U.S. archaeologists to research ancient site in Yerevan

U.S. archaeologists to research ancient site in Yerevan

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Cambridge-Yerevan Sister City Association (CYSCA) is launching a fundraising effort to help support the ongoing research into 4th–2ndmillennium B.C. history and culture at the Shengavit archaeological site in Yerevan.

According to the Armenian Weekly, archaeologist Dr. Mitchell S. Rothman, head of the department of anthropology at Widener University in Pennsylvania, plans on returning to Armenia with a group of American archaeologists and students this summer.

There, at the Shengavit Historical and Archaeological Culture Preserve in Yerevan’s Shengavit district, his team, with Armenian colleagues, will continue the work begun last summer. Namely, they will work to uncover the story of the ancient society that was present at the site from the 4th millennium B.C. This was before the formation of Armenia and other nations in the region, although it is widely believed the society living there at the time must have played a part in the genesis of the Armenian people.

The site was initially excavated in 1936 by Armenian archaeologists. This was the first site that exhibited what is often called “Shengavit culture” or “Kura-Arax” culture. This culture had contacts throughout much of the Middle East, as far as Mesopotamia and Palestine, and as far west as Malatia in western Armenia (Anatolia). But there are still many questions that archaeologists and historians seek to answer: The U.S. archaeologists want to establish a more precise chronology for the site using advanced dating techniques and to evaluate the evolution of Shengavit’s social structure. They then hope to publish a full history of Shengavit.

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