Cultural Landscape of Tirinkatar in Armenia inscribed on UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List

ArmInfo. The Vishaps (dragon  stones) and the Cultural Landscape of Tirinkatar in Armenia has been  inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List.  Armenia's  request was approved at the 46th session of UNESCO's World Heritage  Committee, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports  reported on Friday.

The Tentative List submitted by Armenia also incudes the  archaeological site of the city of Dvin (1995), the basilica and  archaeological site of Yererouk (1995), the monastery of Noravank and  the upper Amaghou Valley (1995) and the monasteries of Tatev and  Tatevi Anapat and the adjacent areas of the Vorotan Valley (1995).

In the high mountains of Armenia, unique archaeological monuments  have been preserved to our days, which are traditionally called by  the people "vishap" (Armenian for "dragon"). These are two to five  meter high basalt stelae, which are unique among the stone stelae of  the ancient world because of their unparalleled animal iconography  and peculiar locations. Vishaps are either sculpted in the form of a  fish (the piscis kind) or carved as if a bovine hide with head and  extremities was draped over them (the vellus kind). Sometimes both  iconographies are combined (the hybrida kind).

Currently ca. 150 examples of these monuments are known. As a rule,  they are located in secluded, water- rich, high altitude meadows in  the unforested mountains, ca. 1200-3200 m above sea level. Their  highest concentration (ca. 120 examples) has been detected on Mt.  Aragats, in the Geghama, Sevan, Vardenis and Syunik mountains of  Armenia. The limits of their macro-regional distribution are the Lake  Van region in the south, the Trialeti mountain range in the north,  the Erzurum region in the west and the Sevan mountain range in the  east.

The vellus vishaps are the most numerous ones and they are  distributed more or less equally across the macro-region. Vishaps of  the hybrida type are the rarest and they are so far confined to the  south-west of the Geghama mountains in Armenia. Vishaps of the piscis  kind are currently lacking in the westernmost parts of the  macro-region. Since the iconography of vishaps is unique,  standardized and very specific, their large-scale distribution  pattern testifies to the existence of a symbolic and religious common  background shared by social groups across the entire region at the  time of their erection.

The most significant high altitude site with vishaps and related  archaeological monuments is Tirinkatar (Armenian for "Height of the  God Tir"). It is an over 370 ha vast archaeological site located on  the southern slopes of Mt. Aragats, at an altitude of ca. 2700-3100 m  above sea level. Also known by local pastoralist communities as  "Karmir Sar" (Armenian for "Red Hill"), it is a stunning summer  pasture, rich in grass and water, with spectacular views both of the  Mt. Aragats peak and Mt. Ararat.

The archaeological site as such was unknown to the scientific  community until recent years, although the surrounding area is  mentioned already a century ago by Armenian archaeologists Ashkharbek  Kalantar and Grigor Ghapantsyan. In their studies of prehistoric  water management systems on Mt. Aragats, they highlighted the  importance of "Twelve canals" situated immediately east of  Tirinkatar, within the gorge of the river Amberd to divert the river  water to foothill villages and their summer pastures. Neither of the  two early authors appears to have been aware of the existence of the  archaeological site itself, located just above the source of this  canal system. In the foothill town of Ashtarak, however, Ghapantsyan  did hear and record stories about a certain "Maiden's Sanctuary",  which appears in those legends as a sacred place connected with the  Armenian deity Ara. 

Ghapantsyan was told that at the site there was "a stone throne with  stone chairs," and other stone images.  Today we know that the  "Maiden's Sanctuary" is part of the wider archaeological site of  Tirinkatar, first documented by the Armenian-Italian-German team in  2012. 

Since that year, systematic surveys and excavations have been carried  out in the site by the expedition directed by Dr. Arsen Bobokhyan  (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of  Sciences of Armenia), Dr. Pavol Hnila (Free University of Berlin) and  Dr. Alessandra Gilibert (Ca' Foscari University of Venice).  Archaeological data collected from excavated contexts indicate that  Tirinkatar was visited and used for campsite activities at least from  the Neolithic period, i.e. from the end of the 6th millennium BC  onwards. At least since the Chalcolithic period, around 4000 BC, the  site was also used for cultic purposes, which were centred on a  variety of megalithic monuments, including an extraordinary number of  vishaps. During the 3rd to the end of the 2nd millennia BC, other  archaeological features were added, including large aggregated cell  structures, circular stone structures commonly termed "cromlechs",  circular structures with a stone filling and an inner stone chamber,  commonly termed "giant's houses", as well as barrows and petroglyphs.  In addition to the archaeological monuments, there are also modern  loci of religious activities and cult, such as the "Maiden's  Sanctuary", fields of "dream stones" (tower-like structures  constructed by dry stacking of stones and made by people of faith for  the purpose of fulfilling their wishes), tombs, etc.