Dvin Ancient City

🔍 Research history

The study of the ancient site began in the XIX century. The town site was studied by the official of the Caucasus Governor’s office, Tokarev in 1850; exploratory excavations were carried out by N. Mar in 1899, and by Reverend Khachik Dadyan in 1904-1907. Regular excavations began in 1937-1939 (S. Ter-Avetisyan) and continued after the 1946 Second World War under K. Ghafadaryan’s leadership. Since 1977, the excavations were led by A. Kalantaryan, since 2010 by H. Melkonyan, and now the excavations are carried out by the Armenian-Italian expedition under the leadership of H. Petrosyan. The remains of the religious and secular architectural buildings of the city’s citadel area and the central district were explored and discovered during decades of excavations. Various fossil materials are mainly preserved in the History Museum of Armenia.

🧱 Archaeological description

Location
It is located in Hnaberd village in the Ararat province, about 30 km south of Yerevan. It is included in the list of Hnaberd history and culture immovable monuments.

Stratigraphy
Dvin, one of the capitals of medieval Armenia, major administrative, political, defense, trade, economic and cultural center of the country for about a thousand years (IV-XIII centuries), is located in the northern part of the Ararat valley, at the southern foot of the Geghama mountain range, on the left side of the Azat River hill flowing there at that time, and on the territory adjacent to it. Due to its naturally suitable position in terms of defense, surrounding irrigated and fertile lands, the Dvin hill and its surroundings, were inhabited as early as in the III millennium BC. The city was founded in the in the 1930s of the IV century, in the Vostan province of Ayrarat province of Greater Armenia, when Armenian king Khosrov II Kotak moved the court of the Arshakunis from Artashat to Dvin (the province was named Vostan Dvno after the city). The Catholicos seat was also moved from Vagharshapat to Dvin in 470 or 471. After the fall of the Arshakunis (428 AD), Dvin was the major political, economic, educational and cultural center of Marzpan Armenia. The city was repeatedly attacked and destroyed by foreign conquerors. 640 Arab troops occupied Dwin, sacked and destroyed it, killed 12,000 and captured 35,000 inhabitants. Attacks by the Arab troops continued later. At the end of the VIII century, when Dvin became the center of the Arab Caliphate’s Armenian unification, many Armenians left the city and its vicinity as a result of the harsh tax policy of the Arabs. After the establishment of the power of the Bagratunis (862) and the reestablishment of Armenia’s independence (885), Dvin experienced a great economic boom again. At the beginning of the XI century, late-XII century, the city gradually lost its role affected by the frequent raids of foreign tribes and neighboring authorities, as well as the migration of Dvin craftsmen and merchants to Ani. In 1203 the city was liberated by the joint Armenian-Georgian troops under the leadership of the Zakarian princes. As a result of the invasion by Shah Jalal Ed Din of Khorezm in 1225 and the Mongol-Tatar invasion in 1236, Dvin was finally destroyed. In the following centuries, several villages appeared on the territory of the city. During its existence, the city developed and expanded along the course of the river to the south, and now the traces of its city walls and archaeological cultural layers can be seen on several hundred hectares in the present-day Ararat province, Dvin, Verin Dvin, Verin Artashat, Norashen, Berdik, Hnaberd, Aygestan developed and cultivated lands of villages.

Architecture
Dvin had a densely built-up, three-part plan structure consisting of a citadel, the city itself (shahstan) and suburbs. The top of the hill was occupied by the citadel, protected from the outside by a moat and surrounded by double strong walls. The city itself, spread around the citadel and was surrounded by strong walls.

Citadel
When the city was founded, only the top of the hill was fenced, covering an area of 0.5 ha, where the palace and administrative structures of the Arshakunis and all the subsequent eras were built. Later, caused by the need to expand the citadel, the entire hill was fenced along its foothills and partially included a part of the northern plain as well. This enclosure had at least 44 semi-circular pyramids in plan, the ruins of which have been preserved in the form of 5-6 m high mounds. The corner entrances, where probably the gates were, had the largest diameter. The lower parts of the walls are lined with undressed stone about 1 m high, the upper parts-with raw brick and externally faced with a single course of fired brick. The citadel was surrounded by a ditch dug parallel to the outside of the wall on all sides and was filled with water. On the western side, the so-called central district spread, the spiritual center of the city, which had its own wall by a gate to the citadel and communicated with it by a bridge over the moat. As a result of the excavations, the water pipelines leading to the central district were also opened in that area. Archaeological excavations in Dvin revealed a number of structures of great historical and architectural value, among which are: 

1. St. Grigor Kathoghike Church 
2. The single-nave church
3. The first palace of the Catholicos
4. The residential complex next to the first palace of the Catholicos
5. The Second Catholic Palace
6. The throne hall of the citadel
7. The big city market.

St. Grigor Kathoghike Church was built in the eastern part of the central district, not far from the entrance to the citadel. According to the historical sources and construction stratigraphy, it was founded either at the end of the IV century or beginning of the V century. The plan and spatial changes made during its existence are clearly visible in the structure. In its original form, it was a three-nave basilica with a semicircular interior, a heptagonal eastern apse, and repositories on both sides. As a result of the subsequent reconstructions (VII century), the church was transformed into a domed basilica with four powerful facades built symmetrically around the central part of the prayer hall. Later, semi-circular apses on the inside and multi-pillared lateral ones on the outside were added to the northern and southern outer walls of the structure, further expanding the inner area of the temple. The building material for the reconstruction was entirely the local gray and reddish hewn tuff.

The church was standing until the 894 earthquake, which completely destroyed it and it was never recovered. There are citations of historians, prominent construction stratigraphic facts and research notes that the Katoghike Church was built on the site of a pagan temple, the foundation walls and building materials of which were partially used during the construction of the new structure. 

The single-nave church was built about 20 m north of the Katoghike church, at the end of the V century or beginning of the VI century. It is a rectangular vaulted hall with external dimensions of 24.5 x 10.7 m, with three pairs of vaulted pillars. Currently, the main walls of the single-nave church have been preserved, and in some places only the lower parts of the facade and pillars. Judging by the construction fragments found on the site and the poor remains of the walls, the church can be assumed to be built of hemlocked gray-reddish tuff; it had a gable roof and a two-pitched tiled roof.

V century Catholicos Palace:

Excavations in the central district of Dvin revealed two Catholic palaces belonging to different times. The first one was built in 470-480s, when the residence of the Catholicos was moved from Vagharshapat to Dvin; the second one, after its destruction, in the second decade of the VII century, about 20 m soutwest of the Katoghike Church. The fictitious core of the first Catholic palace is the 21.7 x 12.2 m pillared, three-nave ceremonial hall with two large rooms connected to it from the eastern side. Later, a few ancillary rooms were added to the south, and to the west, a four-pillared hall with a roughly square plan, with sides equal to the width of the previous one.

All of the great hall: 3 pairs of truncated tuff grid-shaped columns with a base of 1.08 x 1.08 m and a height of 0.7 m, raw brick walls with a stone foundation, a height of 0.5-1.5 m and a thickness of 1.5 m. The floor and walls are plastered with clay mortar. The lower parts of the 5 door openings connecting the hall to the outside and adjoining rooms were also discovered: two each in the northern and eastern walls of the hall and one in the southern corner of the western wall. The large size of the pillars indicates that the pillars, now not preserved, with a diameter of about 0.8 m, were also made of stone.

The cover was a wooden structure, the burnt remains of which were found during excavations. It probably had a traditional “Hazarashen” type of structure with stilt lighting. In the 60’s of the VI century  the Persian governor of Armenia, who had made the Catholicos palace his residence, placed an atrushan (fire place) in a small hall and turned it into a heathen temple (the remains of the atrushan were discovered as a result of excavations). A few years later, in the 70s of the VI century, Armenian rebels completely inflamed and destroyed this desecrated structure, which has never been restored.

The VII century Catholicos Palace was built on the northern side of the Katoghike Church, west of the nave church. It dates back to the beginning of the VII century. It had an approximately square regular rectangular plan with external dimensions of 32.0 x 29.3 m, with the north-eastern corner room extended 3.0 meters to the east during later reconstruction. It underwent a number of other internal transformations as well during its existence.

Originally, the structure had a cruciform composition inscribed in an external square plan, with 4 large corner rooms symmetrically inserted between the adjacent cross arms.

The wooden roof rested on the sidewalls and 4 pairs of tufa-made columns, of which the 0.8 m base torus-shaped anchors and a decorative capital have been preserved. The entrances were with cross-wing axes in the center of the southern and western facades. The hall lighting could have undoubtedly been only from the garret, which probably had a traditional hazarashen structure. Shinakar is a fine-grained tuff bound with lime mortar. The internal reconstructions of the palace were probably done in the 40s of the VII century, after the devastation caused by the Arabs. The four corner rooms were divided into 2 equal parts by stone partitions. In the same way, the northern cross wing was separated and turned into a room. At the beginning of the X century the Arabs transformed the already dilapidated palace into a mosque. The column anchors were placed in the gables with baked brickwork, smaller, probably, arched columns were placed between them (the anchors were preserved in place), the floor was also bricked. Fragments of plaster with ornaments and Arabic inscriptions have also been preserved from this last construction period.

The three-nave hall of the citadel was excavated on the eastern edge of the relatively flat hilltop. It is an isolated, rectangular-planned three-nave hall with an east-west orientation, with internal dimensions of about 23.0 x 12.5 m, and four pairs of intermediary wooden columns supporting the tiled wooden roof. The modern three-nave Katoghike Church is one of the ancient structures of the capital. The layer immediately preceding the throne hall belongs to the ancient era, of which fragments of dense residential construction and architectural fragments have been preserved. 

The structure was likely to have undergone an internal radical reconstruction at least once within its existence, possibly in the VI-VIII centuries. One of the eight tufa-cut and sculptured colonnades has been preserved in a displaced state. 

The western wall of the hall half remained under the crude brick wall of a later VIII century Arab palace: during its construction this part of the hall floor was demolished and deepened with the two end piers. A semi-circular platform built of stone and mortar, measuring about 3.0 x 3.0 m and two steps above the floor, was discovered along its longitudinal axis and between two opposite columns, roughly in the center of the hall, which was originally interpreted as a throne pedestal. The hall was named the Throne Hall of the Arshakunis for this reason. However, as a result of the subsequent excavations, another hypothesis was put forward stating that it is one of the earliest churches with features of the Armenian-Syrian architectural relations.

The big market of the city was discovered by excavations about 800m away from the citadel, in the south-eastern plain part of the city. It is a huge multi-columned hall with a rectangular floor plan, about 1200 sq.m. area (40 x 30 m)  and a wooden roof resting on the outer walls and 36 tufa-made massive intermediary columns. The latters are placed in 9 regular rows in the longitudinal direction and 4 in the transverse direction. The perimeter walls of the building are completely destroyed. Fragments of a tuff-tiled floor, torus-shaped column supports (mostly dislodged), fragments of stone columns, and high-art sculptured capitals have been preserved. Based on the study of these architectural details, the structure can be dated to the V-VI centuries. According to the chronology of the archaeological findings, the building was destroyed in 893 caused by an extensive earthquake and was rebuilt in the X century. During the reconstruction, the stone columns and floor slabs were replaced with fired brick structures.

The building was probably completely destroyed during the destruction of the city in the middle of the XIII century. 

Administrative buildings, bridges, squares, caravanserais, hotels, stalls, and bathhouses were also found in different parts of Dvin city. It had a water supply system, springs.

🔨 Findings

Due to the long-term excavations, structure remains of significant historical-architectural value were found in the ancient site. During the excavations of the citadel and the central district, many archaeological values belonging to the bronze and early iron ages (pottery, idols, etc.) were discovered in the lower cultural layers. The preserved foundations of the monumental structures belonging to the antiquity era and architectural fragments partially used in the composition of the early Christian structures particularly stand out. The central market of the international trade was found in one of the southern districts of the city. In different parts of the city, large piles of broken objects from a potter’s workshop, a pagan burial ground with fragments of stone statues and sculptures were found. The slag masses found during the excavations indicate that Dvin also had an iron foundry, where they made weapons (arrows, spears, darts, daggers, swords), a large number of economic and construction iron items (chains, adzes, axes, scissors, bathroom water pipes). Coppersmithing was one of the crafts developed in Dvin. Various sizes of pots, jugs, bowls, olive lamps, ornaments (almost all with carved patterns, animal-shaped legs and handles), jewelry (bracelets, beads) were found.

🌍 Significance

Dvin was a major center of cultural and economic life during the early feudalism of Armenia, one of the largest cities in Armenia with a population of over 100,000. The city was one of the stops on the “Silk Road” and was connected with neighboring and distant countries by well-maintained caravan highways. High-quality cotton fabrics, metal and pottery, terracotta, carpets, paints were produced and exported in Dvin.

📜 Traditional legends 

Armenian, Greek, Arabic, Assyrian, Georgian sources provide information about Dvin. According to historian Movses Khorenatsi, the word “dvin” is Persian and means “hill”.

📚 Sources

Literature 

1. Harutyunyan V. 1950, Dvini V-VII centuries architectural monuments, Yerevan, USSR GA ed., 120 pages. 
2. Ghafadaryan K. 1952, The city of Dvin and its excavations, vol. 1, Yerevan, USSR Academy of Sciences ed., 298 pages. 
3. Ghafadaryan K. 1982, The city of Dvin and its excavations, Vol. 2, Yerevan, ASSR Academy of Sciences ed., 162 pages. 
4. Ghafadaryan K., Kalantaryan A. 2002, Dvin II, Dvin city and its excavations (1973-1980), Archaeological excavations in Armenia, N 20, Yerevan, “Science”, 254 pages.
5. Kushnareva K. 1977, The most ancient monuments of Dvin, Yerevan, ed. Academy of Sciences ArmSSR, 107p.
6. Kalantarian A. 1996, Dvin. History and archeology of the medieval city (Civilizations of the Near East, special issue 2), Neuchatel, Paris.

🏛️ List of Monuments 

Ararat 3.53.1