Do appeals to Black voters necessarily detract white voters from supporting the left? Extant studies have yielded mixed answers to this question by examining voter turnout data. We use two survey experiments to test how framing politicians as either supportive of or hostile to the #BlackLivesMatter (BLM) and #SayHerName (SHN) movements affected the willingness of voters to support them during the 2020 Senate runoff elections in Georgia. We find that Democratic-leaning respondents in both a national sample of Black respondents and a sample of White respondents in Georgia were more likely to support politicians whom we framed as supportive of the BLM and SHN movements. These findings illustrate the potential potency of messaging strategies grounded in racial justice themes for mobilizing Democratic-leaning voters in American elections.

Between 2011 and 2017, excavations by a joint German-Georgian team at the Tabakoni settlement mound in the Colchis lowlands of western Georgia uncovered complex wooden constructions preserved in the waterlogged soils. Combined radiocarbon and dendrochronological dating, the first undertaking of its kind in Colchis, reveals that construction on a stable foundation for the site began in the twentieth century BC and identifies early evidence for the cultivation of millet. Subsequent occupation phases saw the careful levelling of previous structures and the addition of backfill, gradually building up the mound until it was ultimately abandoned in the second half of the first millennium BC.

Ethno-religious nationalism has been an integral part of the Georgian identity since the country regained independence. Since the early 2000s, Georgia has had a constitutionally enshrined pro-European foreign policy, which has been reflected in a strong identification with Europe, its culture, and values. Survey data show that Georgians prefer European and Christian ethnic outgroups to Asian and Muslim ones. These factors could have explained the rise of the far right in Georgia, had Georgia experienced a wave of refugees comparable to EU states in mid-2010s. However, only few people fled from the Syrian civil war to Georgia. Nevertheless, in and around 2016, various far-right groups with a strong anti-liberal ideology appeared in the Georgian public sphere. In 2017, a far-right rally was organized, demanding that the rights of Turkish, Iranian, and Arab business owners and citizens be restricted in Georgia. This was accompanied by violent incidents involving physical abuse and property damage of non-white foreigners. The sudden rise of the far-right political organizations in Georgia gives rise to various questions: Do the far-right ideas have grassroots origins, or was the activation of the far right a top-down process? Which domestic and external factors could have contributed to these developments?

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Georgia became a key destination for Russian migrants, who significantly influenced the local housing market. This article explores the impact of the influx of Russian migrants into Tbilisi, which caused a surge in rental prices and aroused feelings of social insecurity among Georgian citizens. Using qualitative methods, including social media analysis and semi-structured interviews, the study investigates the emergence of “informal sanctions” imposed by Georgian Airbnb and Booking.com hosts as a means of expressing political dissatisfaction with their own government and protecting national interests. This article identifies four patterns of informal sanctions, such as rejecting, discomforting, avoiding, and exploiting Russian tenants, which reflect a form of patriotism from below. We argue that these spontaneous, everyday practices of resistance lead to the politicization of mundane host-tenant relations and the collective stereotyping of a migrant group in a time of insecurity. The theoretical proposition here is that everyday nationalism is closely related to informality, which opens the possibility of examining grassroots responses to perceived threats and tactics of resistance, with implications for broader social dynamics in times of ongoing geopolitical conflict and wartime migration in Eastern Europe.

Georgia represents an interesting case to study the agency of small states in reshaping their regional identity and external environment. Although much of the world has considered Georgia as politically part of the South Caucasus region, the country’s political elites themselves have long attempted to escape the geographic boundaries of the South Caucasus region and relocate their country into Eastern Europe. We argue that Georgian elites were partially successful in their quest for foreign political identity change. Although they did not manage to entirely change the international perception about Georgia’s geographic belonging, the country has politically moved closer to Eastern Europe and is considered to be part of “Associated Trio” together with Ukraine and Moldova—and recently became an EU candidate. From a theoretical perspective, we argue that Georgia’s quest for foreign policy identity recalibration fits the constructivist paradigm of international relations well. It can be argued that Georgia’s political elites were partially driven by ideational factors and were ignorant of the balance of power in their external environment, which cost the country the lost wars and compromised territorial sovereignty.

Six kaolin samples from the Lower Tertiary Huber Formation near Wrens, Georgia were analyzed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), electron diffraction (ED), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), chemical analysis, and magnetic susceptibility to characterize the Ti-bearing phases. Selected samples were treated with 5 M NaOH to remove kaolinite and concentrate the Ti-bearing phases for additional analysis. TiO2 content in the bulk fraction ranges from 1.2 to 5.4 wt. %. There are at least three Ti-bearing phases, including anatase, rutile, and a poorly defined nanocrystalline form. Anatase is most abundant and is commonly found with {010} faces in association with kaolinite edge and basal faces. The nanocrystalline form occurs at 0–1 wt. %, and rutile occurs in trace amounts. Bulk XRD analysis correlates well with the bulk TiO2 chemical measurements. Average anatase unit-cell parameters are a = 0.37908 ± 0.0002 nm and c = 0.951 ± 0.001 nm. These parameters indicate an approximate chemical formula of Fe3+0.05Ti4+0.95O1.95(OH)0.05.

The distribution of TiO2 content as a function of depth may be useful to obtain original grain-size variations associated with relative sea-level changes responsible for the deposition of the Huber Formation. Evidence for original depositional sediment properties can be seen in the occurrence of pseudomorphic replacement of micas and fecal pellets by kaolinite. Additional evidence for post-depositional changes includes the sub-micrometer euhedral character and low Fe content of the anatase (relative to soil-derived anatase). These observations for the Huber Formation are consistent with a previously published theory for kaolin genesis that includes biomineralization of originally coarser-grained aluminosilicates into a kaolinite-rich ore body.

Additional well-crystallized kaolin from Washington County, Georgia, has been supplied to the Clay Minerals Society Source Clay Repository to replace the exhausted supply of KGa-1. This kaolin is called KGa-1B and is from a geographic location and stratigraphic position close to where KGa-1 was collected. Slight mineralogical and chemical differences are observed between KGa-1 and KGa-1B. KGa-1B crude appears slightly better crystalline than KGa-1, and it has a slightly higher titania content than KGa-1. The Al2O3, SiO2, Fe2O3, alkali, and alkaline earth contents appear similar for both samples. KGa-1 has a slightly coarser particle size than KGa-1B crude. More intensive post-depositional alteration may have cleansed and crystallized the KGa-1B material to a slightly greater degree than the KGa-1 material.

Wine was deeply embedded in all aspects of Roman life and its role in society, culture and the economy has been much studied. Ancient Roman texts and archaeological research provide valuable insights into viticulture and the manufacture, trade and consumption of wine but little is known of the sensory nature of this prized commodity. Here, the authors offer a novel oenological approach to the study of Roman dolia through their comparison with modern Georgian qvevri and associated wine-production techniques. Far from being mundane storage vessels, dolia were precisely engineered containers whose composition, size and shape all contributed to the successful production of diverse wines with specific organoleptic characteristics.

The sedimentology and mineralogy of a 2.5 m core from a palygorskite deposit of the Miocene Hawthorne Formation, southern Georgia is described. The lithology involves laminated clay-rich sediment composed of ∼90% clay and 10% sand, with six clay-pebble layers present. Sand to pebble-size clasts of phosphate material are common throughout the core. The sand laminations are probably flood-related and the clay-pebble layers are storm deposits, with the pebbles being derived locally from subaerial environments. Phosphate clasts are reworked bone material.

The sands are quartz-rich and are subarkosic in composition with average quartz counts of 86.50% and average total feldspar counts of 11.50%. Heavy minerals observed include orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene, amphibole, zircon, rutile, garnet, tourmaline, kyanite, muscovite, biotite, spinels and opaques. Palygorskite fibers dominate the clay-size fraction of the samples and comprise ∼80–90% of sample material with smectite comprising the remainder. Hydroxylapatite comprises ∼3% of sediment volume and occurs as individual euhedral hexagonal crystals and as clusters of crystals.

Investigation of this core suggests that the palygorskite deposit represents a dynamic system with regular flooding and storm deposition being common. Mineral composition of sands may be useful for stratigraphic correlation of palygorskite deposits in the Apalachicola Embayment. This study supports the general environmental interpretations of previous workers for the palygorskite deposits of southern Georgia, but provides greater detail.