Preliminary Report on the 1998 Archaeological Investigations of Project ArAGATS in the Tsakahovit Palin, Armenia (original) (raw)
Related papers
Metsamor: the Early Iron Age/Urartian settlement in the Aras Valley, Armenia
Antiquity
A multi-disciplinary research project in the Aras Valley, Armenia, focuses on the remains of the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age settlement of Metsamor. The results challenge prior understandings of the settlement's past and the role it played in the region, especially during the first centuries of the first millennium BC.
FACTA A JOURNAL OF LATE ROMAN, MEDIEVAL AND POST-MEDIEVAL MATERIAL CULTURE STUDIES, 2021
Università di Firenze e Yerevan State University hanno avviato nel 2013 un progetto di ricerca archeologica e territoriale congiunto in Vayots Dzor (Armenia), al fine di indagare l'impatto della connettività eurasiatica a lungo raggio nella formazione e nello sviluppo dei paesaggi medievali locali. Il team è dedicato allo sviluppo della ricerca archeologica integrata, basata su metodi di indagine non distruttivi. Il progetto costituisce il primo esperimento di Light Archaeology in Armenia e nel Caucaso e i risultati attesi includono tanto progressi nella ricerca storicoarcheologica sul Medioevo armeno (cc. 7-16) quanto progressi metodologici negli studi archeologici territoriali nel loro complesso. In questo lavoro gli autori si soffermano sul secondo aspetto, presentando i quadri teorici e metodologici adottati al fine di approfondire la conoscenza sui fenomeni materiali e storici osservabili nella realizzazione dei paesaggi medievali a Vayots Dzor. In 2013, the University of Florence and the State University of Yerevan started a joint archaeological and territorial research project in Vayots Dzor (Armenia), in order to investigate the impact of long-range Eurasian connectivity in the creation and promotion of local medieval landscapes. The team is devoted to the development of integrated archaeological research, based on non-destructive investigation methods. The project represents the first experiment with Light Archaeology in Armenia and Caucasus, and expected results include advances in both archaeological-historical research about Armenian Middle Ages (cc. 7th-16th) and methodological advances in archaeological territorial studies as a whole. The authors of the present paper shall focus on the latter point and present theoretical and methodological frameworks adopted by the Italian partner of the project in order to enhance the knowledge on material and historical phenomena observable in the making of medieval landscapes in Vayots Dzor.
This paper presents the preliminary results ofthe excavations (2004-2009) ofAknashen-Khatunarkh, a Neolithic site in the plain ofArarat. More than 300 m2 has been excavated ofthis tel!, which is about 100 m in diameter and 3,5 min height. The cultural layer, more than 4 m thick, was subdivided preliminarily into five horizons, the upper one (1) belonging to the Early Chalcolithic and the others (II-V) to the Late Neolithic. A series of14C dates enables dating the Neolithic horizons to the first halfofthe 6th millennium. On the basis ofa multidisciplinary study ofmtefacts (obsidian chipped stone-more than 22.000 pieces, antler and bone industry, ground stone, pottery, etc) and offloral and faunal remains, the main features ofthe material culture and economic life ofthis Late Neolithic settlement are brought to light. The culture represented at Aknashen-Khatunarkh has many common characteristics with contemporary cultures in the southern Caucasus (Shulaveri-Shomutepe culture, and Kültepe ofthe Nakhchevan).