So, culturally it's a bit hard to say all that much about Colchis because it was rather a mix of the inland Iberian and the coastal Greek cultures - the flavour of the province is very much "semi-hellenised Iberians" (and the Iberians were an incredibly mixed bunch). A lot of Colchian towns, even inland, would have looked and felt pretty Greek in our period, though the language, coinage and religion would all have been Georgian.
ReligionThe main religion in both Colchis involved the pantheon of the "Seven stars":
- Sun
- Moon
- Otarid (Mercury, star of learning)
- Aspiroz (Venus, star of beauty and healing)
- Marikh (Mars, star of war)
- Mushtar (Jupiter, star of justice)
- Zual (Saturn, star of adversity)
The associations clearly have some relationship to Greek deities, and it's hard to say whether they may have been altered somewhat post-hoc by writers with a strong awareness of Greek traditions, but that's the basic pantheon.
ExportsFlax, hemp, pitch and slaves are all recorded exports from the area - as are pheasants (or at least pheasant meat, something of a luxury food), which apparently derive their name from the area (the greek is Phasianos or Φασιανος, aka the bird of Phasis, the main Greek port colony there). There's evidence of gem working, and the production in large numbers of (low quality) silver coins.
