FOR THE QUESTION OF KHONI-KHONELI-CHONIATES

Abstract

According to ancient sources, the Khon/Hon clans and tribes first settled in the lands of Kartli in the 7th century BC. The Khoni, who lived near Mtskheta, were separated from the Chaldea ns and settled in Zanavi. Apparently, the Khonis were separetd from the Chaldeans, who, in turn, lived in Chaneti—the southeastern coast of the Black Sea and the adjacent lands. This is evidenced by the fact that the sources refer to Chaneti by another name „Chaldea“, while the Khalibs (Khalidzon) of Asia Minor are called Chaldeans in a different way. The Hons, who lived near Mtskheta, were defeated by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC, and some of them migrated to the Caucasioni acrsos the Caucasian Gates. According to Armenian Geography, they settled among the Kartvelians and Vainakhs. By the 4th-6th centuries, the warring Hons, already merged with the Ingushs, were actively involved in the political life of the region in the form of the Nakh clan “Khonoi“. The toponym Khoni/Khona, created on the basis of the ethnonym Khoni/Khona, is found in a vast geographical area, from Western Anatolia to the northern Transcaspian region. These toponyms are: Khoni (Phrygia); Khona (Chaneti); Khoni (Imereti); Khonchiori (Racha); Khoni – (near Ude); Khvana – (suburb of Akhaltsikhe); Khoni//Khomi//Koma Gorge, Upper and Lower Khoma//Koma villages,
Koma//Khoma Bath, Koma//Khoma Caves, Khoma Place, Khoma Monastery (Meskheti); Khone - toponym of Migmakhevi, and Khonistskali - one of the tributaries of Andakistskali (Migmakhevi) - (Pirikita Khevsureti); “Khon Kingdom”, the Khonich-Chali River, the toponym Khonoi in the Khoanoi community, the Ingush surname Khonoy in the Aramkhin Valley, the Chechen community Khonoy in the Chanti-Argun Valley (Ciscaucasia).