Metsamor

🔍 Research history

As the actual name is not known, the ancient site was called after the river, Metsamor. The ancient settlement is located on one of the volcanic cones of the middle anthropogenic period and in the surrounding plains, it has an area of 30 hectares. It is surrounded by water from almost all sides, it is bordered by the Metsamor River from the north-west, and it is protected with an artificial moat barrier from the east. Archaeological excavations prove that it was continuously inhabited from the mid- IV millennium BC up to the Late Middle Ages. Excavations began in 1965, led by geologist Koryun Mkrtchyan, who discovered copper smelting slag (clinker) in the area of the ancient site: based on this, it can be concluded that the hill near the discovery site is an ancient copper smelter. During the excavations, a platform, presumably an observatory, was also discovered. Astronomer Elma Parsamyan stated that heavenly luminaries are carved on the rock. Bronze Age tombs were discovered as well, including those of wealthy individuals buried with their slaves, horses, furniture and weapons. A historical-archaeological museum was opened on the territory of the castle in 1968 with 22,000 exhibits belonging to different periods, mainly collected from the Metsamor ancient site. Currently, the museum is named after K. Mkrchyan. The archaeological excavations were managed by Emma Khanzadyan since 1993, after K. Mkrchyan’s death.

The fortress on the big hill was protected with a cyclopean wall with towers: dwellings and outbuildings were built in the wide ramparts outside the wall. The discovered materials prove that agriculture, animal husbandry and crafts were developed in Metsamor.

Along with the religious significance, the small hill range of Metsamor also had an astrological significance: based on the studies, the rising of Sirius was observed there in 2800-2600 (its emergence was probably associated with the beginning of the new year and worship). According to the studies of the ziggurat-observatory serving open-air ritual ceremonies in Metsamor and the monumental tower of Mokhrablur, the rural communities and cities emerged around these temples are considered probable: the presence of the “urban revolution” in the Armenian highlands in the III millennium, resulting the foundations of the primitive social order to be undermined. 

The cultural layers of the II millennium BC are equipped with remarkable archaeological materials substantiating the genealogical connection that exists between the stages of the Bronze Age development. Metsamor used to be a city in the Early Iron Age (XI-IX centuries BC). It occupied an area of about 80 hectares with its citadel and the city built on the plain extending to the eponymous pond. The fortress, protected by powerful Cyclopean walls, mainly housed the residential buildings of the rulers and the priestly class, the temple complex and the main production units (foundries, workshops, metal enrichment structures). The pre-Urartian city consisted of residential districts of the middle and lower classes. The city had a separate sanctuary, a part of which has been preserved in the area called “Red Stones”. Based on the fossil materials, the population of the city seemed to be engaged in crafts, trade, agriculture, horticulture and vegetable culture. There was a large production associated with casting, evidenced by tabular and cylindrical foundries, waste piles and casting molds found near them. Large-scale cattle breeding in Metsamor contributed to the deepening of property stratification.

🧱 Archaeological description

In the Metsamor ancient site, during more than fifty years of excavations, an enclosed citadel with palace and economic buildings, unique sanctuaries with altars, a platform for observing celestial bodies – “observatory”, a “workshop” of smelters and foundries representing a complete cultural cycle of metal, an Early Bronze Age raw brick, round-plan dwellings, a Late Bronze Age-Iron Age urban district, and a huge burial ground were discovered.

Stratigraphy

At the beginning of the 1960s, a group of young archaeologists and geologists discovered a large amount of cast remains of various metals while conducting research on the banks of the Metsamor River (Armavir region) around the village of Taronik. The excavations continued, and one of the royal cities of the Ararat valley, where the world’s first, well-preserved copper smelter functioned (IV century BC), appeared to be found. Scientists prove that the place was inhabited as early as the III millennium BC. In the Early Iron Age, Metsamor was one of the royal cities of the Ararat valley, one of the important administrative, political and cultural centers. Metsamor was incorporated in the Kingdom of Van (Urartu) in the VIII century BC. Life continued here in the Middle Ages as well, until the XVII century. The found buildings, plain and glazed pottery, objects of luxury are the best proofs of this.

🔨 Findings

More than 27,000 objects excavated from the monument were collected and displayed in the museum. On the first floor, the materials found in the castle and burial ground are displayed, dating from the Early Bronze Age to the Late Middle Ages. The crafts and rituals of ancient Metsamor are presented on the second floor. On the basement floor there is a special storage room, where unique cultural values made of gold, silver, amber and semi-precious stones of the Van kingdom are presented. The agate frog-scale of the Babylonian king Ulam Wuarish (XVI century BC) is exceptional among the items found. The inscription on the frog indicates that it was used as a weighing scale. Its weight is marked on the frog’s belly: 1 shekel (Babylonian weight unit), equal to approximately 8.5 grams. In Metsamor, the frog-weighing scale lost its significance and was used as a charm. This is probably why there is a hole in the frog’s belly for threading.

The sardine seal with Egyptian inscriptions belonging to the other Babylonian king, Kurigalzu (XV century BC) is also among the museum gold fund. The cylindrical seal was dipped in melted wax or a colored substance, then rolled on paper, resulting in the imprint of the image on the seal: the king and priestess offering wine or nectar to the king.

These findings prove Metsamor to have been a crossroad of trade routes passing through the Ararat valley and connecting Asia and the North Caucasus since ancient times. Wine, wheat and water were stored in the found jars.

Excavations in the burial ground extending 0.5 km north-east of the city citadel revealed huge stone tombs ringed with red slabs. Leaders were buried there, horses, large and small cattle, dogs and even servants and slaves were sacrificed and buried in their honor. Among the objects buried in the tombs, glazed pottery, decorated wooden jewelry boxes made of gold, silver and semi-precious stones are noteworthy. Bronze Age phalluses were found as well, associated with the cult of male initiation, now displayed in the museum courtyard.

🌍 Significance

These findings prove that Metsamor has been a crossroad of trade routes passing through the Ararat Valley and connecting the North Caucasus and Central Asia since ancient times. The ancient fortress-settlement of Metsamor is one of the unique monuments of world culture. The excavated materials prove that Metsamor was a prospering cultural center in the Bronze Age (IV-II centuries BC). Metsamor was found to be an ancient center of metal smelting and metal processing. The whole system of the foundry – the smelter and the furnaces, built into the rocks – is well preserved. There were two types of foundry: tabular and fictile, with a diameter of 1.0 m and a height of 0.7 m. Minerals of tin, copper, zinc, phosphorus, mercury were found in the soil layers. There was no mining in the town, and the smelter was built there because a river flowing nearby. Piles of white bricks were found next to the foundries. After studying the composition of those bricks, geologists found out that they were made by people and used to smelt metals. The entire system of the copper smelter, the furnaces and the smelter, built into the rocks, is quite well preserved. The scientists found out that Metsamor was a large settlement occupying an area of 10.5 ha, having a citadel surrounded by a cyclopean wall and a ziggurat, an “observatory”: in the XIX century BC, in the area of the Metsamor historical-archaeological reserve-museum (1968) of the current Armavir province. A XIX-century BC map stone engraved with an image of the solar system was discovered here; a place where people had clear ideas about the model of the Planet Earth and tried to solve cosmic paradoxes since early ages. Ancient Bronze and Iron age artifacts, megaliths, hieroglyphic inscriptions carved on stones, the oldest jewelry found in Armenia, unique frog scales, metal smelting furnaces built in the rocks, were found as a result of the city excavations. There are exclusive facts testifying to the existence of a powerful scientific school, an observatory, a prospering cultural and metallurgical center of Metsamor, and also emphasizing the city’s historical, cultural and scientific significance for the people living in the territory of the Armenian Highlands.

📚 Sources

Literature

1. E. Khanzadyan, K. Mkrtchyan, Metsamor, Yerevan, 1970. E. Khanzadyan, K. Mkrtchyan, E. Parsamyan. Metsamor, Yerevan, 1973. 
2. E. Khanzadyan, L. Petrosyan, H. Simonyan, Armenian gold in the Early and Middle Bronze Ages. Early and Middle Bronze Age
   Monuments (The Gold of Ancient Armenia in the Book), Yerevan, 2007, pp. 71-77. 
3. L. Barseghyan, Some newly discovered cult monuments of the late period, PBU No. 3, Yer., 1962. 
4. A. Piliposyan, L. Gevorgyan, A. Abgaryan, A. Zakyan, Metsamor (Historical-archaeological overview), Yer. 2015, 73 pages. 
5. A. Piliposyan, L. Gevorgyan, A. Abgaryan, L. Gevorgyan, D. Poghosyan, The gold of Metsamor, Guide to the special depository of
   Metsamor Historical and Archaeological Reserve Museum, Yer., 2013.

State indicator. “Metsamor” historical and archaeological reserve-museum