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

30
THE PREHISTORIC CIVILIZATIONS
thus providing an excellent analogy for the bulls fastened to the rods
of the Maikop canopy (if a canopy it be : it is equally possible that
the rods were sceptres, symbolizing the religious power of the king).
Incidentally, I must point out that the best analogy for the ornamental
treatment of the upper part of these rods is presented by a Sumerian
monument :
Tello, which is decorated with the same hatched ornament as the
rods of Maikop (see Cros-Heuzey, Nouvelles fouilles, p. 22). Besides
these forks there is another weapon which is characteristic of the
Northern Caucasus and the adjacent parts of South Russia : I mean
the copper mounting of the lower part of a mace from
the copper points, o/3eXoi, for fastening to spears (see Comptes Rendus,
1898, pi. IV, 54 and 55)
: the same weapon has been found in Elam
(Delegation en Perse, Memotres, vol. viii, p. 146, fig. 297).
Toilet articles were very numerous in the Caucasian finds. A
remarkable quantity of gold rings and gold beads were found in the
graves. This abundance of gold rings, and particularly the string
of rings, in different sizes, from Staromyshastovskaya, leads me to
think that they were not mere ornaments, but units of exchange, like
the ' lake-dwellers' purses ' of the pile dwellings in Switzerland, and
other finds of the same class and time.
The toilet articles in the Caucasian graves enable us to verify the
chronological result which we obtained from a stylistic analysis of the
finds at Maikop and Staromyshastovskaya. The profusion of gold
and silver objects in the Caucasian burials is, as I said, remarkable.
It rivals the wealth of the famous treasure of Priam which belongs to
the second period of Troy. But at the same time, the shapes of the
toilet articles on the Kuban are far more primitive than at Troy,
although the general assortment presents the same aspect in both
places. In both places we find a limited choice of weapons—no
swords or arrows, only spears and axes : in both, costly articles of
feminine adornment, in three types— ^first, golden diadems ; secondly,
necklaces and bracelets of gold beads ; thirdly, earrings : in both, a
fine collection of gold and silver vases : in both, sets of large and small
copper vessels. The absence of pottery in the treasure of Troy may
be due to its being a treasure and not a burial.
But in spite of this similarity, a comparative analysis of separate
articles in the two finds shows that the Kuban articles are far more
primitive than those of Troy. Take the diadems and the earrings, take
the gold and silver vessels. It is evident that the Kuban burials belong
to the pure copper age, the Trojan treasure to the early bronze period.
Let me analyse the various categories of objects more carefully.
I begin with the vessels. In the two series, only the plainest and most