Jewelry From the Land of the Golden Fleece

8/10/2019 Jewelry From the Land of the Golden Fleece

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Many streams of water issued from the Caucasus carry

almost invisible gold-dust. The locals use sheepskins with

shaggy fleece that they put into the stream in order to collect

the floating particles; and perhaps the Golden Fleece of

Aeetes was of the same kind (Appian, The Mithridatic

Wars). This custom of obtaining gold described by Greco-

Roman authors has survived to the present day in Georgia,

namely in the Svaneti region. The Golden Fleece, in quest

of which the Argonauts, the celebrated heroes of Hellas,

led by Jason on the Argo most desired by all (Homer,

The Odyssey), made their first distant expedition; Aeetes,

the king of Colchis, son of Helios and possessor of the

Golden Fleece; the Colchian sorceress princess Medea,

who became one of the most dramatic personages in the

European culture after Euripides had created a character

of the murderer of her own children, up to the present day.

If it were not for the archaeological finds from Colchis, all

this would have remained but a myth of the Argonauts,

which has inspired many well-known literary writings and art

works. In the late second millennium B.C., the very period

when mythological expedition of Argonauts is supposed

to be held, no culture with all main characteristic elements

(architecture, distinctive pottery, diverse bronze items,

etc.), is archaeologically attested in any other region of the

Black Sea littoral besides the territory of western Georgia.

The Colchian culture, embracing the second half of the 3rd

millennium B.C. and the first half of the 1st millennium B.C.,

and more importantly, its inseparable part, the countless

gold adornments, is probably the best justification of the fact,

that the Greeks referred the Golden Fleece to the country

located in the Black See area, calling it Colchis since the

8th century B.C.

JEWELRY FROM THE LAND

OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE

Gold Headdress Ornament, Vani, second half of the 4th century B.C.

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Colchian gold jewelry which gained its own place alongside

Greek, Achaemenid (Persian), Etruscan, and Scythian

goldwork in the ancient world, today has introduced Georgia

as the land of the Golden Fleece to millions of visitors due

to the exhibitions organized in leading museums worldwide.

But the Colchian gold jewelry is only one of the stages in the

history of the Georgian goldsmiths art.

In 2011 at the Simon Janashia Museum of Georgia

of the Georgian National Museum the permanent

exhibition Archaeological Treasury was opened anew,

renovated and up-dated with the recent discoveries.

The Archaeological Treasury houses the gold and

silver ornaments and other precious objects discovered

exclusively on the territory of Georgia. These specimens

of goldsmiths art, mostly of local production, represent the

course of development of Georgian goldwork from the 3rd

millennium B.C. to the 4th century A.D.

Georgia is not only a country of rich traditions of goldsmiths

art. The earliest gold-mines have also been discovered

here (at Saqdrisi, the Kvemo Kartli region). In Georgia gold

mining started in the 4th-3rd millennia B.C., as attested bystone tools and pottery discovered in the Saqdrisi mines

which chronologically ante-date the well-known gold mines

of the Eastern Desert of Egypt.

A large amount of gold and silver jewelry of various functions

(necklaces, pins, bracelets, temple pendants, rings) on the

territory of Georgia appear in the second half of the 3rd

millennium B.C. They are already distinguished by the high

technical level as well as by their artistic craftsmanship.

Gold Necklace, Ananauri,

second half of the 3rd millennium B.C.

Necklace (gold, agate, carnelian), Trialeti,

18th-17th centuries B.C.

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The jewelry is decorated with various ornaments,

mostly linked to the solar symbols, while in astral

religions gold itself is considered to be heliacal

metal. The gold and silver ornaments and other

specimens of goldwork are attest to the highest

social status of the person who was buried with

special respect in an enormous kurgan (burial

mound). The archaeological culture, spreading on

a vast territory of Eastern Georgia from the second

half of the 3rd millennium B.C. to the first half of the2nd millennium B.C., is called the Culture of Great

Barrows on the grounds of this burial rite. These

earliest specimens of Georgian goldsmithery are

close to the well-known gold jewelry from Ur, Uruk,

Mycenae, and Troy. However, a large part of them

have no analogues outside Georgia.

The 8th-6th centuries B.C. are the renaissance of

Georgian goldsmiths art, a period when jewelry

made from precious metals is archaeologically

attested on the vast territory of Georgia.

Granulation is the leading technique of artistic

treatment of gold and silver. Typically Colchiandiadem and radial earrings originated in that period,

reaching the highest level of development in the

Classical period.

Gold Bead, Partskhanaqanevi, 8th-7th centuries B.C.

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Thousands of locally manufactured specimens of goldsmithery

have been found in the graves of the 5th-4th centuries B.C.

in the political and administrative centres of the Kingdom of

Colchis - Sairkhe and Vani. Why Colchis is referred to as rich

in gold in Greek written sources, similarly to Mycenae, Sardis,

and Babylon all famed for their wealth is made clear notonly by the quantity, but also by the artistic value of Colchian

gold jewelry.

All traditions on the base of which gold jewelry was created

on the Georgian territory for centuries are unified in Iberian

goldsmiths art. Kingdom of Kartli (Iberia), as it is referred to in

Greco-Roman written sources, formed in the 3rd century B.C.,

attained especial political and economic might in the 1st-3rd

centuries A.D. The numerous gold jewelry and other precious

objects, discovered in the burials of the local elite, reflect the

advance of the Kingdom of Kartli, one of the defining features

of which was the highly developed artisanship, namely the

goldsmiths art. As a result of close cultural relations with the

outer world, especially with Iran and Rome, Iberian masters

developed their own style of jewelry, adorning it with colorful

gems, which would soon spread on the whole territory of

Georgia.

Gold Diadem and Temple Ornaments, Vani,

first half of 4th century B.C.

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Jewelry From the Land of the Golden Fleece