Archaeologists discovered children’s skeletons at Artanish excavation site

Panorama, Armenia
March 9 2020
Culture 18:53 09/03/2020Armenia

Human remains unearthed in June 2019 at Artanish archaeological site are kept at the stores of Armenian “Service for the protection of historical environment and cultural museum-reservations” SNCO. As Panorama.am learnt from the press service of the SNCO, the excavations were conducted jointly with RA NAS Archaeology and Ethnography and Geological Institutes.

The group excavated two two burial chambers – one of which was a mass burial site. Anthropologist Hasmik Simonyan, member of the excavation group, informed that the mass grave site was of particular significance where around 30 human skeletons were discovered.

Anthropological remains dating back to 7-6 BC contain also children’s skeletons. In Simonyan’s words, one of the skull comprising of 30 fragments has been recovered. 14 skulls were partly recovered, three of which belonged to children.

As the Anthropologist added, the follow-up discussions will spread light on the excavated site of the mausoleum, specifically the gender and age details of the human remains as well as the burial ritual. The excavation group plans to resume the works in Artanish this year.