I have run into Colchis several times in the course of research.
In UNESCO’s “General History of Africa”, Herodotus (480-425 BC) is quoted as saying, “It is in fact manifest that the Colchidians are Egyptians by race...several Egyptians told me that in their opinion the Colchidians were descended from soldiers of Sesostris [1895 BC]. I had conjectured as much myself from two pointers. firstly because they have black skins and kinky hair and secondly and more reliably for the reason that alone among mankind the Egyptians and the Ethiopians have practiced circumcision since time immemorial. The Phoenicians and Syrians of Palestine themselves admit that they learnt the practice from the Egyptians....”
Colchis is a source of a type of crocus that is the source of colchicine (sp?), a valuable medicine for [gout?]. I was doing some research on the Thera eruption, and saw a wall painting which was at least 1645 BC, showing several goddesses in a field of crocuses, which I suspect were of that type. Did Jason travel by Thera and trade in colchicine?
Histories, book II: EuterpeI will add a further proof to the identity of the Egyptians and the Colchians. These two nations weave their linen in exactly the same way, and this is a way entirely unknown to the rest of the world; they also in their whole mode of life and in their language resemble one another. The Colchian linen is called by the Greeks Sardinian, while that which comes from Egypt is known as Egyptian.
by Herodotus
translation by George Rawlinson
transcription by Daniel C. Stevenson