There is no such thing. The numerous fragments all belong to chariots. Of course, it is always possible to argue that our remains come all from one side, or nearly so, of the Mausoleum, and that on the other sides had been representations of the other contests much as we see them on an archaic Greek vase (Mon. dell' Inst. x. pl. 5.), on which are figured the obsequies at the funeral of Pelias. A mere chariot race without other games would not have been true to Greek tradition, and certainly, from an artistic point of view, it would have been in a high degree monotonous, supposing it to have extended round all the four sides of the building. One would rather believe that it had been like the chariots on the Parthenon, confined to a particular section of the frieze, and that it is the remains of this section which we happen to possess. I should add, as regards the charioteer, that the long flowing dress, which makes him look like a girl, was the prescribed dress of his occupation, and that the long hair which he wears fastened up like a girl's was probably also a necessary part of his appearance, at all events, in public competitions. In the musical contests also, the competitors were similarly obliged to wear female costume.

After this brief survey, let us consider what we, of the present day, have gained by the possession of the remains of the Mausoleum. For one thing, we have recovered enough to understand fairly well one of the seven wonders of the world, and have thereby closed to a considerable extent a source of more or less useless speculation, which would have been sure to go on flowing as in the past. It is a great gain to have got done once for all with the main problems of the Mausoleum, and thus, at the same time, to have released for other purposes those powers of speculation which would have been mis-spent on it. It was much the same when our excavations at Ephesus came upon the ruins of the famous temple of Diana, also one of the seven wonders. The artistic and architectural remains did not, I think, come up to the general expectation, but every one was at least gratified to find that there would now be no more elaborate books written to prove that the temple had stood a mile or two away from where it did stand. That, again, was a great release of human ingenuity, to be expended on other subjects, and for this among other reasons we are proud to possess the remains of two out of the seven wonders.

The recovery of the remains of the Mausoleum has also given us a fixed

and certain standard of the art of Greece, as it was understood and practised by its greatest men at a particular period, and that is a matter of incalculable benefit to students of art. It is not only that we can thereby decide what sculptures are older and what more recent than the Mausoleum, There are considerations more important than that. We knew previously the date of the Parthenon sculptures, and we knew also that an interval of less than 100 years-not much more than a life-time-had separated the Parthenon from the Mausoleum. But now we recognise the rate at which art had travelled in that period of time. The pace had been rapid, but it was invigorating and healthy. The tendency, no doubt, was towards the observation of actual life, with its daily multifariousness, and away from the ceremonial life of religious and national festivals, with their simple dignity and permanence of form. But the Mausoleum sculptors, though they readily acknowledged the changed spirit of their time, did not forget their obligations to the older traditions of their own art. It is for this that we owe them our warmest thanks.

No. XIX.

RECENT EXCAVATIONS IN THE CAUCASUS:

BY

THE HONOURABLE JOHN ABERCROMBY, F.S.A. SCOT.

[Abstract of a Paper read to the Society on 15th February, 1894].

IN preparing this resumé, the following works were used.1

Traces of a neolithic period in the Caucasus are so scanty and incomplete that no positive conclusions can be drawn from them. But archæologists are inclined to believe that the country was uninhabited before the advent of a people acquainted with the use of metal.

Dolmens occur in two large groups at the north-western extremity of the Great Chain, one between Novo Rossisk and the Juba valley in the Abkhas country, the other in the upper valley of the Belaya, a tributary of the Kuban. The slab on the southern side is generally pierced with a hole, about the size of a man's head, at the distance of a foot from the ground. Similar apertures have been remarked in dolmens in France, Syria, and India. The excavation of these structures has yielded hardly any results.

A few stations of the Bronze Age have been discovered at the north-west of the Great Chain, notably at Novo Rossisk, where numerous flat axes, buttoned sickles, and stone moulds have been unearthed. Flat axes have also been found singly in the Kuban district, in the Kabardà, and in Daghestan. But these finds seem to belong rather to the south Russian area, where the bronze period had a long duration, and the civilisation was different. Those about

to be noticed belong to an epoch when iron was known.

1 Antiquités de la Russie Méridionale par le Prof. N. Kondakof, Le Comte J. Tolstoi et S. Reinach, vol. i., Paris, 1891; vol. ii., 1892, 4o.

Revue Archéologique. 3° série. J. xv., 1890, 8vo.

Mission Scientifique au Caucase par J. de Morgan, 2 vols. Paris, 1889. Small 4°. Recherches Anthropologiques dans le Caucase par Ernest Chantre, 5 vols. Paris, 1885. 4°. Das Gräberfeld von Koban von R. Virchow, Berlin, 1883. 4°.

The necropolis of Koban lies about 22 miles south-west of Vladikavkas, at an altitude of 2600 feet above the sea level. The dead were generally interred in rough stone cists, though some had first been placed in a wooden coffin. As a rule, each grave contained but one body, lying on the right side with the legs bent up, the arms pressed against the breast, and the hands near the face. The inhumations belong to two periods; an earlier one equivalent to that of Hallstadt, or about the 10th century B.C., and the other several centuries later. The mortuary furniture is very rich, and attests, in some respects, a high degree of civilisation. The men were armed with battle axes, daggers, maces, bows and arrows; but neither swords nor lance heads have been brought to light, though upwards of 500 graves have been explored. For ornament, were worn bronze belts, torques, bangles-always found in pairs-rings, earrings, fibulæ, pins, pendants and chains, pierced teeth, and buttons. For use, they had bits, mirrors, needles, bodkins, tweezers, bronze cups, vases, and pots of earthenware.

Some of the daggers, pins, and bangles seem to belong to the Bronze Age, but the majority of typical forms, such as bow-shaped fibule, dagger hilts terminating in antennæ, bronze belts, torques, pins, and pendants have their nearest analogies at Hallstadt, in Styria, Hungary, and the proto-Etruscan tombs of Italy. In M. E. Chantre's opinion, the arrival of civilisation in this part of the Caucasus cannot have been later than the 15th century B.C., and it reached its highest development at Koban about the 7th century. Herr Virchow attributes the Kobanian civilisation to the 10th or 11th century B.C., and considers it rather older than that of Hallstadt. On the other hand, M. de Morgan, now director of the Bulak museum, maintains that the art and civilisation of this necropolis are by no means indigenous, but were introduced by the Aryan ancestors of the Osets about the year 650 B.C., the date of the first appearance of Aryan Armenians in the neighbourhood of Van, according to Assyrian inscriptions.

The necropolis of Kasbek, or Stepan Tzminda, lies on the road to Tiflis, about thirty miles south of Vladikavkas. In the three tombs described were found fibulæ, rings, bangles, and sherds of pottery. In the soil immediately above the cists were bones of sheep and oxen, human teeth, three rings of gold, seven of silver, four of bronze, eight bronze bangles, two bronze fibula,

two arrows, two knives, and a few other articles, all of which may be regarded as offerings made by the friends and relations of the deceased. In another part of the cemetery a treasure was brought to light, containing a great number of gold, silver, bronze, and iron articles, phallic statuettes, onyx and cornelian beads.

At Kislovodsk, in a glen in the northern outliers of Elbrus, about 100 flagstone cists were exhumed. Each contained one, sometimes two individuals, with arms and instruments of bronze beside them. Chronologically, both these cemeteries may be referred to the later Kobanian epoch.

The next group of burial-grounds belongs, for the most part, to a much later period, which M. Chantre terms Scytho-Byzantine or Greco-Roman, extending from about the 7th century B.C. to the 7th century A.D.

Komunta, in the district of Digori, is an Oset village, standing at an elevation of 2,629 feet, and overlooking the banks of the Kamin Don. Externally there is nothing to betray the existence of a necropolis. But a great number of gold, silver, bronze, and iron objects, figurines of men and animals, and even gold and silver coins, have been unearthed from time to time, either by scientific explorers or by treasure-seeking natives.

The burial-ground of Galiate, 11⁄2 miles north-west of Komunta, has been so thoroughly ransacked by the neighbouring villagers that only two tombs have remained undisturbed. The furniture of these was extremely poor, consisting of a pair of sheep-shears and a knife of iron, a bronze ring and bangle together, with a couple of beads, and a morsel of iron.

The necropolis of Lisgore, in Digori, lies 328 feet above the river Urukh. Its surface is studded with large standing-stones, some of them quite thirteen feet high, which, in the folk-lore of the inhabitants, were put in position by a former race of giants. The body was placed in a cist of stone slabs and laid on its back, with the arms stretched along the thighs, and the head against the eastern slab, while the face was turned to the west. Four tombs which have been opened contained seven earrings, two discs, a square ornament and small chains attached to spheres-all of silver, two bronze dice and three rings, two iron knives, beads, etc., and a human canine tooth pierced with a hole of suspension.

The cemeteries of Kambylte, Zergis, Latz, Chmi, and Ozrokovo (Urusbieh) were then described in some detail.