Flax Culture in the XVI Century Samtskhe-Javakheti

Abstract

The work deals with the flax crop distribution in the second half of the XVI century. The study is based on the historic document: ‘The Great Defter of Gurjistan Vilayet’. The research object is a flax crop, which was used in the past for oil manufacturing in the region under study. We have studied flax culture and have processed its data according to rural settlements and administrative units (‘Liva’ and ‘Nihie’) of the XVI century. We composed the map of the mentioned crop distribution, where the flax crops concentration areas are depicted. The comparative analyses of the conditions in the XVI and XXI centuries were conducted as well.