken out of the region and lost. In 1913 a group of agronomists, foresters and teachers began the work anew; in 1915 the "Society of lovers and researchers of the nature and population of the Sukhumi district" was formed with a museum of local studies attached, in 1916 the town council granted 500 roubles, and the official opening took place on 17 May 1917. At the end of 1920 the society and the museum were closed and the exhibits taken to other museums of Georgia.

In August 1922 the Abkhazian Scientific Society was founded in Sukhumi, and by its decision, on the initiative of Dimitri Gulia, Andria Chochua, Andria Chukbar, Vasily Zukhba, Mikhail Ivashchenko and Grigol Barach, the museum was reopened and within a year moved to its present building. In 1928 it received the status of a state museum; in 1933–1937 its director was Ioseb Adzinba, and during the repressions of 1937–1938 documents connected with the Abkhazian national movement, with Eshba, Lakoba and Akirtava, vanished from its stores. In 1978 the Ministry of Culture of the USSR assigned the museum the first category, and in 1987 two more branches were opened. Since the war of 1992–1993 the museum lies in occupied territory, and Georgia cannot study its collections.

## Visit info

The museum is in the centre of Sukhumi; check the opening days and hours, the ticket price and the languages of the tours locally. One of its branches is the Sukhumi art gallery.

Abkhazia is an occupied territory. Under Georgian law entry to the region is lawful only through the Enguri crossing; entry from Russia is a breach of Georgian law. Check the current conditions of movement before travelling.

## Tips

The chief treasures of the museum are the Sukhumi stela, the ancient bust and the Assyrian bronze griffin shield. If you plan to visit the Tsebelda fortress, give time first to the collections of Tsebelda pottery and glass.

## Safety

Ask at the entrance about the rules for photography in the halls. Consular assistance in the occupied territory is limited.

## Sources

- [Abkhazian State Museum — Georgian Wikipedia](https://ka.wikipedia.org/wiki/აფხაზეთის_სახელმწიფო_მუზეუმი)
- [Abkhazian State Museum — Russian Wikipedia](https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Абхазский_государственный_музей)
- [Sukhumi stela — English Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhumi_stela)
- [Abkhazian State Museum — Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4055231)

## This page in other languages

- [ქართული](https://explore-georgia.ge/ka/adgilebi/afkhazetis-sakhelmtsifo-muzeumi)
- [Русский](https://explore-georgia.ge/ru/mesta/abkhazskii-gosudarstvennyi-muzei)