Hayasa-Azzi: The First Armenia in Written History
How the cuneiform archives of the Hittite capital came to record a powerful mountain kingdom at the sources of the Euphrates — […]
Category: Antiquities
Who Is Buried in the Women’s Tomb of the Royal Family of Commagene
Karakuş (“Black Bird”) — a hierothesion of the Orontid dynasty in the Nymphaios valley Introduction In south-eastern Turkey, in the Kâhta district […]
The History of Armenian Coinage and Money: From Ancient Times to the Dram
From weighed silver and Achaemenid-era imports to the kings of Sophene, the coins of Tigranes the Great, the Cilician tram and the […]
Weapons of the Armenian Highland: From the First Swords to the Age of Firearms
Military history series · Armenian Highland, 4th millennium BCE – 18th century CE Introduction: why the Highland matters for the history of […]
Subartu: The Forgotten Northern Deep of Armenian History
A name from the world’s oldest archives Long before Urartu, long before “Armenia” appears in any inscription, Sumerian and Akkadian scribes were […]
Before the Sistrum: Tracing a Bronze Age Rattle from Anatolia to Ararat
How a humble noise-making instrument may connect Hattian metalworkers, Hurrian myth-singers, Egyptian priestesses of Isis, and the bronze-working culture of the Kingdom […]
The Goat on the Armenian Highland: A Symbol Older Than Writing
Introduction Long before Urartian kings inscribed their names in cuneiform on the cliffs of Van, and long before Armenian stonemasons carved crosses […]
“Summon Against Her the Kingdoms of Ararat”: Urartu-Armenia in the Prophecy Against Babylon
A Coalition Beneath the Mountain Among the oracles of judgment collected in the Book of Jeremiah, one verse names a highland kingdom […]
Scythian Ceremonial Swords and the Art of the Van Kingdom (Urartu)
Among the most arresting objects to survive from the Early Iron Age Near East are gold-sheathed ceremonial short swords — akinakai — […]
Hannibal and Artaxias the Great: The Carthaginian General Who Helped Build the “Armenian Carthage”
Few episodes in ancient Armenian history capture the imagination quite like the tradition that Hannibal Barca — Rome’s most feared enemy — […]