The Sanigs (Greek: Σάνιγκι) were a tribe inhabiting historical Heniochia, northwest shore of Kingdom of Colchis(modern day northwestern Georgia). Their ethnic identity is obscure and is the subject of a controversy.[1] They are first attested in the works of Pliny, Arrian[2] and Memnon of Heraclea.
Geography
Historical territories of Heniokhet-Sanikheti(Sanigia) was divided into three parts:
old southern Heniochia, later coastal Abkhazia (which included the coastal zone from Sukhumi to Adler);
Georgian scholars consider them to be Zans (ancestors of Mingrelian and Laz peoples), while others maintain that they were proto-Svans.[4][5] According to Arrian, they inhabited the area around Sebastopolis (modern Sukhumi). In favour of the Sanigs' Kartvelian (either Zan or Svan) origin, it is important to mention some modern Georgian surnames such as: Sanikidze, Sanikiani, Sanigiani, Sanaia[6]
Some Abkhazians consider the Sanigs to be the ancestors of the Sadz and Zhaney, as evidenced by the territorial settlement of these peoples. [7][8]
^Pauly, August Friedrich von; Christian Walz (1852). Real-encyclopädie der classischen alterthumswissenschaft. p. 2866. Seeräubern treibendes Bolk deö affaiischen Sarmatien an der Küste dt« 5',' zwischen den SanigS und AchSi (Arrian. II)
^ინგოროყვა, პავლე (1954). "გიორგი მერჩულე" (in Georgian). pp. 134–135.
