Abstract

This article examines historical Georgian-Ossetian relations from antiquity to the late twentieth century, focusing on cycles of cooperation, settlement and violent incursions termed “Ossianoba.” The author examines primary and secondary chronicles, travellers’ reports and nineteenth‑ and twentieth‑century historiography to trace patterns of mutual aid, dynastic marriage and cultural influence, alongside Mongol‑period disruptions, seventeenth–eighteenth‑century Ossetian settlements and nineteenth‑century dynamics under Russian rule. Attention is paid to the socioeconomic drivers of Ossetian settlement, episodic raids as well as the long‑term effects on Kartli’s demography and landscape. The study situates late twentieth‑century conflict within this longue durée, arguing that historical entanglements inform contemporary tensions and potentials for reconciliation.