Armavir (ancient city)

Coordinates: 40°04′55″N 44°02′00″E / 40.08194°N 44.03333°E / 40.08194; 44.03333
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Armavir
The site of ancient Armavir
Armavir (ancient city) is located in Armenia
Armavir (ancient city)
Shown within Armenia
Location1 km west of the current village of Armavir, Armavir Province, Armenia
Coordinates40°04′55″N 44°02′00″E / 40.08194°N 44.03333°E / 40.08194; 44.03333
History
BuilderKing Orontes III
Founded8th century BC
rebuilt 331 BC
Abandoned1603

Armavir (

capital of ancient Armenia during the reign of the Orontid dynasty. It is located 1 km west of the 17th-century village of Armavir
.

History

Antiquity

The area of ancient Armavir has been inhabited since the 6th millennium BC. Various obsidian instruments, bronze objects and pottery have been found from that period. Armenian accounts held the city to have founded by King Aramais, a grandson of Hayk, around 1980 BC.[1]

During the first half of the 8th century BC, King

Argishtikhinili.[2] In 331 BC, when Armenia under the Orontid dynasty asserted its independence from the Achaemenid Empire, Armavir was chosen as the capital of Armenia. Slabs of clay have been found from the Achaemenid period written in the Elamite language concerning episodes of the Gilgamesh epic. Various inscriptions in Hellenistic Greek carved around the third century BC, have been found, including poetry from Hesiod, lines from Euripides, a list of Macedonian months, and names of Orontid Kings.[3]

The remains at the archaeological site of ancient Armavir

According to the 5th-century Armenian historian

Judea, and then completely destroyed the city.[8]

In 591 during the reign of

Sassanid Persian Empire at the battle of the Blarathon
.

During Antiquity, Armavir was taken by the

Sassanids and Byzantine Empire
before it was taken over by the Arabs in 645.

Medieval Armavir

Arab rule lasted until the first quarter of the ninth century. The

Shah Rukh who was a Timurid ruler captured this region in 1421 and in 1429. Jahan Shah
who was a Kara Koyunlu ruler captured it in 1447.

Ottoman-Persian rule

Kara Koyunlu's sovereignty lasted until

Abbas I of Persia
in 1603. Under the rule of Abbas I, the Armenians of Armavir were resettled in Persia and ancient Armavir was finally abandoned.

The settlement remained abandoned until 1613, when 7 Armenian families rebuilt a new village just 1 km east of the ancient site of Armavir.

It was occupied by Ottomans between 1635–1636 and 1724–1736. At the fall of the

Safavid Empire, Armavir became part of the Erivan Khanate
.

Russian rule

The

Russo-Persian War (1826–1828) began due to Persian demand to reconquer the territories lost to Russia between 1804 and 1813. At first, the Persians repulsed the Russians from the South Caucasus in 1826. However, Russian general and commander of the Russian army, Ivan Paskevich
, reconquered South Caucasus and extended its territories to include the Erivan Khanate in 1827.

This region formally passed from

uyezd of the Armenian Oblast, which itself became the Erivan Governorate in 1840. This situation lasted until the February Revolution
in 1917.

References

  1. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Armavir" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 563.
  2. ^ Hakobyan, Tadevos (2007). Hayastani patmakan ashkharhagrutʻyun Հայաստանի պատմական աշխարհագրություն [Historical geography of Armenia] (in Armenian). Yerevan: Yerevan State University Press. p. 133.
  3. ^ Inscriptions on a rock face at Armavir - in English translation at attalus.org.
  4. ^ (in French) Tirac'yan, Georg. "Armawir." Translated from Armenian by Aida Tcharkhtchian and edited by Jean-Pierre Mahé. Revue des Études Arméniennes. vol. 27, 1998-2000, p. 137.
  5. ISBN 5-540-01192-9
    .
  6. ^ Movses Khorenatsi. History of Armenia, 2.16, p. 136. Note that modern historians are not convinced that Tigranes II was still alive when Cleopatra became queen of Egypt.
  7. ^ Movses Khorenatsi. History of Armenia, 2.49, p. 164.
  8. Jewish Encyclopedia
    , vol. 1, pp. 116-17.

External links

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