by Prof. Herman Gasche
Under the hot Armenian summer sun, a group of men are working very carefully on a piece of land a few kilometers from the village of Oshakan where Mesrop Mashtotz, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet, is buried. The archeological mission to which they belong, has chosen to search the site of Akhtamir on the southern slope of mount Aragadz, in the valley of the Arax river. The first strikes of the pickax were made in August of 1993 representing the realization of a project of Professor Herman Gasche, a Swiss archeologist attached to the University of Ghent in Belgium whose interest was initially provoked by a Swiss lady married to an Armenian, Mrs. Alison Garabedian.
With his initial trip to the region having confirmed the validity of the presumed contacts between Armenia and Mesopotamia, relations were immediately established with the responsible individuals in Armenia, the late George Tirazian, Director of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia, and his successor, Ara Kalantarian. Finally, in the summer of 1993 a dozen Belgian, Swiss and French investigators* joined as many Armenians to launch a program of archeological excavations and prospection in a region poorly documented up to now, but which nevertheless, has played an important role in connection with the old Near East nations.
This project is based on a multi-disciplinary research approach aimed at contributing to the reconstruction of the historic route of this region, its old environment and its ties with the neighboring civilizations. The research should allow clarification of long-distance trading practices for certain raw materials (metals, obsidian and a multitude of other rocks and semi-precious stones), as well as the technology of metals and its diffusion. The anthropological comparisons with the populations of the neighboring and Mesopotamian regions is also one of the priorities of the project.
The possibility of answering, at least partially, these questions will be found in the excavations planned, and begun, last year. It is projected to probe several sites with a view to correlating the observations which will form the basis of a regional, then inter-regional study. This phase is foreseen for 1995 including a thematic exploration by satellite imagery, completed by a traditional aerial coverage study.
The ceramic material found on the surface of the main site clearly indicates that this is a city whose foundation goes back to the beginning of the 3rd millennium B.C.; if the period, in general, between 2000 and 1500 B.C. is scarcely represented, the one between about 1500 and 1000 does bear witness. In all evidence, there are also primitive installations of the 8th - 7th centuries B.C. and probably also a little later. Finally, it has become evident that many sectors were reoccupied from the 9th to the 16th century A.D.
Two work sites were opened during the first excavation campaign and both revealed installations never represented before in the archeological context of the south Caucasus.
The Acropolis is located at the highest and most exposed part of the site, perpendicular to the Kazakh river, 50 meters above its water level. Beside the river, parts of a wall have been raised to the top of the cliff, but it is almost certain that these vestiges do not belong to the most ancient periods of the site. On the city side, the Acropolis is surrounded by stonework of large blocks of basalt and tuff whose function merits attention. With this in view, a work site has been opened at the northern extremity.
The vestiges that have been opened - unfortunately greatly disturbed by the reoccupations of the Middle Ages - indicate beautiful and monumental constructions that should probably be attributed to the first millennium B.C. This discovery is doubly interesting since it immediately calls to mind the palatial terraces of the Persians, and yet, the Akhtamir installation is considerably older.
The work of the mission also included the Necropolis which extends for a few hundred meters to the north of the Acropolis. The funerary arrangement is dense and in general each tomb is covered with a pile of stones - river pebbles for the most part - bordered by an outside circle provided with much larger stones. Here again, the discovery has no parallel in Armenia, but it must be taken into consideration that this apparently is an "urban necropolis", while almost all of the other hundreds of tombs excavated in Armenia belong to traditional necropolises situated outside cities.
A single tomb that was excavated in this complex, perhaps a family - probably three adults and two children; the defunct, a man, was lying on his side, legs contracted and hands in front of his face. The funerary furniture was well preserved: a lance head in bronze, two large buttons, also in bronze and four black earthenware objects glazed with an incised decor which allowed this tomb to be dated towards the end of the bronze age, possibly at the very beginning of the iron age (13th - 12th centuries B.C.)
During future campaigns, it is planned to excavate other tombs situated inside this stone circle while work will continue on the Acropolis site in the hope of gathering information required for a better understanding of the cultures and customs still locked on Armenian soil, the best known until now being the Urartians. There are good chances, in fact, that the Acropolis will reveal monumental structures, where the seat of political or religious power was located.
According to the agreement signed between the European and Armenian parties, all objects discovered will remain in Armenia. Only samples will be sent to Western laboratories for analysis by modern techniques in order to determine their dates, and by deduction, their role in the economic circuit of the epoch. An Armenian student has already received a scholarship and is in Ghent in order to familiarize herself with the new procedures of metallurgical analysis.
* The work is carried out under the scientific leadership of Ghent University (Belgium), promoter of a "Pôle d'Attraction Inter-Universitaire" (Inter-University Magnetic Pole) presided over by Prof. Dr. L. De Meyer, with H. Gasche of Switzerland, assisted by H. Simonian of Armenia, in charge of the expedition. Partial financing was assured by His Excellency the Belgian Minister of Scientific Policy on the one hand, and the Center for the Advancement of Archeological and Historical Research (Geneva) and the Academy of Armenian Sciences on the other. A non-negligible participation came from the Dutch "Dptm. Leemilieu en Infrastructur du Ministrie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap" which, thanks to the generous provisions of its Director General, has placed an engineer and photogrammetric equipment at the disposal of the team. We should also mention the participation of "Electricité de France" which made available to the Mission material for the electrolytic cleaning of metallic objects.
