Golden bongs of the ScythiansI’ve been meaning to share some Scythian gold work for some time

Golden bongs of the ScythiansI’ve been meaning to share some Scythian gold work for some time now, as they had the most sophisticated artistic ability probably ever found on the endless steppes of Central Russia and Asia. They were noted by the Greek historian Herodotus (roughly 430BCE) as a wild and pagan people, much given to indulgence in opium and cannabis (as he put it inhaling smoke that transported them), and these bongs recently excavated in southern Russia had residues of both these psychoactive products stuck on its golden walls.They were a nomadic steppe people of Persian lineage, famous for their warlike prowess and horsemanship, who roamed the grasslands between China and Hungary from the 9th century BCE to the 4th CE. They buried their chieftains in mounds called kurgans, which have produced many golden treasures (and the skeletons of sacrificed womenfolk and attendants accompanying the dead into the afterlife) over centuries of excavations. The finds were dated to roughly 2400 years ago. By 700 BCE these peoples were already offering cannabis seeds as offerings in royal tombs, and the high degree of artistry on these bongs decoration implies how important such Dionysian ecstatic rituals were in their culture. Their main surviving art is jewellery, and there are some stunningly worked pieces out there.The bucket shaped items were found (along with some other golden odds and ends) by serendipity during the installation of new power lines. The detail on the carvings is so good that the style of stitching on the clothes can be seen. They depict amongst others the ritual slaying of prisoners and griffons attacking a horse and a stag.LozImage credit: 1 Д.Колосовki2&3: Andrei Belinsky National Geographichttp://huff.to/1Q18Cmnhttp://bit.ly/1AJVACLhttp://bit.ly/1Fn21Ykhttp://ind.pn/1KFxFrM -- source link
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