PREHISTORIC DACIA

PREHISTORIC DACIA

PART 4 – Ch.XXIII

Prehistoric monuments of metallurgic art in Dacia

The huge krater on the Sky Column in the Carpathians

An antique vase discovered in Sicily shows as decoration the famous rock pillar on which Prometheus had been tied. It is the Sky Column from the Carpathians, on top of which is seen a huge krater (see Ch.XIV.8 – the vases of clay or metal with a bigger capacity, destined for the temples or for the holy places, are regularly called by the ancients chrater, chrateres, although they had various shapes).

This krater dedicated and placed on the most religious column of the Pelasgian race, must have had a special historic significance.

We find the memory of a colossal copper krater in the parts of Scythia at Herodotus.

As he tells us, a king of the Scythians called Ariantan, wanting to know the number of his subjects, gave the order that each Scythian should bring him an arrow point, threatening with death those who will not obey. Gathering therefore a huge quantity of arrow points, and wanting to leave a monument to posterity, he had a copper krater made out of these arrow points, which he dedicated in the Exampeus, or the Sacred Road. This krater, as Herodotus tells us, had a capacity of 600 amphorae (15,880l) and a thickness of 6 fingers (lib. IV. c. 81).

But in which epoch had king Ariantan reigned and over which Scythians? Herodotus doesn’t tell us. All that he does tell us seems to have the character of only an oral tradition, collected from the Greeks of Olbia.

Herodotus tells us though the following memorable words about the origin of this krater: “This krater, as the locals tell us, had been made ap’ ardion”, and only after these words he tells us the story with the arrow points. In Greek language ardis means arrow point. But it seems that in the beginning the words ap’ ardion of Herodotus’ tradition had had only a topographical significance, meaning that this krater had been made by the inhabitants of Ardia or Adria (Ardel), ap’ Ardiaion, a name which consequently had been confused by the Greeks of Olbia with ap’ ardion, or arrow points. Even the name of king Ariantan seems to be only a corrupt form [1].

[1. Strabo mentions from ancient sources (lib. VII. 5. 2) a mountainous geographical region called ‘Ardia, which he confuses though with a part of Dalmatia. As he also tells us (XI. 6. 2), the ancient authors also spoke about the Sarmatians, Arimaspians or Hyperboreans who dwelt above Istru and Adria, a region which could not be in any case near the Adriatic Sea, where were neither Sarmatians, nor Arimaspians].

In any case, the fact is positive: a huge metal krater was placed on the Sky Column in the Carpathians in ante-Herodotic times, either the krater mentioned by Herodotus, or another.

Kraters had a particular religious significance with the Pelasgian people.

They formed the most precious gifts of kings and princes, for temples and for the sacred roads (Herodotus, lib. I. c. 14. 25. 51. 70). They were usually placed on columns, or pedestals, and contained holly water for cleansing.

One of the most ancient and important sanctuaries of southern Pelasgians was at Dodona in the Epirus, where was the temple and famous oracle of Jove the Pelasgian. Here also existed a mysterious krater placed on a column. As Polemonis Periegetus tells us, a lettered man of the Alexandrine school who had lived in the 2^nd century bc, at Dodona also existed two parallel and closely set columns. On one was placed a copper krater resembling a “lebes” (metal vase with rounded edges), and on the other was placed the statue of an infant with a whip in his hand.

The column with the vase was on his right hand side. When the wind blew, the copper threads of the whip, which were flexible exactly like natural ones, moved and beat continuously in the vase until the wind stopped (Stephanos Byzanthinos, see Dodon).

NEXT