Bronze Age Sailing

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Zariadris Z
Zariadris Jul 22, 2019 06:53:17
Replying to Monganaut

Hey Monganaut,

Yes, I'm in that part of the world, and I can attest to how proud Georgians are of being the home of ancient Colchis on the Black Sea coast. I've visited that region - roughly around the modern port town of Batumi and the tourist resorts of Kobuleti.

An interesting connection between the Bronze Age monoliths of Armenia known as dragon-stones (vishaps), which depict the hide of a horned animal carved upon them, to the Golden Fleece myth has recently been advanced by several Armenian academics. Here is a summary of a paper by Armen Petrosyan called The legend of the Golden Fleece and stone vishaps:

"It is known that during Hattian-Hittite rituals ?eeces were hung upon trees. This ritual corresponds to Greek myth of the Golden Fleece. ?he Argonauts sailed to Colchis to get the Golden Fleece which was hung there on an oak-tree and was guarded by the dragon. The elements of this legend – the ?eece upon the tree and the dragon – are comparable with the iconography of the stone vishaps as well as with rituals and myths which are reconstructed from these elements.

"The names of the king of Colchis Aietes and his daughter Medea, as well as the legends about them, ?nd their parallels in the names and myths of Yayati and his daughter Madhavi (India), and Eochaid and his daughter Medb (Ireland). It means that this myth is of Indo-European origin.

"The original goal of the Argonauts was called Aia, which later was equated with Colchis. Aia, most probably, can be identi?ed with the land Hayasa of the Hittite sources, located in the same area. The Indo-European char-acter of the legends and the names of Aia suggest the signi?cant role of Indo-European ethnic element within the ancient population of Hayasa. The land Diauhi of the Urartian sources historically followed Hayasa in the same territory, and itself was followed by the Armenian province of Tayk. The latter is one of major centers of concentration of vishap stones. Most probably, the legend of the Argonauts re?ected not only the Hattian-Hittite ritual, but also a di?erent tradition peculiar to the Armenian Highland (where it was customary to hang upon the sacri?cial stele not a sheepskin, but a bull hide)."

Z Zariadris
Zariadris Jul 22, 2019 07:03:39
Replying to Zariadris

And here is another account of the phenomenon: a summary of an article called Golden Fleece - vishap: from myth to archaeology by Arsen Bobokhyan and Aram Gevorgyan:

"The territory of Armenia and neighboring culturally-related Southern Caucasian regions are characterized by active cultural interactions with the Aegean world during the period of the Middle Bronze Age (XXIV-XVI centuries BC) and partially during the Late Bronze Age (XVI-XIII centuries BC).

"Some scholars mention real historical and economical presuppositions in ancient myths, and consider that these relations are also re?ected in the legend about the Golden Fleece or Argonauts, which is seen as an expres-sion of economical relations (gold and wool trade) in the legend. The ?eece symbolizes the method of washing alluvial gold using a ram hide.

"On the other hand, some scholars have already paid attention to the similarity of one peculiarity of the Golden Fleece story with the iconography of vishaps. The matter concerns the ?eece/hide of the animal (in Greek myth - a ram, in the case of vishaps - a bull or a ram) which was on the tree/stele. If this comparison has a ground, an interesting chain can be created which gives an opportunity to discuss the abovementioned problem on a more generalized historical-archaeological basis. These links are reinforced by other archaeological data and written sources that are taken on one the hand from Anatolian, Mesopotamian and the Aegean and on the other hand from Caucasian cultural worlds."

This and the preceding synopsis are taken from THE VISHAP STONE STELAE, Editors Armen Petrosyan, Arsen Bobokhyan, «GITUTYUN» PUBLISHING HOUSE YEREVAN 2015