All About Armenia
San Lazzaro degli Armeni is an Armenian monastery in Venice, Italy named after St. Lazarus, the patron saint of lepers. The island functioned as a leper colony from the 12th to 16th centuries, until it was abandoned. Mechitar, the Armenian monk who fled his Turkish persecutors arrived in Venice in 1715 and the Venetian government, …
In a 2015 publication, researchers did an analysis of teeth from the remains of 101 individuals that were collected from a variety of museums and archaeological excavations. They found DNA of the bacterium that causes plague, called Yersinia pestis, in seven of these people. The earliest sample that had plague DNA was from Bronze Age …
Armenians have a rich tradition of being royal architects of the Ottoman empire. Take for example the Balyan family, a prominent Armenian family of Ottoman court architects in the service of sultans for two centuries. However, the ethnic background of the empire’s most outstanding architect “Mimar Sinan” is disputed. There are multiple claims regarding Sinan’s …
On top of a mountain in Jermuk, you can spot a majestic statue of a deer, looking over the landscape. It’s a spectacular view, especially during sunset or sundown. The story behind the statue is basically a legend, regarding the once full of deer populated region of Jermuk and the healing powers of the Jermuk …
The Armenian tradition of illuminating and illustrating hand written manuscripts dates as far back as the seventh century and continued to flourish under royal patronage in the kingdom of Cilicia in the tenth and eleventh centuries. In this video, Professor Christina Maranci explores the range of functions that these manuscripts served—from modest personal devotion to …
The “Yarkhushta” is traditionally known as a ceremonial war dance that originated in Western Armenia, specifically in Sassoun. It belongs to a wider category of Armenian ‘clap dances’ or also known as tsap parer – ծափ-պարեր. Armenian soldiers traditionally dance Yarkhushta before combat engagements, for ritualistic purposes and partly to cast off fear and boost …
The Mamikonians were a powerful clan group who were influential in Armenian political and military affairs from the 1st century BCE onwards. They rose to particular prominence from c. 428 CE to 652 CE in the half of Armenia ruled by the Sasanian Empire when marzpan viceroys represented the Persian king. One of the dynasty’s most famous figures is Vardan Mamikonian …
Henry Jeffreys visits a country rediscovering its viticultural riches. Every 100 metres or so on the main road to Iran that runs through the Vayots Dzor province of Armenia there is a stall selling tomatoes, watermelons and Coca-Cola. I was with an Italian-Armenian businessman Zorik Gharibian and his wife Yeraz, and they suggested we stop …
The strengthening of the Byzantine Empire and the weakening of the Arab Caliphate led to a change in the geopolitical situation in the Caucasus in the late ninth century, which in turn allowed the Armenian state to gain independence from Muslim rule. The newly created state was headed by representatives of the Bagratid family (The Bagratids are an aristocratic noble family whose roots go back to the …
The Arsacid (Arshakuni) dynasty of Armenia ruled that kingdom from 12 CE to 428 CE. A branch of the Arsacid dynasty of Parthia, the Armenian princes also played out a prolonged balancing act by remaining friendly to the other great power of the period and region: Rome. As so often before, Armenia continued to be a hotly disputed territory …
The Armenian presence in Palestine dates back to the fourth century a.d., when Armenian pilgrims began arriving in Jerusalem after the uncovering of the holy places of Christianity (which had been built over by the Romans), ascribed to Saint Helena, mother of the newly converted Emperor Constantine I. A proliferation of monasteries, many of them …
Published with permission of the author. The original article was published in the collection Days of Science of the Faculty of History: Proceedings of the VIII International Scientific Conference of Young Scientists. Editor-in-Chief: Corresponding Member NASU, prof. V. Kolesnyk (chairman), O. Magdych (ed.). Vip. VIII Part 6. (Kyiv 2015): 17-23. Reference to the article: www.academia.edu Weakening of the Arab Caliphate in the late ninth …
The Armenian Pantheon of Gods was erected by the king of Commagene, named Antiochus I Theos c. 86 BC – 38 BC, ruled 70 BC – 38 BC. Antiochus I Theos was the son of of King Mithridates I Callinicus and Queen Laodice VII Thea of Commagene from the Armenian Orontid Dynasty. Beyond the line …
The earliest Armenian geographic work is the seventh-century manuscript entitled Ashkharhatsuyts (Mirror of the World), penned most probably by the Armenian mathematician, scientist, and geographer Anania Shirakatsi (Anania of Shirak). This work was originally attributed to the fifth-century Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi, but research has shown that it most probably belongs to the pen of Shirakatsi. …
Modern Armenia, which is located in the South Caucasus region, is much smaller than medieval Armenia, which was ruled by the Bagratid dynasty. The Bagratid Kingdom was a decentralized state with a well-developed suzerain-vassal system, where small kingdoms, like Syunik, Vaspurakan, Tashir-Dzoraget, and Kars, had their own autonomy. They recognized the authority of the Bagratid …
One of the greatest lies that the “Empire” had applied to Armenian literature over the centuries is that Mesrob Mashtots created or “rediscovered” Armenian letters a few centuries after Christ. The Crusades were more than just a battle between Christianity and Islam. That was a time when world history had changed for ever. Why did …
Suddenly, a new dynamic has been set into motion in the Caucasus region. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has announced that it is time for Armenia and Turkey to work towards a rapprochement. Simultaneously Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has opened the prospects of beginning negotiations with Armenia while Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has …
A late 12th- or early 13th-century khachkar in the province of Karvajar is part of a larger history of nursing images in Christian imagery, but is it threatened? The war in Nagorno-Karabagh (Armenian Artsakh) recently halted with the Russian-brokered peace deal of November 9, which mandated the surrender to Azerbaijan of several provinces with millennia of Armenian …