Two Deities of Writing Have Been Worshipped in Ancient Armenia – Artak Movsesyan

The 2150th anniversary of Armenian King Tigran the Great’s birth was celebrated in Armenia in 2010. The faculty of history of Yerevan State University (YSU) organized a three-day run of popular-science films telling about Armenia and its cultural heritage in the years of Tigran the Great.

On May 13 was shown the film “From cave paintings to alphabet”. Before the demonstration of the film, its author Artak Movsesyan, a professor from the history faculty of YSU, gave a lecture on the Armenian writing in the years of King Tigran, as well as on Armenian hieroglyphs and on Mesrop Mashtots, the creator of the Armenian alphabet. Most of the film was shot in Western Armenia.

“The fact of the very existence of a writing system in ancient Armenia is confirmed by the Armenians’ worship of a god of writing. Moreover, Armenia is one of those rare countries that had two such deities. One of them was Tork Angegh who is believed to have been drawing signs on rocks with his fingernails. And prior to the establishment of Christianity as an official state religion in Armenia, Tir was the deity of writing. According to the tradition, Tir was a soothsayer and decided the fate of people by inscribing their names in his book of death.

There are also many facts confirming the existence of Armenian hieroglyphs that have been used by our ancestors. They would later switch to the more convenient Aramaic alphabet that had been adapted to the Armenian language. These symbols [hieroglyphs] reappeared in the Armenian manuscripts of the 11th-12th centuries. People returned to the hieroglyphs for the transmission of short letters when the threat of paganism’s revival appeared,” said Movsesyan.

Movsesyan also emphasized, “Writing became a means of transfer of information not only through space but also time as it allows us to learn about the past.”

«ԺԱՅՌԱՊԱՏԿԵՐՆԵՐԻՑ ՄԻՆՉԵՎ ԱՅԲՈՒԲԵՆ» (Մաս I) with english subtitles

«ԺԱՅՌԱՊԱՏԿԵՐՆԵՐԻՑ ՄԻՆՉԵՎ ԱՅԲՈՒԲԵՆ» (Մաս II)

«ԺԱՅՌԱՊԱՏԿԵՐՆԵՐԻՑ ՄԻՆՉԵՎ ԱՅԲՈՒԲԵՆ» (Մաս III)