Posted on 12/29/2007 6:17:59 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Since Colchis was famous in antiquity for gold and precious metal -- it's where the Greek hero Jason went to grab the legendary Golden Fleece -- you'd be wearing gold-spangled robes while pouring and drinking your famous Colchian wine from gold or silver vessels. You'd also be so rich you could afford to bury your wine service with you... A fascinating exhibition, "Wine, Worship & Sacrifice: The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani" at the Smithsonian's Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C., through Feb. 24, gives a thrilling image of the plenty that nobility enjoyed in that far corner of the ancient world. Over the past 60 years, scholars have excavated a few dozen graves from the ancient city of Vani, now buried under the vineyards and orchards and farms of western Georgia. Their contents make clear just how good life (or at least death) could be for the lucky few in Colchis... The stunning necklaces on Vani's well-heeled dead were made of little golden beads immaculately cast as tortoises, birds, crouching gazelles or rams' heads. These same nobles' grave clothes sparkled with tiny plaques of gold hammered out to look like eagles, ducks and sphinxes. One big shot got buried with an absolutely massive silver belt featuring a banqueting scene of someone very like himself, complete with playboy stubble, being poured a cup of wine... Vani was sacked and destroyed somewhere around 50 B.C... In 1975, digging under one old farmer's chicken coop, Georgian archaeologists discovered a whole shrine dedicated to the god of wine.
(Excerpt) Read more at registerguard.com ...
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The article claims that the Colchians invented wine. I rather doubt that. Those visiting D.C. might enjoy this exhibit, I'm sure I would. |
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Science To Test (Jason) Argonaut Myth
Kathimerini | 2-9-2005
Posted on 02/09/2005 2:40:18 PM EST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1339663/posts
We know Noah had wine before the Colchians.
Doctors fear rickets resurgence
BBC | BBC
Posted on 12/29/2007 6:14:20 PM EST by djf
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1945731/posts
What is eaten in one week
blog | Nov 27th, 2007
Posted on 12/29/2007 9:49:59 PM EST by Coleus
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1945780/posts
King Midas’ Modern Mourners
Science News | Nov. 4, 2000; Vol. 158, No. 19 , p. 296 | Jessica Gorman
Posted on 11/28/2004 9:23:26 PM EST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1290040/posts
Archaeologists Find Celts in Unlikely Spot: Central Turkey
NY Times | December 25, 2001 | John Noble Wilford
Posted on 12/27/2001 2:45:39 PM EST by Apollo
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/597641/posts
So Who Is Buried in Midas’s Tomb?
NYT | 12/25/2001 | John Noble Wilford
Posted on 12/25/2001 1:12:01 AM EST by a_Turk
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/596541/posts
The Argonaut Epos and Bronze Age Economic History
Economics Department, City College of New York
Revised May 14, 1999 | Morris Silver
Posted on 08/25/2004 10:30:51 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1199756/posts
Origins and Ancient History of Wine
ed by Patrick McGovern,
Solomon Katz,
and Stuart Fleming
HardcoverAncient Wine:
The Search for the Origins of Viniculture
by Patrick McGovern
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
One idea that’s been around for a while is that Jason’s “golden fleece” refers to the practice up there to use a sheep hide to “pan” the gold flecks, as the water would run through, leaving the flecks behind. At some point the hide would be burned to collect the gold. The Argonaut epic comes from the Mycenaean era, and mostly refers to life at that time. The Argolid hit its prime before the Trojan War; Argos’ harbor was excellent for its time; the story of Jason doesn’t actually take place in Argos, and even in ancient times there was controversy over why the ship was named Argo. :’)
The Argonaut topic link in msg 7 is also related:
Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: International Trade and the Late Bronze Age Aegean
George Washington University | 1994 | Eric H. Cline
Posted on 08/28/2004 7:49:39 PM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1201978/posts
Herodotus recounts a story he heard in Egypt about how a Pharaoh wanted to find out which was the oldest language. The experiment sounds kinda implausible, but hey, what the Pharaoh wanted, the Pharaoh got. Anyway, the result of this whoop-dee-doo experiment was that Phrygian was found to be the oldest language — and the Phrygians crossed into Anatolia from the west and established their shortlived kingdom not an awfully long time before Herodotus was born. The language persisted after the kingdom fell, but you’d be hard pressed to find Phrygians around today, even though it was a spoken language in his time.
These next two links are just interesting, not related per se;
On a mission to explore deepest Lycia Where Greek language has left its mark
Ekathimerini (english edition) | Dec 30 2005 | Christina Kokkinia
Posted on 12/30/2005 2:40:22 PM EST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1549447/posts
Lycian Influence To The Indian Cave Temples
The Guide to the Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent
spring of 2000 | Takeo Kamiya
Posted on 07/12/2005 1:37:19 AM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1440990/posts
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