Ancient Colchis: the Golden Graves of Vani

 

Ancient Colchis, the land of the Golden Fleece, is one of the places that haunts the shadowy edges of the known past. It was there, at the eastern end of the Black Sea, that Jason wooed Medea, the daughter of King Aeëtes, and with her help stole the kingdom's great treasure. "The farthest voyage," Pindar called it. Later on the place has a few scant mentions in Hellenistic and Roman sources. But what was it like?

Back in 2008 I saw an exhibit of artifacts from Colchis at the Sackler Gallery in Washington, and I just discovered that both the Sackler and New York University still have web sites for the exhibit. The artifacts come from two sanctuaries and four rich graves at a site called Vani in modern Georgia. The artifacts date to the 5th to 1st centuries BC. These artifacts reveal the style of the Colchian elite and show their connections with many ancient kingdoms. Above, gold peaks from the ground in Grave 24. The Freer Gallery has an interactive version of this photograph here. Grave 24 included five human sacrifices and a horse.

There are other skeletons in the graves of these kings and queens, and the evidence suggests that they were human sacrifices, slain to accompany their masters to the afterlife.  Above, Grave 11, from the 5th Century BC.

A silver wine vessel from Grave 11. Many wine vessels were found in the graves, and the pouring of libations seems to have been a key rite for the Colchians.

Gold bracelet from Grave 11. The gold necklace at the top is also from this grave; it is made up of 31 of these turtles.

The exhibit's curators like to emphasize the cultural mixing that these artifacts represent. This pectoral ornament, they suggest, copies from Egyptian and Persian styles; other show Greek influence. As if the Colchians, surrounded by richer, more powerful nations, wanted to ape all of them at once.

This headdress ornament from Grave 24 resembles Scythian art, and also the bronzes of Luristan in Iran.

Gold "Temple Ornaments" from Grave 22. This grave was looted in antiquity but the looters somehow missed these. There are several Scythian tombs that present the same puzzle, of small but very valuable artifacts found in looted graves. Makes one wonder what they found that they thought was worth carrying away.