May 032014
Today we drove from Yerevan to Sisian – approximately 130 miles, at 30 MPH, through windy, sometimes gravel roads, for a day that began at 9:00 and ended around 8:30.
We stopped at a beautiful monastery, which I will get to, however, today was about three incredibly important archaeological digs.
The first was Kamir Blur, sadly it was pouring rain and the site we came to visit is clay, so we were forced to sit on the outskirts and gaze over the site. Kamir Blur, is still in Yerevan on the outskirts near the airport. This “red hill” are the ruins of Teishebaini, a fortified Urartian city from the 7th century BC, discovered in 1939. Objects here were predominately made of iron and bronze.
Our second stop was the Shengavit Settlement, just down the road. This site contains the remains of a 4th century BC early Kura-Araxes culture.
The highlight was the third dig, Areni 1. All three of these digs are being supervised by Boris Gasparian (or Gasparyon). He is an absolutely delightful human being. His passion for his work, coupled with his humble nature and great sense of humor and adventure, make everything fascinating and wondrous.
Areni 1 is a cave discovery. Here they found the earliest wine press to date, the oldest shoe found to date, and the oldest skirt found to date.
These caves were originally carved out by water, however, they are, and were at the time of these civilizations, bone dry.
There is evidence of at least 3 distinct settlings in these caves. The first site is over 7 thousand years old. On this level they found that human sacrifices had taken place here. There is some evidence that girls, all of the same family according to DNA sampling, were raised specifically for sacrifice. They were brought in during the wine making period, bathed, and then their throats were slit over the wine. They know there was blood in the wine, as there were molecules containing diseases that are found only in humans. Why human sacrifice, no one has any idea, but it was most likely for religious purposes, whatever that religion might have been. Also, wine during this period was only used for religious purposes, not for consumption.
We were so very privileged to visit this site, it is not a tourist site, and it is still a very active dig, although there is no plan to excavate any further into the caves. At this point they feel they have enough for the lifetime of those leading the dig. They will now remove all of the objects and study them and hen start publishing articles regarding what they found. After they take everything out they will replace them with replicas.
The law is that they can only dig 25% of any site, which the archaeologists support; this is also why they will not go any further on this site. The archaeologists working on this site are fully aware that as time goes on the science will only get more progressive, and the way to date, analyze and dig will be more sophisticated, and they look forward to what might be found with all the new technology that is being developed.
We also visited the Noravank Monastery high in the hills above Areni 1. This monastery is best known for its second floor which is accessible by the stairway that is carved into the front of the church. The church was designed by Momik Vardpet. Momik was a 14th century architect, painter, sculptor and master artist of illuminated manuscripts.
Momik was also famous for his carvings of Khachkars, and most of these are here at the monastery.
After a honey tasting, which was accompanied by home made brandy made by the apiarist we had a 2 hour drive to Sisian.
We have driven through 3 very distinct landscapes today. A large portion of the second portion of our trip was through the Zangezur Panhandle (a name only used in Armenia) or the Syunik Province as it is called elsewhere. The top of the pass was at approximately 7000 feet, it was green with yellow mustard blooming and snow on the top of the hills. This area borders Vayots Dzor which is Azerbaijans Nakchivan Autonomous Republic exclave to the west, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic to the east and Iran to the south. You will have to go back to my discussions regarding Nakchivan and Nagorno-Karabakh for a refresher on this area. Keep in mind that both those provinces are technically in Azerbaijan, but are now ethnically Armenian, so this is how Armenians travel to that area. Also remember that the Armenians won the war, and victors write the history.
At the outset of our trip today we were traveling very close to the Turkish border.
