A translation bureau in Vani - TARGMANEBI's service for a municipality where archaeology is part of the local economy. Excavations at the Vani site run through international cooperation, the Vani museum exchanges exhibitions with foreign museums, and local researchers publish abroad and take part in international grants. All of that creates a document flow unusual for an ordinary translation bureau - scientific terminology, academic style, museum and archival formats - and one that needs a translator of the right profile.
Beside the scientific flow, Vani is an ordinary Imeretian municipality on the border with Guria: families with members working in Europe, students in Kutaisi, farmers, pensioners with Soviet record books. Their papers and the museum's catalogue arrive on the same number and go back on the same courier - the only difference is which translator picks them up.
Expeditions, museum, exhibitions - what we translate
Archaeological and museum cooperation creates three layers of documents - legal, scientific and public - and each calls for a different translator:
Legal - cooperation
- Memoranda and agreements with foreign universities and museums
- Expedition permit applications and reports for the cultural heritage agency
- Temporary export agreements for exhibits, and their insurance
- Copyright and publication rights agreements
- Visa and residence documents for a foreign researcher
Scientific - research
- Grant applications, budgets and reports for the donor
- Articles and monograph chapters for international journals
- Excavation reports and descriptions of layers
- Laboratory analysis reports (dating, metallurgy)
- Conference papers and abstracts
Public - museum and visitor
- Exhibition catalogues and exhibit labels
- Audio guide scripts and excursion material
- The museum's website and social media
- Educational programmes for schools and visitors
- Press releases and correspondence with the media
In a scientific translation what matters most is terminological consistency and academic style: the terms of Colchian goldsmithing, ceramics and burial typology have to come across in the form established in the international literature, citations and bibliography in the journal's standard, and place names and personal names in one transliteration throughout the text. For that the translator reads the field's earlier publications and agrees a term list with the author; on a continuing project that list is kept for years.
Grants - from application to report
International grant programmes are the main source of funding for the Vani museum and its researchers, and a grant brings a full cycle of documents: the application with a project description, a budget and the team's CVs; the donor's contract and reporting rules in Georgian, so that the accounts are kept correctly; interim and final reports with financial tables; audit and inspection material. In translating an application, style is decisive - the donor reads the text in a competition and vague wording costs points; in a report it is the figures, which have to match the budget to the euro cent. We check both separately: the text by an editor of academic style, the tables by a financial one.
At the end of a grant an audit often follows - the donor's representative checks the spending against documents, and Georgian invoices, contracts and accounting records have to be comprehensible in English. We translate the audit package in one go from one terminology, and where needed an interpreter attends the auditor's visit.
Foreign researchers and students in Vani
In the excavation season foreign archaeologists, students and conservators arrive in Vani and need documents for Georgian authorities: research visa and residence papers, the university's invitation letter in Georgian, medical insurance conditions, an accommodation agreement with a local family, and, to take research results out, an application for a sample export permit. In the other direction, students and young researchers from Vani go abroad to study and take internships - with a school certificate, a diploma, reference letters and a research plan in the receiving university's language, with an apostille and notarization.
Tourism around the Vani site
The Vani museum and the ancient site, the Sulori valley and the nearby cellars appear more and more often on tourist routes, and local guest houses, guides and cafes need foreign-language material: hotel descriptions for booking platforms, historical texts about Colchis and Vani, routes, menus, and contracts with tour operators in Kutaisi and Tbilisi. A historical text carries particular responsibility here - Vani's history is in the scholarly literature and a tourist text has to agree with it, even in plain language.
Vani families' papers
Outside the ancient site, Vani is a municipality of villages from which as many people work in Europe as from neighbouring Guria, and the paperwork reflects that - a certificate in an embassy's language for a visa; a school certificate for a child applying in Kutaisi or abroad; a power of attorney in Georgian from a daughter in Italy giving the right to sell land; a Russian work record book for a grandmother's pension. Those papers come from Vani as photos and go back by courier - to Vani or to Kutaisi, whichever suits you.
Languages in orders from Vani
Because of the scientific flow, English is the unconditional leader in Vani - publications, grants and memoranda are almost all in English. German and French appear in cooperation with European archaeological schools, Russian in translating Soviet-period expedition reports and older documents. On family documents the picture is Imeretian and Gurian: Italian, Greek, Polish. Spanish, Ukrainian, Turkish, Chinese, Arabic, Dutch and Czech are tied to individual projects.
The process for a scientific and a family order
The file and the context
A scientific text in editable format, with a link to earlier publications or a term list, by email to info@targmanebi.ge; a certificate as a photo by WhatsApp.
Destination and deadline
A journal, a donor, an authority or an embassy - and the deadline. Tell us the competition or journal deadline at the outset so that we can fit the queue to it.
Specialist translation and agreement
A scientific text goes to an academic-profile translator who agrees the term list with the author; an official document goes to an official documents translator, with notarization.
Delivery
You receive the file in the same format, with the bibliography and tables; certified paper comes by courier to Vani or Kutaisi, or you collect it at the Tbilisi office, 118 Davit Aghmashenebeli Avenue.
Price and turnaround
An order from Vani and an order from Tbilisi are on the same price list. A page of an academic article costs more than a page of a certificate - because of the terminological work and the scientific editing - but in exchange it needs neither a notary nor an apostille; a grant report and an official certificate are in the ordinary category. A guide to timing: an article one to two weeks by volume, a grant application by the competition's date, a certificate with notarization two to three days. Work with the museum and a research team is built on one translator, one terminology base and one invoice at the end of the month for the whole life of the project; an unpublished discovery goes nowhere from the translator's desk. The bureau is registered to the sole trader Mariam Zumadze (ID 30601010853), who is personally answerable for each translation - an error by her team is corrected free of charge.
Need a grant application, an article, an expedition memorandum or simply a family certificate translated from Vani? Send us the file or the photo - we will tell you which profile of translator will work on it and when it will be ready.
Call: 501 113 200Frequently asked questions - translation in Vani
I want to submit an article to an international archaeological journal. Will the translation fit the journal's style?
Yes - send us a link to the journal's author guidelines and the translation will be prepared to its rules on citation, units and structure. We agree the term list with you, and corrections after the reviewers' comments are made by the same translator.
The grant application closes in two days and the text is still in Georgian. Can you make it?
It depends on the volume - a ten to fifteen page application is possible in two days on the urgent queue, budget tables included. Send us the text now even if it is not finished, and we will translate the completed parts in parallel.
A foreign museum is asking for exhibits for a temporary exhibition. Should the agreement be in two languages?
It is better so - Georgian and English in parallel columns, with the insurance, transport and return conditions, so that both museums sign the same text. We prepare the permit application for the cultural heritage agency in the same terminology.
A German researcher is coming to the excavation for three months. What of their documents is needed in Georgian?
The university's invitation letter and the expedition agreement in Georgian for the permit, the passport and insurance to obtain or extend a visa or residence, and the accommodation agreement bilingually. The sample export application, if needed, is prepared in the same package.
An audio guide script for the museum in five languages - how is that handled?
From one Georgian source, in one order, so that facts, dates and exhibit numbers read identically in every language; historical terms in the form used in the scholarly literature, but in plain language for the listener. For recording we return the text broken into sentences.
Is an ordinary certificate from Vani handled the same way?
Yes - you send the photo, we notarize the translation, affix an apostille where needed and return it by courier to Vani or Kutaisi. The original travels only for an apostille.
Translation bureau in the other cities of Imereti
Vani's scientific profile is unique, while the rules for family documents are the same across Imereti. The other towns' pages carry the local accents and the delivery options.