Marine Pirtskhalava Georgian National museum (Georgia, Tbilisi) The Set of the Pre-ancient Colchian Pottery from the Vani Archaeological Site Summary In 2003-2004, on the central terrace of the city of Vani, in its western part, one of the main parts of the hydro-engineering system was identified - namely, a pair of cisterns separated by a rock partition, a necessary element for water supply; One of them, considerably deeper, revealed up to 1,000 fragments of Colchian pottery, dating to the eighth and seventh centuries BC, which like any other cisterns from the ancient world were used for filtration. Another one, revealed the fragments of the Late Hellenistic period pottery, used for collecting filtered water. It is a single complex that once functioned as a whole and collapsed as a whole: the materials found in the small pit-cistern belong to the period of its functioning, and the pre-ancient ceramic material found in the “big pit” filling is an emergency “filling” that was entrapped there align with the friable layers during the pit arrangement. No pieces of that period were found among the pottery fragments from the eighth and seventh centuries BC. This is a collection that represents a new stage in the development of Colchian pottery. It is characterized by a special variety of forms and an exquisite drawing. This time the article focuses on the ornament composed of engraved concentric circles which triggers particular interest. This ornament forms a belt composed of concentric circles on the shoulder of a large vessel. The circle carvings are so deep that they create a relief-like finish. The similar image is known to us from contemporary monuments of Colchis, and most importantly, we have unique examples of ceramic vessels showing a row of concentric circles depicted on the animal bodies featuring on the shoulder of a pottery vessel. A row of these circles extends from the animal’s body to the long neck and then to the nuzzle. The study of this motif has led us to some synchronous artefacts of small geometric figurines from Greece: a similar feature showing the animal body with concentric circles is found on the small bronze statues of the horse and roe deer dating back to the eighth century B.C: such as the small statue of Thebes Cabeirion - a deer feeding its fawn, and similar concentric circles can be seen on the bronze figures of horses - this type of horse, with concentric circles, is believed to belong to the craftsmen of Corinthian school of geometry. These archeological materials may well confirm the proposition, which itself is backed up with relevant evidence (Ot. Lordkipanidze), about Greece - Colchis relations in the eighth and seventh centuries BC (i.e. before the Greek colonization).
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