Archaeology in the U.S.S.R.
Arkhaeologiya v SSSR
After 1917 the best traditions in this field of study continued and were carried forward by Soviet archaeological scholarship. Surveys and excavations followed one another over all the different parts of the Caucasus: Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kabardia, and Osetia. Almost all the important archaeological areas of the Caucasus underwent careful study. The history of the ancient cultures and early class societies of the Caucasus has been revealed in exceptionally sharp outlines and allotted an important part in world history.
Urartu was a powerful slave-holding state of the ancient east lying in the central part of Hither Asia on the Armenian foothills in the basin of Lake Van, and was formed in the middle of the ninth century B.C. (Fig. 20).
The warrior king Argistis (778-750 B. C.) constructed the fort Argistikhinili (west of Erevan) in the first half of the eighth century B. C. Remains of fortifications and inscriptions have been found there. The latter refer to administrative and economic regulations and one tablet mentions the construction of the strongly fortified town of Irepuni [Erebuni]. Its site was not identified unti1 1950. Then, during reconstruction work on an ancient fort on the southern edge of Erevan, two stones with cuneiform inscriptions came to light. On one was the following text: 'To the glory of the god Khaldis, Argistis, son of Menuas, who built this [209] strong fort, completed and called the town Irepuni, to strengthen the land of Biainas and to terrify enemy countries. ..' Trial excavations on the site established that there had been a large building of the palace type there, recalling the Assyrian palaces.
The citadel on Karmir-Blur was built by King Rusas, who lived in the middle of the eighth century B.C. and was the son of Argistis. It was possible to identify the town by the find of a cuneiform inscription on a bronze door bolt found in the excavations, which read: 'Of Rusas, son of Argistis, the fort' ('house of arms') 'of the town of Teisbaini.'
The whole hill of Karmir-Blur was occupied by one enormous building covering about 4 hectares (10 acres) and consisting of no fewer than 120 rooms. The northern and eastern facades of the building were tiered and divided up by a large number of turrets. There were massive towers at the corners. The walls, built with excessive attention to durability, were of large sun- dried bricks of clay mixed with straw, and in the lower part (up to 2 m.) of huge, roughly dressed stones. The rooms were very high, up to 10 m., and were usually elongated, up to 30 m. long, but not more than 4 m. broad. The flat ceilings were made of beams of fir, poplar, or oak. The whole building had a monumental tiered appearance, the central part being higher than the sides and the windows of one tier looking down on to the roof of the tier below. This building was the palace of the king of Urartu's governor.
In the excavated rooms that had been used for storage the remains of food stores were found: barley, wheat, millet, sesame, beans, and lentils. Remains of bread were also found made of millet meal, and pots in which malt was prepared to [210] make beer. Three large rooms were discovered built for making and storing sesame oil which adjoined two storehouses containing 152 large vessels for storing wine (Pl. 12).
In the excavations at Karmir-Blur first-class examples of Urartian art have come to light. The best of them was the helmet of King Argistis, found in 1950. The helmet is of bronze with chased decoration. On the front side there are eleven sacred trees arranged in two rows, and by each tree stands a winged god in a horned helmet. These are overlooked by long- necked dragons with lions' heads, four monsters set on each side. The monsters have a magical significance: protection from evil forces. The back part of the helmet is decorated by two rows of war chariots and horsemen, the latter holding in their hands small circular shields and javelins. On the lower is engraved the short inscription reading: 'Argistis, son of Menuas, presented this helmet to the God Khaldis, his Lord.' Earlier, in 1947, a second such helmet was found on which there was an inscription of King Sarduris, son of Argistis, stating that it had been given by the king of Urartu to the temple of his god (Fig. 21).
In 1953 a bronze shield of King Sarduris was found decorated with drawings of lions and oxen set out in three concentric bands. On the edge there was a cuneiform inscription.
Amongst artistic productions the bronze figure of the god of war and storm, Teisbas, is interesting for the town, Teisbaini, was named in his honour. The statue shows the god in a [212] headdress decorated with horns holding a mace and battle-axe. Urartian art is similar to the Assyrian in style.
During the excavations of the citadel at Teisbaini many bronze vessels were found, richly ornamented cups, goblets, and so on. In 1949 in one of the jars in the wine store ninety-seven bronze feasting cups placed inside one another were found. At the centre of each cup the name of a Urartian king was inscribed, and sometimes there was a drawing of a fortified tower with a tree and a lion's head below it.
The excavations at the city of Teisbaini have given information about the relations of its inhabitants with neighbouring countries. In the palace seals and beads of Assyrian origin were found, amulets with Egyptian hieroglyphs, gold ear-rings from the Mediterranean, and so on.
An older settlement lay by the edge of the ravine of the river Zanga to the west and south of the citadel. Urartian warriors with their families, numerous artisans doing the extra work necessary to pay the large tribute exacted from Teisbaini, and also farmers working in the fields and gardens belonging to the state lived here. They all lived on state allowances and had no private livelihood to support themselves. So in the excavated houses there are no rooms for the storing of food, or cattle sheds. The houses were built of roughly dressed stone and usually consisted of three rooms communicating with each other by narrow doorways with raised thresholds. The roofs were flat and supported by vertical posts. The main room in the house was lit by a hole in the ceiling which also served as a chimney, while the secondary rooms were lit through the doorway and were half dark. The whole town consisted of such houses adjoining one another over an area in which three straight streets about 6 m. wide were visible with one intersecting street. The settlement was surrounded by a strong stone wall joining the bends of the river to the fortified citadel.
The Urartian administration centre in Transcaucasia, the 'city of the god Teisbas' fell in the early sixth century B. C. under the blows of the Scythians. The circumstances of the destruction of the fort have been established even to the smallest details by archaeological excavation, and are described by the director of the excavations B. B. Piotrovsky in the following way: [213]
The siege of Teisbaini, judged from thc condition of the food stores in the houses of the besieged (full grain pits, small vessels with grain), was short. By a decisive attack carried out suddenly by night in the first half of August the Scythians seized the citadel and destroyed it.After the destruction of the town at Teisbaini life was not renewed. The excavations at the site are continuing and are giving a whole mass of interesting material.Before the attack the citadel was subjected to a barrage from the direction of the side gates and bombarded with burning objects. The temporary houses in the courtyard of the citadel caught alight, and their roofs, constructed only of branches and twigs, collapsed and covered everything inside as if the real storming had begun. The inhabitants, only succeeded in escaping from under the burning roofs and were not able to retrieve anything. The finds in these temporary houses have made it possible to establish the time of the year when the destruction of the fort took place. The wheat had been harvested but the grapes were not ripe, and in a surviving tuft of grass the flowers were those of the end of July and first half of August. During the attack the Scythians set light to the citadel and the wooden roofs of the rooms were reduced to ashes. The Scythians dug into the burning storehouse and in the midst of the fire tried successfully to retrieve booty. In the blinding smoke they rushed to the storage jars, looked into them, and believing them empty stopped further search there. However, if they had been able to look less hastily and more carefully at all the jars, they would have found valuable objects. The plunderers ransacked the temple treasure-house, but various objects were hidden at the bottom of the jars in its store-rooms. The Scythians would have found here ninety-seven bronze cups, shields, a helmet, and quivers.
In 585 B. C. , while the Scythians were sacking the northern administrative centres of Urartu, the Medes were taking possession of its central area, and so passed the oldest state impinging on the territory of the modern,USSR. After its collapse, the Transcaucasian tribes formerly subordinated to Urartu emerged as the peoples of Armenia and Georgia.
The temple at Garni is the best surviving classical temple in the Soviet Union. It is a rectangular building surrounded on all sides by an open peristyle of twenty-four Ionic columns. Soviet workers who have thoroughly studied the material of the excavations have been able to make a reconstruction of the building and to date it. Most scholars favour the view that the temple [215] was erected by King Tiridates I in the first century A. D. In 1945 a Greek inscription of this king was found at Garni in which the construction of a fort was mentioned. Excavations have continued since 1949. and the defensive wall has been cleared and a cemetery excavated. Within the fort six layers have been distinguished: one eneolithic, one Bronze-Age, one classical, and three medieval. The entry into the fort was defended by two strong rectangular towers. The towers and the whole of the fort wall are built of huge basalt blocks (weighing 5-6 tons) fastened together by iron clamps whose ends were turned in and fitted into special sockets filled with lead. Three hundred and fourteen metres of the wall have been excavated, and fourteen strong rectangular towers were found, spaced at 10-13 m. intervals. In its time the fort must have been almost impregnable.
The excavation of the cemetery showed that the majority of burials were of the native Armenian population with only a small number of Roman soldiers.
In 1953 near the temple a small room was found which evidently belonged to the palace complex. The floor was decorated with a splendid mosaic showing mythological figures of the Hellenistic world. In the centre were Oceanus and Talos, on the side nymphs, Thetida and others. This mosaic belongs to the first century A. D., and is the first find of a Hellenistic mosaic in Transcaucasia. Among the Armenian aristocracy and urban population the influence of Greco-Roman culture was strong. The remains of the material culture of ancient Armenia possess the same general features as Hellenistic remains in other countries, but are distinguished by certain characteristics peculiar to them alone.
The excavations of the temple at Garni have revealed a fairly high level of culture in ancient Armenia in the fields of structural techniques, metal-working. pottery- and glass-making, and textile crafts. The fort and settlement survived into the Middle Ages. Excavations are giving valuable material on the history and culture of Armenia right up to the Late Medieval Period.
The study of medieval remains in Armenia has been uneven. The history of the period has been interpreted through abundant written sources, but these give little information about economic life, the manner of living of the population, and the [216] material culture. Excavations of medieval sites should fill in this gap.
Dvin was a very large politico-administrative and cultural centre of medieval Armenia for almost a thousand years, from the beginning of the fourth to the middle of the thirteenth centuries A. D. Armenian historians of the fifth century record that Dvin was founded in the first half of the previous century. Through the fifth and sixth centuries, owing to favourable historical circumstances, the town flourished and became a large trade and craft centre. During this period the town walls and a number of monumental ecclesiastical and secular buildings were erected. In the middle of the seventh century Armenia fell under the control of the Arabs, and they held it for 250 years. In this period, grievous for the country, Dvin became the capital of the Arab rulers and retained some of its economic importance, although it suffered a sharp decline. From the middle of the ninth century the Arab caliphate began to decay, and the struggle of the Armenian people for independence and freedom concluded with the birth of an Armenian state. A growth in the economy and culture is now observed. After experiencing a severe earthquake in 893 Dvin flourished again. Its growth continued until the middle of the eleventh century, but in the first half of the tenth century a new capital had arisen, the city of Ani. Dvin gradually yielded its first place, and as a result of raids by Turkic tribes ceased to exist in 1236.
The ruins of Dvin lie on the modern hill of Toprakh-kala and excavations have shown that this hill had a very long history. The earliest settlement here was at the end of the third millennium B.C. during the Eneolithic Period. The place was settled also in later times including the Urartian period. In classical times the hill was converted into a fortress, but it was only when, in the thirties of the fourth century A.D., Dvin became the capital of Armenia that its history began as a trading and manufacturing town and not a mere village.
[217] Excavations have revealed a series of important buildings. In the upper town the ruins of palace buildings of Armenian rulers of the ninth to thirteenth centuries A. D. have been found. Below these ruins at a considerable depth (up to 8 m.) the remains of other palace buildings of the fifth to ninth centuries have been found. In the central part of the town the main church measuring 58 by 26 m., the palace of the Catholicos (archbishop) [head of the church], part of the fort wall and its gates, the water supply, a smithy, storage buildings, and wine cellars were discovered. In the upper town and lower fort, houses and a princely hall, baths, a workshop for making pottery and faience objects, and others for cloth and jewellery were found.
The most interesting find was the cathedral. It was built in the third century A. D. as a pagan temple, and was converted into a Christian church at the beginning of the fourth century. From then on it underwent alterations in conformity with the changing styles of Armenian architecture until 893, when it was completely destroyed in the earthquake. To the north-west of the cathedral lay the palace of the Catholicos built in A.D. 461 or 485. This palace consisted of three ranges, of which the northern and southern were subdivided into small rooms, while the middle range consisted of a spacious aisled hall divided into bays by four pairs of columns.
Numerous iron objects were found in the excavation such as ploughshares, spades, axes, adzes, and so on. Jewellery-making had reached a high level. Gold objects were widely exported to other countries. The best quality pottery of Dvin is distinguished by the exceptional variety of form and decoration. Many glazed pots with decorations of animals and stamped patterns were found, as well as faience objects, for the most part white, sometimes blue or greenish monochrome cups. Valuable faience dishes were made, with fantastic animals drawn under the glaze. Several kilns, including one for the baking of high-quality pottery, were found. The glazed pottery from Dvin belongs to the eleventh to thirteenth centuries (Pl.13a) and is
[218] Besides locally manufactured pottery, first-class examples of faience imported from the east have been found. About 600 coins (several hundred in hoards) from Byzantine, Sassanian, and Arab rulers as well as those of the local Arab emir have come to light.
The excavations at Dvin, one of the largest centres of medieval Armenia, have made it possible to study the material culture of the fourth to tenth centuries, previously little known, as well as that of the tenth to thirteenth centuries, partly known already thanks to the excavations at Ani (about 150 km. north-west of Erevan), capital and real cultural centre of Armenia at that time. There had been extensive excavations on the latter site in pre-Revolutionary times.
Besides religious and domestic buildings, baths, two reservoirs, and a water main were found in the fort. The twelfth-century baths consisted of two little rooms beneath cupolas which had circular apertures. The floor of each room was paved with stone flags resting on stone pillars. The area beneath the flags was for heating supplied from a third small room in which the water was heated. The smoke and hot air from the furnace circulated beneath the flags and found their escape from these through thick clay pipes placed in each corner of the rooms under a stone facing. The walls were built of dressed stone and covered by polished impermeable plaster. Water entered the bath through iron pipes. In a small annexe to the bath-house, the furnaceman's quarters, various toilet articles were found, including three massive bronze mortars for grinding aromatics, [219] censers, and other objects normal in the bath of a rich oriental feudal lord.
Under the floor of one of the rooms the grave of a jester was found, a terribly deformed man. His face had been altered by a special operation so that it was perpetually laughing. The jester was buried with a cockerel, the invariable companion of jesters in the east and the west.
A great quantity of architectural fragments was found in Anberd decorated with reliefs, as well as numerous glazed clay objects (many of which were found in the castle) with paintings beneath the glaze. Many things turned up which had undoubtedly been imported from eastern countries, for example a Chinese vessel, and from the south, including Egyptian or Syrian painted glass.
In Armenia numerous architectural monuments have survived to the present day. They are the work of remarkable
artists who created their own style. The investigation of these
sites will help us to understand more fully and clearly the
artistic side of the medieval culture of Armenia.
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