1 by Avtandil V. Okrostsvaridze1, David I. Bluashvili2, Nona E. Gagnidze1 Field investigation of the mythical “Gold Sands” of the ancient Colchis Kingdom and modern discussion on the Argonauts’ expedition 1 Institute of Earth Sciences at the Ilia State University, Tbilisi 0177, Georgia. E-mail:
[email protected] 2 Georgian Technical University, Tbilisi 0179, Georgia. According to Greek mythology and historical sources of Colchis, the capital city – Aia (modern Kutaisi) and the Georgian the ancient Georgian Kingdom of Colchis was rich in tribes Khalibi, Tibarenni and Mosinici. Since then, one can hardly find any fields of European history and art where the theme of Jason gold and the natives mined this noble metal from the and the Argonauts, the “Golden Fleece” and Medea the sorceress is rivers, using special wooden vessels and sheepskins. not more or less reflected. It is believed that Aeetes reigned in his The Argonauts were a small band of heroes in ancient kindom of Colchis at the time of Jason’s journey. Tales of Aeetes’s Greek mythology who, accompanied Jason to Colchis in daughter Medea, the sorceress, were known abroad, and yet the fame his quest to find the “Golden Fleece“. Modern geological of the rumored wealth of the country in gold, silver and iron is likely to have been the basic motive for the Argonauts expedition. research conducted by us in the Svaneti region (Greater The mountain rivers of Colchis Svaneti carried coarse grained Caucasus) has shown that this area is a province of the sands including particles of gold. These sands were washed through former Colchis Kingdom where it was possible to obtain special wooden sluices with pierced holes and the fine sand fraction abundant gold from the mountain rivers using the was carefully strained over and through sheepskins or fleeces lying under the sluices.