84 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. IIO 



ornamentation (the characteristic development of the drawing in the 

 upper rectilinear geometric frieze and the decorative fretting of the 

 clear-cut outlines of the closed design in relief on the body), so that 

 it may be connected with the comparatively late stage of the Shengavit 

 Eneolithic. 



In any event in this connection the finding in Shengavit of a fragment 

 of an oval cup with two bends is significant, being a type well known 

 from the Kizilvank complex with painted pottery, but with the black 

 polishing of the outer surface inherent in the Shengavit types. A cup 

 of this light ware, recalling by its shape a section of a human skuU,^*^ 

 also came from the excavations by Lalaian on the west bank of Lake 

 Sevan and was erroneously imputed to a Late Bronze Age tomb. 

 There was also a fragment of a similar cup in the upper level of the 

 Eneolithic stratum at Akhillar. 



The horseshoe-shaped stands from Shengavit have a special form 

 with a female anthropomorphic figure in the center, in relation to 

 which the bends of the horseshoe play the part of embracing arms. 

 This confirms the connection between these stands and the cult of a 

 female goddess (in the present case, of the hearth) and at the same 

 time may be used as an argument for the hypothesis concerning the 

 origin of the form of the Aegean "horned altars" through the symbolic 

 simplification of the idol of the goddess with the hands held up in 

 prayer. Of other figurative motifs in sculpture the attention is arrested 

 by the sheeplike tailpieces on another kind of horseshoe-shaped stand 

 from Shengavit, by the massive figure of a bull from Shresh-Blur, 

 and also by a kind of hearth stand and separate rude sculptures of 

 animals and man. 



The flint inventory from Akhillar and Shengavit included arrows, 

 knives, sickle-teeth, and especially perforated stone implements. In 

 addition, a fragment of a wedge-shaped ax and a marble cask-shaped 

 hammer have particular significance in dating this level. Metal was 

 very rare and consisted of small fragments of pins and of a copper 

 awl, rhombic in outline, characteristic of the early stages of copper 

 production. 



The survey of these data, unusual for the South Caucasus, makes 

 it possible to establish the existence, at the dawn of the knowledge of 

 metal or at least prior to the third millennium B. C, in the central 

 part of the Kura-Araxes basin of a cultural layer absolutely homo- 

 geneous from Karakurt to Nakhichevan and from Tbilisi to Ararat. 

 This level is characterized by a ceramic production, finely developed 



16 Cf. Human calvaria from Paleolithic deposits at Le Placard, France. It is 

 suggested that these were used as ceremonial drinking vessels. (H. F.) 



