EXCAVATIONS OF TIGRANAKERT IN ARTSAKH CONTINUE

Lragir.am
08-06-2007 15:43:05

The Yerkir Union of NGOs initiated and funds the expedition of the
Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Armenian Academy of
Sciences to Artsakh which resumed on May 18, 2007 the excavations
of Tigranakert, a town founded by the Armenian King Tigran Great in
the first century BC in Artsakh. The expedition is led by Dr. Hamlet
Petrosyan.

On the first days of the excavations on the left bank of the Khachen
River, the mountain near the village of Nor Maragha, the archeologists
discovered a fragment of the 3.5 meters wide wall, built of large
pieces of stone, the gate of the fortress and the remains of the
tower built on the edge of the rock. The length of the wall is 20
meters. The archeologists suggest that the fortress had been built
earlier than the town funded by Tigran Great, possibly in the period
of the Kingdom of Urartu (8-7 centuries BC) or under the Armenian
Yervanduni kings (6-4 centuries BC).

This year the excavations of Tigranakert will last until August 15.

The project of historical and archeological study of Tigranakert
was launched by the Yerkir Union in 2005. In the first year of the
project the exact location of the town was discovered, in 2006 the
archeologists started digging in different parts of the town and
around the town, revealing part of the wall of the citadel, part of
a dam and part of the central part of the town with remains of an
early Christian basilica.