#colchis

Gold Turtle Necklace from the Kingdom of Colchis,

(modern-day Georgia/South Caucasus), c. 450 BCE,

Length: Approximately 33 cm (13 inches).

Composition: It consists of 31 gold pendants (one large central turtle and 30 smaller turtles).

These temple ornaments were created in the Kingdom of Kartli (also known as the Kingdom of Iberia) nearly 2,400 years ago, when Kartli controlled most of what is now eastern Georgia. Like the neighboring Kingdom of Colchis, Kartli was famous for its mastery of goldsmithing, and these pendants are a reflection of that tradition.

Temple pendants (also known as temple ornaments) are pieces of jewelry that hang down along each side of a person's face, often covering the temples and part of the cheek. The pendants are typically suspended from a headdress, headband, or diadem. This type of jewelry is often associated with the cultures of the Near East, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe, but it has appeared in many different cultures throughout history.

These particular pendants were discovered in a cache of artifacts known as the Akhalgori treasure. They measure about 13cm long, and each pendant depicts a pair of horses in exquisite detail. The legs and ears are crafted from pieces of gold leaf, while the eyes are formed by thin gold wire; the horses are depicted with reigns, harnesses, rounded forelock tufts, and decorative saddle-cloths, and each pendant is decorated with intricate patterns of gold granulation.

As this book describes:

These temple ornaments are masterpieces of the goldsmith’s art. The finest granulation is used, and individual parts are created from fine wire and thin gold leaf. The bodies of the horses are formed by two halves soldered together. The legs and ears are made of gold leaf with details depicted in relief, and even the horses’ eyes are soldered on with fine wire.

The pendants reflect some Achaemenid, Scythian, and Greek influences, but the style and technique is still distinctly Georgian:

The form of the temple pendants — a wide plaque surmounted by a large rosette with special springs for fastening — is not found among objects from Achemenid Iran, whereas the figure of the horse, with its horse-cloth ending in a toothed pattern and drop-shaped pendants, “plumes” and harness is indisputably Achemenid. The technique employed is also Achemenid, although ornamental jewellery found in Iran does not have such rich granulation.

The temple pendants of the Akhalgori hoard are an example of metalwork fashioned in the imperial Achemenid, yet incorporating the achievements of the local metalwork schools, which can be seen in the details of the ornamentation.

Sources & More Info:

Georgian National Museum: Temple Pendants

Lost Treasures of Persia: Temple Ornaments from the 4th Century BC

Papers in Ancient Near Eastern, Mediterranean, and Armenian Studies: Achaemenids and the Southern Caucasus (PDF)

:3c for my personal notes but thought i would still share

very longgg passage excerpt below cut from Lorgar: Bearer of the Word containing more thorough details about this world's timekeeping

Sharing this trailer from a play I watched years ago: "Jason and the golden fleece"

This was also my inspiration for drawing Medea with curled horns:

More pictures:

Hear me out: Erebus, but he stopped shaving his entire head.

Curly Erebus.

Wife of Phrixus, Chalciope, daughter of Aeetes, sister of Medea

She's staring at Phrixus, mesmerised, while he is yapping about random stuff🥰.

The only canonical thing is attested in the aspect of Chalciope is a generalistic characteristic of the race of Helios, that is:

Ap. Rhod. Argon. 4. 727-29:

For all those of the race of Helios were plain to discern, since by the far flashing of their eyes they shot in front of them a gleam as of gold.

The earring is an inspiration of these earrings found in Colchis from the 5th century BC. I found in this post and here a zoom:

Of course, it couldn't be any other way: Chalciope had to have a reference to her husband Phrixus. The earrings represent the Chrysomallos with Phrixus and Helle on its back. The acorns, apart from referring to the original jewel, refer to the oak tree on which the golden fleece was hung, and also refer to the fact that Phrixus sacrificed the ram to Zeus of the fugitives (Zeus Phyxos), and Zeus is associated with oak trees.

4. 123:

And they two by the pathway came to the sacred grove, seeking the huge oak tree on which was hung the fleece, like to a cloud that blushes red with the fiery beams of the rising sun. 

2. 1146:

The ram, at its own prompting, he then sacrificed to Zeus, son of Cronos, above all, the god of fugitives.

Fun fact: