Recently republished book by V.V. Bardavelidze is the most detailed research in Russian on the religion and mythology of ancient Georgian tribes. In the newest publication the book is completed with a biographical introduction about the author and his input into studying the history of Georgia. Such introduction is necessary, first of all, because the book of 1957 included standard terms and concepts of that time (‘pantheon of the primary-community society’, ‘pantheon of the early class society’ and so on), but the rich content and its analysis is not outdated even by 2000-s.
The book is opened with an analytical description of the pantheon of ancient Georgian gods (the list of gods, their hierarchy, specialization, and al.), and the description of the most ancient festivals, and cults. The second part of the book is on the most ancient Svan ritual art, its plots, technique, and classification of iconographic types.