Posted on 02/09/2005 11:40:18 AM PST by blam
Science to test Argonaut myth
Gold jewelry found last year in an unplundered Mycenaean royal tomb on the outskirts of Volos will be tested for links with one of the most enduring ancient Greek myths, the Argonauts expedition, an archaeologist said yesterday.
The 14th century BC treasure gold beads from necklaces and jewelry made of gold and semiprecious stones was found with vases and other offerings in four pits inside the tholos tomb, a beehive-like subterranean structure usually associated with Late Bronze Age royal burials.
According to local antiquities director Vassiliki Adrimi-Sismani, the Culture Ministry has approved tests, to be conducted by June with Louvre Museum experts, to determine the golds provenance. We want to investigate to what extent our area had contacts with the Black Sea, that is to what extent the myth of the Argonauts and the Golden Fleece has to do with the gold we found, she said. The myth tells how King Jason of Iolkos, near Volos, led an expedition to Colchis, in modern Georgia, to steal a golden rams skin. This may allude to trade deals with the gold-rich region.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
Histories, book II: EuterpeThere can be no doubt that the Colchians are an Egyptian race... I made inquiries on the subject both in Colchis and in Egypt, and I found that the Colchians had a more distinct recollection of the Egyptians, than the Egyptians had of them. Still the Egyptians said that they believed the Colchians to be descended from the army of Sesostris. My own conjectures were founded, first, on the fact that they are black-skinned and have woolly hair, which certainly amounts to but little, since several other nations are so too; but further and more especially, on the circumstance that the Colchians, the Egyptians, and the Ethiopians, are the only nations who have practised circumcision from the earliest times... the Syrians who dwell about the rivers Thermodon and Parthenius, as well as their neighbours the Macronians, say that they have recently adopted it from the Colchians... I 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
Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
At his age, I think Cadmus probably soaks his teeth in a glass every night.
LOL!
ROFL!
The Golden Fleece is what Congress gives the taxpayers.
Cool!
Bronze-Age jewelry ping!
Thanks!
:-)
I don't think anyone here has ever sheared a sheep.
I can't imagine anything short of cannon balls falling out of that mat!
Ping.
Golden Fleece jewelry, LOL!
I'm about to ping you to a thread.
I feel as if I need Rocky and Bullwinkle.
Come on over and you'll see why
That was a pretty good movie. The girl who played Medea was pretty and she had that "witch" look too.
Moose and squirrel again, eh? Ees always moose and squirrel. . .
I had forgotten that. She played one of the Goddesses, can't remember if that was before or after "Pussy Galore".
I think it was the Scythians who had a unique method of recovering placer gold. Instead of panning, they would lay a sheep skin on the gravel bed of a stream. The gold would collect in the fleece hence the Golden Fleece.
Speaking of the Scythians, what ever happended to them?
Cut down in their prime, I'd suspect...ba dum bump!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.