Caucasus / Caucasian

Of, from, or relating to the Caucasus region (“Kavkas” in Russian, hence “Kavkas mountain folk”), a mountain range in Eastern Europe between the Black and Caspian Seas. The term comes from the Greek kaukasis, which the Roman philosopher Pliny believed to be derived from the Scythian kroy-khasis, meaning “(the mountain) ice-shining, white with snow.” The peoples of the Caucasus consist of more than 50 ethnic groups, which can be broadly divided into three subgroups based on language: The Kartvelians and Megrelians), the Northeast Caucasian peoples, and the Northwest Caucasians. The Northwest Caucasians include the Abkhazians and the Circassians, as well as the Circassians’ many subtribes, including the Adyge/Adyghe and Setenay’s Khatirame Clan.