Iranians and Greeks in South Russia - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian ...

BIBLIOGRAPHY 233
14. Siberia. N. C. Witsen, Noord en Oost Tartarye, 1785 (3rd ed.) ; W. Radloff,
M.A.R. 3, 5, 15, 27. Tolstoy and Kondakov, Antiquith, 379 ff. ; Ch. de Linas, Origines de
Vorf^rerie cloisonnde, vol. ii ; Minns, 271 ff. The whole find ought to be republished
in good reproductions, together with Witsen's drawings, and with the documents about
the discovery, and the eighteenth-century drawings,
Russian Academy of Science.
preserved in the archives of the
15. Characteristic objects found in the graves of Kuban.
{a) Glass vases imitating metal vases. Zubov's farm, B.C.A. i. 96, fig. 9 (first barrow) ;
loi, fig. 24 (second barrow); Akhtanizovka, C.R., 1900, 107, fig. 208; Siverskaya,
Spitsyn, B.C.A. 29, 19 ff. ; Vozdvizhenskaya, C.R., 1899, 45, fig. 73 ; Yaroslavskaya,
C.R., 1896, 56, fig. 218 ; Tiflisskaya, CJH., 1902, 66, fig. 135 ; Armavir, C.R., 1902, 87,
fig. 194. This group of vases, some of which are adorned with gold mountings inset
with, precious stones (e.g. the vases of Siverskaya ; the rhyton from the Kuban, A.A.
19 1 2, 323 ff., figs. 1,2; another, ibid., p. 325, fig. 3 ; the rhyton from the Besleneevskaya
stanitsa ; Minns, p. 58, fig. 1 1 , &c.), is indeed unique. It is the first attempt of the Greeks
to replace metal, stone and clay vases by glass vases, the glass used being not coloured
but transparent, like crystal, though slightly opaque. The whole class has never been
studied seriously, as regards either technique or style. As far as I have studied the vases
myself I suppose that they were either cast in moulds and afterwards polished, or hewn
out of solid blocks of cast glass. The latter technique prevailed in China after glass began
to be manufactured there in the fifth century a. d. (see B. Laufer, The Beginnings of
Porcelain in China, Chicago, 1917, p. 140 ff.). The models used by the Chinese were
undoubtedly vases of the kind described above, which were manufactured, probably in
Alexandria, for the special purpose of export to the East—South Russia, China, India.
It seems that the Oriental peoples were very fond of such vases, especially if set in gold
mountings. One of the earliest monuments of this kind found in the Far East is the large
vase of opaque glass, adorned with medallions engraved with the head of Athena, now in
the Royal Ontario Museum at Toronto (second century B. c. ?). In the West these vases
were not popular and were soon replaced by blown glass and various kinds of coloured
glass. See Kisa, Das Glas im Altertume (1908),
SagHo, Diet, v, 934-949-
ii, p. 378 ; Morin-Jean, Daremberg et
{b) Clay vases in the form of animals and human heads. C.R., 1902, 73, fig. 157 ; 67,
fig. 136 ; 72, fig. 152 (all from Tiflisskaya stanitsa) ; Ladozhskaya, C.R., 1902, 87, fig. 162,
cf. Ust-Labinskaya, C.R., 1902, 81, fig. 174. On this group of late Hellenistic and early
Roman vases, see Farmakovski in Miscellany in honour of Countess P. Uvarov, Moscow,
1916, 311 ff. (in Russian).
(c) Brooches. Artyukhov's farm, C.R., 1880, Atlas, pi. II, 3. Akhtanizovka, C.R., 1900,
107, fig. 211. Titorovskaya, A.B.C. xxiv. 10. Zubov's farm, B.C.A. i, pi. II and fig. i.
Vozdvizhenskaya, C.R., 1899, 44,
fig. 68. Geymanov's settlement, C.R., 1900, 44, fig. 103.
Ekaterinodar, C.R., 1899, 131, fig. 258. Usahelo near Kutais (Caucasus), M.A.R. 34,
p. 109, pi. I, I, 2. All ornamented with geometric patterns in filigree and embossed
work. Brooches ornamented with figures of animals inset with coloured stones. Kurdzhips,
C.R., 1896, 64, figs. 305 and 306 ; 1895, 62, fig. 296 ; 152, figs. 501a and 502.
Zubov's farm, B.dA. i. loi, fig. 20. Tiflisskaya, C.R., 1902, 67, fig. 139. Ladozhskaya,
ibid. 77, fig. 161 . Ibid. 78, fig. 164. Ust-Labinskaya, C.R., 1902, 82, fig 177 (two griffins)
cf. Kondakov and Tolstoy, Antiquites, 486, fig. 440, and the Siberian plaque, Odobesco,
Le trisor de Petrossa, 511, fig. 215. The earliest brooches of this kind were found in graves
of the third to first century B.C.—at Kurdzhips, Akhtanizovka and Artyukhov's farm. The
type is therefore a creation of the Hellenistic epoch.
{d) Tendril fibulae. Tiflisskaya, C.R., 1900, 103, fig. 186. Timoshevskaya, C.R., 1894,
38, fig. 41. Anapa, C.R., 1894, 85. Vodyanoe (government of Taurida), C.R., 1902,
133. In form of animals and geometric figures. Ust-Labinskaya, C.R., 1899, 17, fig. 87 ;
1902, 81, fig. 17s, &c. Kurdzhips, C.R., 1896, 155, fig. 513, cf. Martin, Kongelige Vitterhets
Historisk och Antiquarisk Akademiens Mdnadsblad, i894,Bikang(F/6M/or och soljorfrdn Kertch).
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