Iberians — tribes in Transcaucasia, inhabitants of Iberia, a mountainous region in the Central Caucasus in the valleys of the Kuros (modern Kura) and Aragos (modern Aragvi) rivers. Ancient geographers placed the Iberians between the Colchians and the Caucasian Albanians. The first Roman-Iberian contacts date to the 1st century BC. Later, the Caucasian Iberians fell under the dependence of the Roman Empire, at times representing a vassal state. In the 4th century AD, they adopted Christianity. Iberia in Ashkharatsuyts (700 AD, ed. Patkanov 1877) is called Virk; see Arsaces, Hyrcania.
John Tzetzes (12th century), orig. Kissling 1826. Georgica. Information of Byzantine writers about Georgia. 1967, Vol. VII, 22—26:
"The grandmother (mother's mother) of John Tzetzes was born a Massagetean woman, in other words a woman from the Abasgians [1]. [...] (585) Iberians, Abasgians, and Alans are of one race [Iberes, Abasgi et Alani, unum genus.] [...] The Massagetae are Abasgians and their women, in former times, together with their men, fought courageously. [...] And let it be known to you that the Abasgians and Alans, Sakas and Dacians, Rosses and Sauromatians, the Scythians proper, and all those tribes that live in the north, are generally called Scythians."
Craniological and dental studies (Bioarchaeological Analysis of Mutual Relations of Populations of the Armenian Highlands and Eurasia Using Craniological and Dental Nonmetric Traits. Khudaverdyan 2012) of subjects from ancient burial grounds of Iberia, namely Samtavro (1100–600 BC) and Tserovani (1100–800 BC), in the Mtskheta area (ancient Armazi), reveal direct predecessors from the Shirochansky burial ground, Ukraine (1800–1100 BC), and assign them to the common cluster of the Blozer culture (1200–1000 BC — Thracians, Cimmerians). The descendants of the Samtavro and Tserovani burial grounds are further identified in the burial grounds of the lower Don, Beglik (600–300 BC — Scythians, Maeotians).
გმირი (gmiri) — hero in Georgian; possibly from Cimmerians (Latin: Cimmerii, Greek: Κιμμέριοι, Assyrian: Gimiri); possibly I(b)eria — Ci(m)meria.
Vakhushti Bagrationi (1745): "... the name Imereti comes from the Bagratids, for when they took possession of all Abkhazia and all Georgia, they called Kartli Amareti, and Abkhazia — Imereti, or else imers and amers [possibly meaning Those Eras and These Eras, Georgian: იმ (im) – those; ამ (am) — these], on that side and this side of Likhi..." In the period of the 3rd–1st centuries BC, significant changes occurred in Greek phonetics and morphology. In particular, a new voiced plosive 'b' appeared from the combinations 'μβ' (mv) and 'μπ' (mv). This provides a strong basis for assuming that ancient authors transmitted I(m)eria as I(b)eria.
VARIANT NAMES: Latin. Iberi, Iviri, Hiberii, Hiberniae Hiberni, Hiberi, Ibirii, Luceni, Greek. Ιβηροι, Ιβηραι, Ιβηρες, Ιβυροι, Russian. Iberi, Gibernii, Giberny, Gibery, Ibirii, Ibiry, Iviry, Ivery.
[1] Here Kissling summarizes the detailed description of this kinship by Tzetzes in scholia 585, 590.
Sources:
Ethnogenesis of the Abkhazians. D.A. Arshba, 2015
Открыть PDF в новом окне: PHASES OF ETHNOGENESIS AT THE SUPERETHNIC LEVEL. L. N. Gumilyov. The End and the Beginning Again