Chachanidze, Vasil. Peter the Iberian and the Archaeological Excavations of the Georgian Monastery in Jerusalem (P'et're Iberieli da k'artuli monastris arkeologiuri gatkhrebi Ierusalimshi). 1974. In Georgian.

ჩაჩანიძე, ვასილ. პეტრე იბერიელი და ქართული მონასტრის არქეოლოგიური გათხრები იერუსალიმში / რედ. სამსონ ენუქაშვილი ; საქ. სსრ მეცნ. აკად., ფილოსოფიის ინსტიტუტი.
თბილისი : მეცნიერება, 1974. 124, [76] გვ. : ფერ. პორტრ., ტაბ., სურ. ; 22 სმ.
მაგარი ყდა. ტირაჟი 15 000 ც. სუპერ-გარეკანი თანდართული. რეზიუმე რუს. და ინგლ. ენ.
ყდა - ძალიან კარგი: ქსოვ. ყდა სუფთა, ოდნავი ცვეთა. სუპ.: კარგი, ფერადი, ოდნავი ცვეთა კუთხეებში, მთლიანი. ბლოკი - კარგი: წინა თავისუფალი ფორზაც-ფ. ამოხეული.
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Chachanidze, Vasil (Illarionovich). Peter the Iberian and the Archaeological Excavations of the Georgian Monastery in Jerusalem / editor Samson Enukashvili ; Institute of Philosophy, Georgian SSR Academy of Sciences.
Tbilisi : "Metsniereba" Publishing House, 1974. 124, [76] pp. : color frontispiece portrait, plates, figures ; 22 cm.
Hardcover. Print run of 15,000 copies. Original dust jacket present. Summaries in Russian (pp. 99-111) and English (pp. 112-124).
Boards very good: cloth clean with minimal wear. Dust jacket good: bright orange, slight corner wear, intact. Text block good: front free endpaper torn out.

Vasil Chachanidze was a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy of the Georgian SSR Academy of Sciences. The present volume is the primary Georgian scholarly study of Peter the Iberian (c. 417-491) - one of the most important figures in early Georgian and Eastern Christian history - in connection with the archaeological excavations of the Georgian monastery at Bir el-Qutt near Jerusalem. Peter the Iberian was a Georgian royal prince, son of King Bosmarios of Iberia (Kartli), who was sent as a child hostage to the court of Emperor Theodosius II in Constantinople. He escaped to Palestine, founded the first Georgian monastery in Bethlehem, became Bishop of Maiuma, and is considered by some scholars to be the author known as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. The monastery excavated by the Italian Franciscan archaeologist Virgilio Corbo (1918-1991) at Bir el-Qutt between 1946 and 1952 - the monastery of St. Theodore - yielded the oldest known Georgian inscriptions in the Holy Land, dating to the 5th century and naming Peter and his dynastic ancestors, making the excavation one of the most significant finds in Georgian epigraphy and early Christian archaeology in Palestine. Chachanidze's volume is structured in four chapters: Chapter I covers the archaeological excavations of the Georgian monastery in Jerusalem; Chapter II addresses the transfer of Queen Tamar's remains to Jerusalem and the preparations for Corbo's excavations; Chapter III analyzes the significance of Corbo's results for Georgian cultural history; Chapter IV presents a Georgian translation of Chapter VIII of Corbo's Jerusalem publication (Gli Scavi di Kh. Siyar el-Ghanam, Jerusalem 1955), with commentary by Dr. Mikhail Tarkhnishvili. Appendices include photographs from Corbo's book, images of the Georgian monastery monuments, and documents from the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris concerning the removal of Queen Tamar's remains. The volume concludes with a 76-page plates section and includes a color frontispiece icon of Peter the Iberian in a Nuskhuri-inscribed frame. The book is stably cited in international scholarship - including the journals Christianity in the Middle East, Aram, and proceedings of Israeli and Georgian archaeological conferences - as the standard Georgian-language reference on the Bir el-Qutt excavations and the inscriptions of Peter the Iberian.