Page 95 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

is used, and the color and grain of the stone are brought out by
careful grinding and polishing.
The place of honor of the tomahawk in the graves is only one

of the features of an elaborate ritual of burial which tells us much
about the life and beliefs of the battle-ax nomads. The ritual is in
essentials the same, whether the burial is of one of the early
kings around Maikop or of a simple herdsman on the north Euro­

pean plain. The bodies lie always on their sides, with bent legs
and with faces turned to the south. There is a difference between
the sexes: men lie on their right sides with their heads to the

west, women on their left sides with their heads to the east. And

A SILVER VASE FROM ONE OF THE MAIKOP BARROWS BEARS THIS RE­
MARKABLE INCISED LANDSCAPE. IN THE BACKGROUND RISE THE MOUN­
TAINS OF THE CAUCASUS, AND A BEAR BROWSES IN THE FORESTS OF
THE FOOTHILLS. TWO RIVERS FLOW FROM THE MOUNTAINS ACROSS
THE STEPPES, ON WHICH ROAM WILD HORSES, CATTLE, AND LIONS.

in even the simplest grave there is, in addition to the ax, at
least one drinking bowl placed convenient to the hand. But the
graves are by no means always simple. The Maikop graves in

particular, probably a century or so earlier than 2000 b.c., show
a wealth of furnishings which clearly reveal their royal char­
acter. The richest consists of three wooden chambers beneath the

earth. In the main chamber a man is buried beneath a canopy
adorned with lions and bulls of gold and silver, decked in neck­
laces of lapis lazuli and turquoise and surrounded by bowls and

vases of gold, silver, and stone engraved with mountain scenes
and processions of animals, including horses and oxen. He has
three socketed axes of copper. In the subsidiary chambers lie the