PREHISTORIC
PART
3
Ch.XVIII
The
obelisk of Polovragi
Between Jiu and
Olt, on the north-western part of
It is a region
which in remote times had a particular history; a region where we find today
numerous traces of a prehistoric civilization, beginning with the first
endeavors of man to come out of a barbaric existence, from the archaic,
manufactured pottery, to the fine instruments of polished stone, and finally to
the extraction of iron from the earth and its processing.
But the hillock on
the left bank of the river Oltet, which dominates the monastery and the village
Polovragi, presents a particular archaeological importance.
On the eastern side
of this hillock, on a meadow leveled by the hand of man, there is an extensive prehistoric necropolis, from where we
gathered numerous fragments of Neolithic pottery, brought to the surface by
treasure seekers, together with various remains of human bones.
On the western side
of this ancient necropolis rises the apex of the hillock, a position fortified
in part by nature, with steep rocky walls, and encircled by the hand of man
with ancient earth walls on the other part.
On top of this high
peak, from which a magnificent perspective opens over the plain of Polovragi,
can still be seen, even today, the fragment of an archaic monument, unique in
its type among the prehistoric monuments of Europe known to us so far.
It is a monolith
column of granite, cut with four faces and ending at the top with a small
pyramid; an obelisk in a shape somewhat phallic, which had been stuck in a base
made of cut slabs, buried into the ground. All the faces of this important
monument are beautifully polished, but there is no inscription [1].
[1. According to Pliny (lib. XXXVI. 14. 1) the Egyptian
obelisks were consecrated to the Sun (Solis numini sacratos); they were an
image of the rays of the sun and their name in ancient Egyptian language had
the same meaning].
From the quality of
the stone of which it is cut, from the art with which it is fashioned and from
its majestic position on which it had been positioned, this obelisk appears to
have been erected on the tumulus of an ancient and wealthy ruler of this
region, or to have been destined to preserve the memory of a significant event.
Today this obelisk
is broken and removed from its base by the treasure seekers.
The height of the
upper part which we reproduce here is 1.09m, the lower width of the main faces
is 0.45m, while the second fragment, or the lower part of this monolith has
been lost.
The age of this
monument, which forms a unique specimen among the monuments of cut and polished
stone of
Although the
granite from which this obelisk is cut presents a great hardness, its edges are
in some places worn out, eroded by rains and ice.
The oldest obelisks
found in
But the obelisk of
Polovragi belongs anyway to the prehistoric epoch of the metals.
Close to this
important prehistoric station of Polovragi is the village called Baia-de-fer, a locality which, as seen
from its name, once had had a significant metallurgical industry.
We do not find in
the history of the Romanian countries, beginning from the 13th
century onwards, any mention about the fabrication of iron and steel in these
parts. Even the traditions have been lost, while traces of the ancient works
can barely be distinguished in some places (Vasiliu-Nasturel, Dictionarul geogr. Gorj. P. 28).
But when did the
so-called Iron Age begin in the countries near the Carpathians?
In
On the other hand,
according to the ancient Greek traditions, the first iron workers appear in the
western parts of
Homer mentions the so-called Iron Gates, sidereiei
pylai (Iliad, VIII. v. 15), near Oceanos potamos or Istru, as an
ancient and famous monument of the ante-Hellenic world.
And Eschyl in his dramatic poem about the
chaining of Prometheus (Prom. vinct. v. 714-715), tells us that between the
mountain so-called Pharanx (Parang)
and the Furious river (Olt), dwelt
Chalybii, the iron workers, the
most remarkable metallurgists of the ancient world.
(The scholiast of Apollonius Rhodius Arg. II. 375
tells us that Chalybii claimed their
origin from Mars, the national god
of the Getae).
In this same poem
Eschyl repeats the ancient Greek tradition according to which the mountainous
region of western Scythia, where Prometheus had been chained, was called the country mother of iron, sideromator
aia (Prom. vinct. v. 301). So we see that the ancient writers from the
lands near the
Therefore, the age of
the obelisk presented above goes back to the epoch of the renowned Chalybi, or
the workers of iron and copper from western
[2. The Carpathians of