The pottery excavated at Toprakkalah, apart from other pe culiar features, partly shows in red, and sometimes in black, a glazed surface which is practically equal to "bucchero." The gold medal (fig. 2) showing a goddess of fertility and her female adorer in beaten work, has peculiarities which have left their mark in archaic Greek, especially Ionic art. A candelabrum (fig. 5) and parts of a throne with a baldachin show a wreath of falling leaves the latter in exactly the shape in which it (the forerunner of the kymation) appears on the eldest Ionian or pre-Ionian capi tals. The legs of the above mentioned candelabrum (fig. 6) and of another one preserved in Erlangen show the "zoomorphic junc ture," one member of an animal coming forth out of the mouth of the same or another animal: this feature being entirely re stricted to the art of the Chaldians and of the Etruscans. The bronze vessel from Toprakkalah (fig. 2) with vertical rims has innumerable parallels in Etruscan tombs. The way the Chaldians built their walls and towers is illustrated by a model found at Toprakkalah (fig. 3). A very striking likeness of the bison, one of the three chief races of big cattle living in Babylonia in the oldest times, in bronze stressing the beard as its special feature (fig. 8) shows its existence in ancient Armenia in the first millen nium B.C. The attaches or handle figures of big bronze vessels in
the form of a female divinity in the winged disc of the sun (fig. in) are a Chaldian speciality, recurring in archaic Greek and in Etruscan art. The bronze snake, probably Tiamat, the animal of the Chaos, shows, as do numerous other pieces, a combination of materials, the holes, for example, being partly filled with coloured glass.
The Chaldians must have come from more western parts of Asia Minor where they were in touch with elements of Minoan culture ; their culture is principally western with only minor traces of Assyrian influence; they influenced archaic Greek art in their turn, and had peculiar relations to the Etruscans which were prob ably based on a former relatively close proximity. When the Ar menians invaded Urartu, the Chaldians withdrew into the moun tains keeping up their warlike spirit and their metallurgic accom plishments. They were also called Chalybes, probably from the name of the steel which they were the first to produce. The region south of Trebizond was one of the last resorts of the Chaldians. The Byzantine thema of this region was called Chaldia and an archbishopric of the Greek church about Gumushchana is called Chaldia to the present day.