With classical art not always well-represented in the District, the new exhibit at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Wine, Worship and Sacrifice: The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani, is a great opportunity to see some pieces from the sixth century B.C.E. to the mid-first century B.C.E. Colchis, now the country of Georgia.

The exhibit highlights items that were found in eight graves; gold and silver jewelry and decorations, wine bowls and ladles, and glass vessels filled the graves found in ancient Vani, the principal sanctuary city in the Imereti region of western Colchis. It rose to prominence as an urban center in the sixth century B.C.E. and was destroyed by invaders around the mid-first century B.C.E. Archaeologists only have been excavating the area since 1947, and only one-third of the site has been explored so far.