Giorgi Melikishvili (December 30, 1918 – March 27, 2002) was a prominent Georgian scholar known for his fundamental works in the history of Georgia, Caucasia and Ancient Near East. He was a professor at the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (since 1956), a member of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences (since 1960) and director of the Institute of History and Ethnology (1965-1999). He earned international recognition for his research on Urartu. His Corpus of Urartian Inscriptions (1960) shaped the modern stage of Urartian studies.
His works on the social history of the Ancient Near East enabled the new ways of researching and teaching Ancient History in Georgia.

G. Melikishvili’ basic works: „Урартские клинообразные надписи” (resp.: Urartian Cuneiform Inscriptions), Moscow, 1960; К истории древней Грузии (resp.: To the History of Ancient Georgia), Тb., 1959; Наири-Урарту (resp.: Nairi-Urartu), Тб.,1954, etc.