Religious exhibits, civilian project photographs in National Archives 2022 restoration

Archival exhibits ranging from documents on lives of religious figures in Georgia, photographs of civilian engineering projects and media publications were restored by the National Archives of Georgia over the past year, the institution said in its annual summary.

Professionals working on exhibits in the vaults of the downtown venue restored 18,700 papers, 12 posters, 220 newspapers, two photo albums and up to 90 large format drawings in their archival laboratory.

The report also highlighted their work on bringing religious collections illustrating facts around lives of religious figures in the 17th century back up to condition.

Kurashi Gospels - a 9th to 10th century palimpsest. Photo: archive.gov.ge

Photographs detailing the construction of the Rioni hydroelectric power plant - a major domestic engineering project in the 1920s in the country’s west - also received the attention of the professionals.

Other items that went under the restoration included cinema posters, editions of a 1920s weekly magazine of military news and other papers.

The Archive also said it had launched the restoration of Kurashi Gospels - a 9th to 10th century palimpsest previously preserved at the St. George Church the north-western highland province of Svaneti - in the past year.

Works in the archival laboratory in the western city of Kutaisi, where over 300 papers had been restored in 2022, rounded up the highlights in the annual summary.