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ARMENIAN VILLAGE AGARAK MORE ANCIENT THAN EGYPTIAN PYRAMIDS - VIDEO AND PHOTO
http://news.am/eng/news/130011.html
November 28, 2012 | 07:45
Historical and cultural reserve Agarak is located to the south of
Mount Aragats, on the banks of River Amberd (photos are available
here). If you cross the highway near the village of the same name,
you immediately find yourself in another time.
At the first sight nothing special for the site, full of stones and
no trees.
The almost flat relief, located right next to the highway, stands out
a hill of tufa. Tufa is relatively a soft stone, and it is easy to
curve it even with primitive tools by primitive sculptures. This can
be verified with examining layers of tufa cleared by archaeologists.
Here and there, on the gentle slopes of the rock, shallow pits
are scattered, some of which are almost perfectly circular in a
horizontal cross section, next to them are impressive rectangular
pits carved into the tufa. The stones hewn have lots of mysterious
characters. No doubt, this is the work of an ancient man who crafted
the stone primitive tools.
It is an ancient necropolis, next to which, in a large area, religious
and residential buildings of different eras are scattered. Armenian
News-NEWS.am took an interview from an expert Pavel Avetisyan for
more detailed information.
It turns out that many things belong to the so-called cultural stratum
Agarak-1, dating from the early Bronze Age, which in Armenia begun
in 3400 BC. Although it is not excluded, if we dig a little deeper,
we can find even more ancient traces of human habitat here. So the
settlement is 'older' than the great Egyptian pyramids at Giza.
The complex Agarak is "multi-layered," people lived and built it in
different historical epochs. Urartian royal period artifacts have
been found on the southern side of the rock. Agarak flourished from
the IV to III BC to II to IV AD.
An interesting detail is that in the necropolis, dating from the II
to III AD, long before the official adoption of Christianity as the
state religion in Armenia, Christian burial, according to the ritual
features, is found. However, there are problems for the reserve site.
One of them is the construction of the road North-South, which will
destruct much findings and even more ancient layers if the Bronze Age.
As a matter of fact, systematic archaeological researches in the
territory of contemporary Armenia [historical Armenia occupies much
larger territory, including some lands presently controlled by its
neighboring counties] are of a strategic importance for the future
of our nation.
By Albert Khachatryan
http://news.am/eng/news/130011.html
November 28, 2012 | 07:45
Historical and cultural reserve Agarak is located to the south of
Mount Aragats, on the banks of River Amberd (photos are available
here). If you cross the highway near the village of the same name,
you immediately find yourself in another time.
At the first sight nothing special for the site, full of stones and
no trees.
The almost flat relief, located right next to the highway, stands out
a hill of tufa. Tufa is relatively a soft stone, and it is easy to
curve it even with primitive tools by primitive sculptures. This can
be verified with examining layers of tufa cleared by archaeologists.
Here and there, on the gentle slopes of the rock, shallow pits
are scattered, some of which are almost perfectly circular in a
horizontal cross section, next to them are impressive rectangular
pits carved into the tufa. The stones hewn have lots of mysterious
characters. No doubt, this is the work of an ancient man who crafted
the stone primitive tools.
It is an ancient necropolis, next to which, in a large area, religious
and residential buildings of different eras are scattered. Armenian
News-NEWS.am took an interview from an expert Pavel Avetisyan for
more detailed information.
It turns out that many things belong to the so-called cultural stratum
Agarak-1, dating from the early Bronze Age, which in Armenia begun
in 3400 BC. Although it is not excluded, if we dig a little deeper,
we can find even more ancient traces of human habitat here. So the
settlement is 'older' than the great Egyptian pyramids at Giza.
The complex Agarak is "multi-layered," people lived and built it in
different historical epochs. Urartian royal period artifacts have
been found on the southern side of the rock. Agarak flourished from
the IV to III BC to II to IV AD.
An interesting detail is that in the necropolis, dating from the II
to III AD, long before the official adoption of Christianity as the
state religion in Armenia, Christian burial, according to the ritual
features, is found. However, there are problems for the reserve site.
One of them is the construction of the road North-South, which will
destruct much findings and even more ancient layers if the Bronze Age.
As a matter of fact, systematic archaeological researches in the
territory of contemporary Armenia [historical Armenia occupies much
larger territory, including some lands presently controlled by its
neighboring counties] are of a strategic importance for the future
of our nation.
By Albert Khachatryan