Although I’ve completed my write-up of my trip to Turkey, Georgia and Armenia, there was quite a lot that I missed out and have meant to come back to. This is one of those posts, but the summary of the trip is at https://www.julianwhite.uk/turkey-georgia-and-armenia-final-thoughts/, with a link to all the blog posts that I wrote up telling the story of that little adventure.
This is a tombstone from the fifteenth or sixteenth century, apparently made of andesite and that appears to have held up well. The museum notes that “there is a relief of a man facing forwards and holding a bowl towards a pitcher bearing an eternity symbol” although that feels like it’s missing out some explanation of what is being shown here. I thought that it was a hunting scene, but then again, I have no idea. And is that a horse looking down or an elephant looking up?
But, what interested me, and this stone has multiple faces and mysteries, is that it’s a tombstone that tells a story. We might not know the name of who this tombstone is for, but there’s a whole cartoon worth of action going on here. And there’s some confusion on what the message is (well, there is with me anyway), and this seems to be a handy way of getting attention at a modern day graveyard. Create a cartoon strip full of imagery and some people will engage with the whole arrangement and try and work out what it means.
Anyway, I feel that I might now be on one of my flights of fancy…..