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Party like a Sumerian: reinterpreting the ‘sceptres’ from the Maikop kurgan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2022

Viktor Trifonov ,
Denis Petrov  and
Larisa Savelieva
Viktor Trifonov*
Affiliation:
Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg, Russia
Denis Petrov
Affiliation:
North-East Interdisciplinary Scientific Research Institute N.A. Shilo, Far East Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Magadan, Russia Federal State Institution, Federal Research Centre “Fundamentals of Biotechnology” of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
Larisa Savelieva
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Sciences, St Petersburg State University, Russia
*
*Author for correspondence ✉ [email protected]
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Abstract

The Bronze Age Maikop kurgan is one of the most richly furnished prehistoric burial mounds in the northern Caucasus. Its excavation in 1897 yielded a set of gold and silver tubes with elaborate tips and decorative bull figurines. Interpretations of these tubes include their use as sceptres and as poles to support a canopy. Re-examination of these objects, however, suggests they were used as tubes for the communal drinking of beer, with integral filters to remove impurities. If correct, these objects represent the earliest material evidence of drinking through long tubes—a practice that became common during feasts in the third and second millennia BC in the ancient Near East.

Keywords

CaucasusBronze Agekurganfunerary ritualfeastingdrinking ceremony
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 96 , Issue 385 , February 2022 , pp. 67 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd.

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