of iron, as early as the fifth century BC, and also copper and gold. The toponym "Guria" is first attested in the c. 800 Georgian chronicle of Pseudo-Juansher.

Guria first appears c. 1352 as a fief of the house of Vardanidze-Dadiani; and after 1463 it became a sovereign principality independent of the Kingdom of Georgia under a branch of that house, known thereafter by the