Agarak ( hy, Ագարակ) is a village in the

Aragatsotn Province Aragatsotn ( hy, Արագածոտն, ) is a province ('' marz'') of Armenia. It is located in the western part of the country. The capital and largest city of the province is the town of Ashtarak. The Statistical Committee of Armenia reported ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

. It is located on Amberd River. The modern settlement was founded mainly by emigrants from Van, Gavash and

Bitlis Bitlis ( hy, Բաղեշ '; ku, Bidlîs; ota, بتليس) is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Bitlis Province. The city is located at an elevation of 1,545 metres, 15 km from Lake Van, in the steep-sided valley of the Bitlis R ...

. In 1897 the population of Agarak was 603, which by 1979 had reached 1150.

Archaeology

The archaeological site of Agarak is located south of the highway on the west side of the Amberd Canyon. A dirt road leads from the village sign to the south on the mound. The site contains some of the oldest large man-made structures carved into stone, dating to the Early Bronze Age ('Agarak 1' dated 3400 BC). This is the earliest in the Caucasus. Rock wells, rock-cut stairways, corridors, and horseshoe-shaped structures are found. The Early Bronze Age culture area covers 200 hectares, of which 118 hectares were declared a protected zone. In the early Bronze Age, here already existed a town with a regular street plan. A possible ancient astronomical observatory is found here. The Early Bronze Age site is surrounded by walls; they are up to one meter thick and were made of sun-dried mud-brick. Agarak expedition 002

A large quantity of potsherds, as well as many round portable clay fireplaces, represent the Kura-Araxes culture; they are dated to 29th-27th century BC, and are similar to Shengavit type pottery. The findings show a continuous settlement up to the end of the early Iron Age (9th century), and then to the fall of the Urartian Empire in the 6th century BC. In 4th century BC, Agarak became an urban center due to its location on the Aras Valley trade route. This is demonstrated by the discovery in burials of coins, as well as of signet rings from the

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

and

Roman period The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

s. Based on some potsherd finds, Agarak was a village-level settlement in the early Middle Ages. There was also some sparse occupation during the 17th-18th centuries. There are ruins of an Astvatsatsin church of the 5-6th century and it's added on *gavit* of the 10-13th century, ruins of a 10th century church of Amenaprkich (also known as Tukh Manuk) and the ruins of a 17th century mosqueՀայաստանի պատմության և մշակույթի անշարժ հուշարձանների ցանկ.

Notes

References

*
Report of the results of the 2001 Armenian Census
*Kiesling, ''Rediscovering Armenia'', p. 16, available online at th
US embassy to Armenia's website
{{Authority control Populated places in Aragatsotn Province Kura-Araxes culture Archaeological sites in Armenia

Archaeology

See also

Notes

References