New data on the construction and meaning of the Shengavit settlement wall

Authors

  • Hakob Simonyan
  • Mitchell S Rothman

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32028/ajnes.v16i1-2.1841

Keywords:

Armenian Highland, Shengavit settlement, Kura-Araxes Culture, date and details of settlement wall, evolution of complexity

Abstract

Shengavit is a site of the Kura-Araxes cultural tradition, which radiocarbon dates and pottery style indicate spans its second phase, the KA2, from 2900 to 2500 BC. It also documents the transition to the Early Kurgan Period. The six-hectare site gives indications that it was a center for this time and place. Unlike the societies of the KA1 of 3500-3000 BC, we recovered evidence of the development of increased societal complexity while retaining an egalitarian symbolism. One of these signs is the construction of a massive stone wall with watchtowers, which we think surrounded the top of a bluff over the Hrazdan River. The effort needed to plan and recruit the labor to construct this wall, along with a profusion of large grain storage pits greater in volume than needed by residents of the site, point to the origin of some coordination mechanisms at the site. Still, some have questioned the Kura-Araxes date for the settlement wall. We discuss these issues and present new findings about the wall in this contribution, made in honor of Ruben Badalyan, who himself has done so much to promote our knowledge of the Kura-Araxes in Armenia.

References

Abraham kat‘ołikos Kretac‘i 1870. Abraham kat‘ołikosi Kretac‘woy Patmagrut‘iwn anc‘ic‘n iwroc‘ ew Natr-Šahin parsic‘ (The Chronicle of Abraham of Crete). Vałaršapat: tp. S. Eǰmiacni (in Armenian).

Ajithprasad, R. The Harappan/Indus Urbanism and Gujarat, Western India. Scoieties https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqigQxA0FW7HDNrhF4Px4Qw/videos?view=0&sort=dd&shelf_id=0

Areshian, G. 2007. From extended families to incipient polities: The trajectory of social complexity in the Early Bronze Age of the Ararat Plain, in: Popova et al. 2007: 26-54.

Avetisyan, P. 2008. Recently found archaeological site of Armenia (Agarak). AJNES 3/2: 39-50.

Badalyan, R. 2014. Kura-Araxes complex – on the status of the cultural phenomenon (new data and former issues of periodization and chronology of Early Bronze Age materials in Armenia. Paléorient 40/2: 7192.

Batiuk, S., Rothman, M.S, Samei, S., Hovsepyan, R. 2022. Unravelling the Kura-Araxes Cultural Tradition across space and time. ANES 59: 235-349.

Bayburtyan, Y.E. 2011. Posledovatel’nost’ drevnejšix kul’tur Armenii na osnovanii arxeologičeskogo materiala (Sequence of Archaeological Cultures of Armenia based on Archaeological Materials). Yerevan: Muzej Istorii Armenii (in Russian).

Crabtree, P., Piro, J. The animal remains from Shengavit. in: Simonyan, Rothman forthcoming.

Greenberg, R. 2019. The Archaeology of the Bronze Age Levant. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Khanzadyan, E.V. 1967. Haykakan leṙnašxarhi mšakuyt‘ǝ m.t‘.a. III hazaramyakum (The Culture of the Armenian Highland in the III Millennium BC). Yerevan: Haykakan SSH GA hratarakč‘ut‘yun (in Armenian).

Kohl, P. 2007. The Making of Bronze Age Eurasia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kunze, R., Bobokhyan, A., Pernicka, E., Meliksetian, Kh. 2013. Investigations of the cultural landscape around the Sotk prehistoric gold-working region, in: Archaeology in Armenia II Cooperation Projects in 2011 and 2012 – Preliminary Reports and additional selected Studies: 55-86. Halle: Saale.

Kushnareva, K.Kh. 1993. Južnyj Kavkaz v IX-II tys. do n.é. Étapy kul’turnogo i social’no-ékonomičeskogo razvitija (Southern Caucasus in the IX-II Millennia BC. Stages of Cultural and Socio-Economic Developments). Sankt-Peterburg: Peterburgskoe Vostokovedenie (in Russian).

Kushnareva, K.Kh. 1997. Rannie kompleksnye obščestva Južnogo Kavkaza (Early complex societies of Southern Caucasus), in: Masson 1997: 11-43 (in Russian).

Lyonnet, B. 2014. The Early Bronze Age in Azerbaijan in the light of recent discoveries. Paléorient 40/2: 115-130.

Manzanilla, L., Rothman, M.S (eds) 2016. Storage in Ancient Complex Societies. New York: Routledge.

Masson, V.M. (ed.) 1997. Drevnie obščestva Kavkaza v époxu paleometalla (rannie kompleksnye obščestva i voprosy kul’turnoj transformacii) /(Caucasian Ancient Societies in the Paleometal Epoch: Early complex societies and the questions of cultural transformation)/). St.-Petersburg: Institut istorii material’noj kul’tury RAN (in Russian).

Melkonyan, A., Minasyan, E., Simonyan, H. (eds) 2018. Yerevan 5. Gitakan hodvacneri žołovacu (Yerevan 5. Collection of Scientific Papers). Yerevan (in Armenian).

Milevski, I., Braun, E., Varga, D., Israel, Y. 2016. On some possible implications of a newly discovered Early Bronze Age, large-scale silo complex at Amaziya, Nahal Lachish (Israel), in: Manzanilla, Rothman 2016: 61-84.

Popova, L.M., Hartley, C.W., Smith, A.T. (eds) 2007. Social Orders and Social Landscapes. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press.

Possehl, G. 2002. The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective. Walnut Creek: CA: Alta Mira Press.

Rothman, M.S. The pottery, in: Simonyan, Rothman forthcoming.

Sagona, A. 2018. The Archaeology of the Caucasus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sardaryan, S.H. 1967. Naxnadaryan hasarakut‘yunǝ Hayastanum (Primitive Society in Armenia). Yerevan: Publishing House ‘Mitk’.

Sardaryan, S.H. 2004. Hayastanǝ k‘ałak‘akrt‘ut‘yan orran (Armenia - Cradle of Civilization). Yerevan: Yerevan University Press (in Armenian).

Shahaziz, Y. 2003 (1931). Hin Erevan (Old Yerevan). Yerevan: Publishing house ‘Mughni’ (in Armenian).

Simonyan, H.E. 2013. Šengavit‘: šark‘ayin bnakavayr, t‘e vał k‘ałak‘ (Shengavit – an ordinary settlement of an early city?). Hushardzan (Monument) 8: 5-53 (in Armenian).

Simonyan, H.E. 2015. The archaeological site of Shengavit: An ancient town in the Armenian Highland. Fundamental Armenology 1: 134-168.

Simonyan, H. 2018. Šengavit‘: Yerevani hnaguyn k‘ałak‘atełin (The oldest settlement of Yerevan), in: Melkonyan et al. 2018: 3-13 (in Armenian).

Simonyan, H., Rothman, M. 2015. Regarding ritual behaviour at Shengavit. ANES 52: 1-45.

Simonyan, H., Rothman, M.S (eds). Shengavit: A Kura-Araxes Center in Armenia. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Press (forthcoming).

Simonyan, H., Rothman, M.S. Shengavit from Kura-Araxes to Early Kurgan. Araxes forthcoming.

Smith, A.T. 2005. Prometheus unbound: Southern Caucasia in prehistory. JWP 19: 229-279.

Tumanyan, G.S. 2012. Agarak I. Vałbronzedaryan bnakavayrǝ (2001-2008 t‘t‘.) /(Agarak I. Early Bronze Age settlement (2001-2008)/). (Archaeological Excavations in Armenia 25). Yerevan: Publishing House ‘Gitutyun’ NAS RA (in Armenian).

Yesayan, S.A. 1969. Erevan. Arxeologičeskij očerk (Yerevan. Archaeological Features). Yerevan: Publishing House ‘Hayastan’ (in Russian).

Published

31/12/2022

How to Cite

Simonyan, H., & Rothman, M. S. (2022). New data on the construction and meaning of the Shengavit settlement wall. ARAMAZD: Armenian Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 16(1-2), 406–428. https://doi.org/10.32028/ajnes.v16i1-2.1841

Similar Articles

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.