Armenian archaeology

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Armenia has a number of archaeological sites.

Armenian archeology

Armenia is among sites of earliest life. Evidence of

Neanderthal Man made his home in present-day Armenia. The obsidian use in Armenia developed especially during the Neolithic period.[1] Especially the Syunik obsidian was exported to Iran and further to Mesopotamia.[2]

With those tools, he carved the story of his life onto petroglyphs (stone carvings) which can still be found in regions of Armenia and date to the Mesolithic Era, tens of thousands of years before Christ.

Bronze Age in Armenia

The Armenia of pre-history was an empire unimaginably vast compared to today’s republic. Around the period of the

Central Anatolia to Central Iran
.

Early civilization began to emerge from Armenia with the formation of town-like settlements, temples, monumental architecture
, a social classes, metal works, systematic transportation, etc. Sculptures of deities reached five meters high by one meter in diameter, and scenes of animal sacrifice, of water birds, snakes and plants from the time were painted onto the surfaces of rocks which became an archeological biography of early Armenia.

Relics dating to the

pre-language
.

Iron Age in Armenia

In the

Armenian plateau
. The culture is characterized by “cyclopic” castles built of massive stone blocks, which are wall surrounded settlements with surface of up to 100 hectares. Their number reached to 500 and held a culture that developed the early fertility cult, evidenced in monuments of phallic representation. And bronze sculptures of early heroes, and of animals bear striking resemblance to Hittite sculptural art.[3]

From 9-7 BC on the territory of Armenia was established one of the most powerful empires of the ancient world, the

Van Kingdom, noted for its canonized architectural principles and proportional systems of separate buildings. The first cities with systematized layouts and landscape terra-forming features started to emerge (Erebuni, Teyshebaini, Tushpa, Argishtikhinili, etc). The arts of jewelry, ceramics, armory forging, stone and bronze sculpture reached utmost development.[4]

Hellenistic culture in Armenia

The Hellenistic culture (4 BC – 3 AD) heavily influenced portions of Armenia that remain until today. Cities such as Tigranakert, Armavir, Arshamashat, Ervandashat, and Artashat date to that time. (The latter was named by Greek chronologist Plutarch as the "Armenian Carthagena", most probably because the Artashat defense walls and castle towers were built on the advice of the greatest warriors of the ancient world Hannibal).

The Kingdom of Armenia enjoyed its most powerful world influence in the 1st century BC under the reign of

Armenian King Trdat
the First to Rome and officially inaugurated him King of Armenia. Armenia kept her independence, but under the patronage of the Roman Empire.

See also

References

  1. ^ Map of Armenian obsidian sources used during the Neolithic (black circles), archaeological sites (black squares), and obsidian source complexes (dashed lines).
  2. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2012.12.032
    .
  3. ^ The earliest finds of cultivated plants in Armenia: evidencefrom charred remains and crop processing residues in pise´from the Neolithic settlements of Aratashen and Aknashen, Roman Hovsepyan, George Wilcox, 2008
  4. ^ “Armenians” in Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture or EIEC, edited by J. P. Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams, published in 1997 by Fitzroy Dearborn.

External links

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