Touring Dvin

I woke up on the 21st to my roommates arriving, finally! Three days alone at night in a new city was more than enough. After showing Lauren and Taylor the apartment we packed up for the day and met with the rest of the crew on the other side of the city for our first study trip. The trip was bittersweet as Dvin was originally the site which we were supposed to be excavating. The site was a merchant stop, as well as the old capitol of Armenia, where many religious councils were held. The site is also home to the largest Armenian Christian ruins, as Gregory the Illuminator (an important figure in Armenian Christian history who founded the Armenian Apostolic Church) divinely chose the site to build his church. We walked along the old citadel mounds and the entire tel while our professor, Dr. Areshian, lectured us on the history of the site from the Chalcolithic period right up until the middle ages. You can see the features from the peak of the hill but as you walk among them the grass seems to consume everything. Times like this it’s understandable why aerial photography is so imperative to many archaeological projects.

We also walked up to last years excavation site - just waiting to be reopened. Unfortunatley, this site will not be reopened for a few years as the only expert in this area of archaeology in the country passed away a few months ago, Aram Kalantarian, who was supposed to be our co-director. It is because of his passing that the original plan to dig on Dvin was abandoned and we were moved to the caves in Areni for our field school. I have to say I am really sad in some ways about this. Dvin was a beautiful rural village with cattle roaming free and had stunning views of mount Ararat and the Ararat valley. Also, the history of Dvin is much more interesting to me as my primary interests are in religious history and the early middle ages, and this site also offered Bronze Age features as well. The Areni caves will be purely Chalcolithic. Just walking around the site I found many shards of glazed pottery and it made me a little sad knowing the pottery at Areni will be nothing like the colourful and stunning pieces hanging in the Dvin museum, which would have been imported from all areas of the Caucuses.

Before leaving Dvin, we met with our cook for our expedition and had some amazing fresh apricots, which taste nothing like the apricots you find in Canada, delicious!

Speaking of delicious, after we arrived back in Yerevan we went to a local Persian restaurant for the largest lunch I have ever encountered. First arrived plates of breads, cheeses, olives, and sour cream and dill spreads. Then salads, and more plates of assorted cheeses, and plates that had red basil, parsley, radish, onion, hot green pepper, cucumber and tomatoes, which we rolled up in lavash (flat bread). Then came pilaf (a traditional rice) and three types of soup-like sauces with lamb, barley, and various spices and stocks to put over the rice. Nexr came pork kabobs and potatoes, and then a ground beef sausage type dish. It was amazingly delicious, but also really overwhelming. I have never seen a table with so much food. We finished it off with red wine and jermuk (a naturally carbonated mineral water).

Two hours later, after a nap, we were expected again for supper with some of the local directors of the Archaeological Institute. I just had some more red wine, and nibbled on the lavash and cheeses... no way I could handle another big meal like that! I am going to come home about 30 pounds heavier, no doubt.



Group photo


Shrine at early church ruins in Dvin



Dvin views and the Dvin excavations