In 2010, the Yerevan History Museum hosted a presentation of a book by the well-known archaeologist and scientific associate of the Academic Institute of Arts, Ara Demirkhanyan. Its title is “Northeast Yerevan in the Artashesid era”. The author has been dealing with a question of great significance for historical science and for the history of the current Armenian capital for almost 30 years.
In 1980, a large settlement from the Artashesid era (2nd century BC – 1st century AD) was excavated on the territory of modern Avan. The village was already known from medieval sources, and the discovery of its hitherto unknown prehistory was a significant and pleasant sensation.
First of all, because this settlement served as a sort of connecting, intermediate link between the Urartian Erebuni and the medieval city. Indeed, after Erebuni and up to the Middle Ages, there had been some kind of “empty” time gap. In other words, the long history of our capital had inexplicable gaps. Without any “material proofs”.
In the early Middle Ages, Avan, being an extremely convenient place, becomes a clerical center. In 591 AD, Catholicos Ovan Bagarants built the cathedral – the oldest known central-domed construction in Armenian architecture.
Thus, Avan has long enjoyed fame and authority. Here, the compositions of cult buildings were developed, which became cornerstones for national architecture. Avan and its surroundings are a real “Klondike” for archaeologists and historians.
Ara Demirkhanyan and the entire archaeological fraternity dreamed of a full study of this remarkable Yerevan territory. However, it was not meant to be. In 1984, the government allocated a considerable amount of money for the excavations – 40 thousand rubles. However, the first “tranche” did not reach the expedition. Nor was the museum built, the project of which was ready in ’91. Archaeologists managed to explore only a small part of this valuable territory.
Ideally, of course, it should have been fenced off, a protected area created, and the excavations continued. It should have been… The city fathers and the higher authorities went, as always, another way. Simple to the point of vulgarity. They decided to build housing for the people here. The creators of the master plan made a slight mistake and soon the hill, packed with artifacts and other archaeological treasures, was built up.
The natives of Avan and the adjoining Arinj weren’t overly ceremonious either. Only the most hopelessly lazy did not establish gardens and vegetable patches here. Items found by gardener-farmers disappeared into the space of Yerevan. Tough people attacked the coveted land like foreign invaders.
The cultural layer before our eyes was taking the shape of buildings, including elite ones, as well as fruits and vegetables. All of Demirkhanyan’s attempts to make the “competent authorities” understand have not been successful. And they still aren’t.
But the communists didn’t stoop to this and built all of antiquity – the hill – with ugly housing of the Armenian-Soviet model. (Moreover, it was not particularly earthquake-resistant.) They were followed by professional patriot-democrats. Nowadays, archaeologists are left with only 15 hectares of the original settlement territory. If only they could protect it…
If they wished, Avan and its surroundings could become another historical document of Yerevan, moreover extensive and interesting. A real sweet treat could have been created here for tourists… After all, it is here, unlike other parts of modern Yerevan (like Erebuni), that one can trace the continuous development of history and culture from the Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC), including antiquity and the Middle Ages.
Ara Demirkhanyan’s findings, a small part of which made it into his book, are truly magnificent. Here are fragments of buildings from different eras, rich burials – they contained beads made of natural ornamental stones, glass (some beads have a gold or silver lining), pottery, tools, coins.
In one of the jar burials, a rare two-layer sardonyx gem-intaglio was found with an image of an attractive bushy-tailed dog. A lot of painted pottery has been discovered: all sorts of jugs, bowls, dishes, pots, lamps – Avan clay has been famous since those times. It was not without tools and products of craft production.
These are stone beaters, clay spindles, mortars, iron scissors, decorations, nails, knives. There are also many bronze decorations – earrings, rings, buttons, even a beautiful fibula in the form of a lyre was found. Even a bell. And miniature idols. All this is evidence of developed crafts and technologies. An extensive panorama of five thousand years of history.
What will happen next is hard to say – we are so criminally negligent in relation to history and its traces left on Armenian soil. As for Ara Demirkhanyan, he does what he can. As do other archaeologists. It’s up to the state.
Reference to the book: “Northeast Yerevan in the Era of the Artashesids”.
