A Stop in England, and Nova Scotia Bound

London!


I must say I am proud at how comfortable I have become flying in comparison to before this trip, as I can actually say I enjoyed my flights home. I stopped in Heathrow, England and had a day and a half in the city to explore. I found my way from the hotel to the Tube which is the underground subway that leads in to the heart of London. I stopped off at Leicester Square which is where many of the shops and restaurants are in the city, although I wanted to go to an English pub.. the lack of spicy food in Armenia had me craving something with a lot of flavour.. or any flavour really that was not cilantro, so when I came across an Indian Restaurant I was sold.

I walked around London for a few hours taking in all the sights. I saw Big Ben tower, the parliamentary buildings, westminister abbey and cathedral, and the London Eye (which looks so fun! But I didn’t have the time to go on it). From there I took a taxi to Buckingham Palace and walked around. I didn’t have time to do all the things I someday want to do in London, but it was a great taste of the city and I loved just walking around and taking it all in and looking at the architecture which is unbelievable. It definitely has me wanting to go back very soon.
My final flight home was rushed, as I almost didn’t make my flight because I was at the wrong terminal for a long while. I hate how large Heathrow airport is. It was also stressful as when I landed in Halifax I was taken aside at customs for having honey in my suitcase. They searched my honey but in the end they gave it back to me. My only worry was that I had three times the aloud amount of alcohol in my bags, but they never took any of my wine from me.. which I am SO thankful for. Armenian wine is the best wine I have ever had and I am so glad I was able to fit so much in my luggage.

So this is my farewell blog post, I had an amazing experience away and enjoyed documenting it! Although many of these posts were written in a rush as internet access was limited for the majority of my trip and was too slow to upload pictures and videos until I returned to Canada! Thanks for reading, and enjoy the photos now that they are up!

The Last Day in Yerevan

Five am on the 25th, we woke up to say goodbye to the first batch of students leaving for America, Collette, Nathan and Buzz. After going back to sleep for a few hours the remaining students, myself, Taylor and Lauren woke up and planned our final day in Yerevan. We were sad to hear the Near Eastern Zoroastrian museum was closed on Sundays, so we decided that we would find the Modern Art Gallery instead. We had a very hard time explaining modern art gallery to the cab drivers, and finally we just ended up being dropped off at a Museum for an Armenian poet. We took this as a sign and went to this museum anyway. The poets name was Hovhannes Toumanian's and his life story was very impressive as he took care of genocide orphans, wrote amazing books, poems, children’s stories and plays that are still classics in Armenia.

After the museum we went back on the hunt for the Modern Art Gallery, but it was never found. However we enjoyed walking around the city while looking. Our last trip was to the Blue Mosque, which is the only Mosque in Armenia as this is a Christian country. This Mosque was absolutely stunning and had the most beautiful blue and yellow tile designs; It’s so vibrant and peaceful looking. I find Christian churches to often have intimidating art but Islamic Mosques always have such welcoming artwork.

The streets in Yerevan are extremely busy, and almost impossible to cross so there are often underground tunnels you can use to cross the street. One of them had street vendors inside selling kabobs and a donair-like contraption, which was delicious. The tunnel also had places to sit and booming techno music which made for quite an experience.

Our last trip of the day was to a movie theatre, which was built during the soviet empire. The soviet theatre was phenomenal both on the inside and the outside... however the movie choices were limited. I hang my head in shame as I tell you that we ended up watching Twilight dubbed in Russian, but it was worth the experience to be in the old theatre.

Other adventures on our last day included eating whipped egg and chocolate at a cafe, shopping and trying on some crazy Euro-trash fashions at boutiques, passing buy a bakery stand and buying the most amazing baklava of my life.


Blue Mosque (under construction)


Kabobs underground!
Twilight dubbed in Russian in a Soviet built theatre in Yerevan. It happened.

Farewells to Yeghenadzor and a Final Hello to Yerevan

The twenty third of July was a very sad day, as it was the last day in Yeghenadzor and in Areni. We started the day in the cave, finishing our work, and ended the day at lunchtime. After a goodbye photo shoot we went home to shower and pack our bags for Yerevan. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Yeghenadzor and living at the dig house. The owners of the home who gave up their main floor to us were so kind and hospitable. Yereghnadzor was a fantastic place. I felt completely comfortable walking around the village. I will miss the little corner stores and the lounge with the Ferris wheel, however, the thing I will miss the most is the beautiful view of the mountains from our dinner table, and also the fresh fruits and mulberries we had every day.

After saying our goodbyes to those we wouldn’t see again we all piled into the van and headed to Yerevan. After settling into our apartment we all decided to out and experience Yerevan nightlife one more time. I love walking the city at night; it’s all lit up and gives off an entirely different vibe. We found a cafe and a Persian night club and decided to eat. I ended up having Buffalo chicken wings; something familiar was more than appreciated. The night club looked great, but the cover was extremely high (close to thirty dollars) so I left with some of the guys as cover charge was even higher for them.

The next day I decided to split from the group as I didn’t need to go back to the market or vernissage and I had wanted to go back to the National Museum as our first time there was extremely rushed. The shoe from our cave that had been making headlines before our arrival had also just been put on display and I had wanted to see it at least once before I left as it was such an important discovery made at the site which I had become so attached to. I really enjoyed walking the museum by myself at my own pace. From there I met up with the group for lunch at the Lahmajoon (spicy tomato and meat paste on lavash) place. I am going to miss lahmajoon a lot!

After I hopped in a cab and went to the indoor market, which is a cross between a spice bazaar and an organic fruit market. It is a huge market with many vendors and each one wants you to try their products. I was given so many free dried fruit and nut treats I could hardly stomach it all. I had to try to not make eye contact for most of the time because they vendors would constantly be giving you food, or making you spell bags of rose petals. Each vendor would insist they had the best products and would get offended when you did not want to buy their products. I ended up purchasing almost 100 dollars worth of saffron petals for about five dollars, paprika, and curry. One of the ladies I tried to purchase paprika from, as paprika is grown all over Armenia, put the curry I asked for in a plastic bag and told me “500 drams” which is like two dollars, but then she began asking me to smell other spices and before I knew it she was adding random spices to my bag, shook it, and then said “much better, now 2000 drams. Just how it works at these markets, they always get you to buy more than you asked... but now I have an amazing mix of Armenian spices, so I really can’t complain. I also purchased dried fruit and nut snacks and dried mint tea leaves.

My last stop for the day was back to the National Museum to look at the Art Gallery. I have never been to a proper art gallery before so I was excited to see some recognizable names like Donatello. However most of the museum consisted of Armenian artwork, which was also beautiful to see.

Spice Bazaar and Market


The last Lahmajoon feast!


Me in the Republic Square outside of the National Museum and Gallery


Picture of the National Museum poster for the Areni Shoe


Saying goodbye to our hosts Marieta and Anna and our cook Gohar!

The End of the Excavation

Skull fragments


painted ceramic shard


incised pattern.


Group shot


The final week of excavations were also the most exciting, as we began reaching levels without any traces of the medieval period and were finding artifacts in high quantity. The majority of our artifacts are ceramics, which is something I really enjoy personally as a amateur pottery thrower. I have been working primarily in square T35 which is along the wall of the cave in Trench 2a. In this square we have a niche in the wall where I was for days uncovering bagfuls of pottery shards. Most of the pottery is thick-walled gravel tempered ceramic without decoration. However, some are blackened and burnished.

The last week there were some great finds:
I found pieces of a painted pot which is very exciting as there is only one other painted pot in the cave that has been found and it’s the only one like it in Armenia, the only others like have been found in Iran.

I also found pieces of very thin walled ceramics with fine black fabric that had triangular cross-hatching incised on the body.

I also found three handles, all which are typical Kura-Axes in form according to Dina who is writing her PhD thesis on Ceramics.
The other very interesting finds made by my fellow field schoolers was a bone awl, which is an animal bone that has been worked into a sharpened needle used for piercing leather and other textiles. As well as more obsidian pieces, and finally human bone. We have also been actively collecting charcoal samples for dating purposes to get a better idea of the time periods of sediment we are dealing with and if it matches to the artifacts.

The main belief is that we are digging a trash site, but the idea that it could be a grave has been tossed around as well. Although the midden idea makes much more sense to me, there are some very flat and rectangular rocks which have been appearing in areas of the trench within the same sediment layer. This same layer has also produced some human remains making it possible that these were purposeful markers. We found one cervical vertebra, two tibias, and four cranial fragments that were all identifiably human. It was very hard to leave the trench after these discoveries, but those staying promised to keep us updated on the finds.

Right before leaving Lauren fell through the floor of the trench and went up to her waist into a sink hole, the sink hole was filled with pottery shards. Boris believes that there could be many other sink holes in the cave and the next group will have to continue very carefully to avoid falling through.

Concert in Yerevan and Other Week Three Excursions

Our field school coordinator is so dedicated to making sure we have the best possible experience with Armenian culture and decided that a trip to Yerevan to see a benefit concert filled with traditional Armenian singers and musicians would help us open our eyes to another side of Armenian culture. The concert was a benefit for a young child in Yerevan with cancer whose family was trying to raise funds for his treatments. The ride into Yerevan was taxing, as the van we rode in was incredibly slow. When we arrived in Yerevan we headed to the Caucusus for dinner, where we were each aloud to order our own meal. This was a nice change as most times our food is ordered family style. I ordered bbq Lake Sevan Trout, which came out bones, head, fins, tail and all. However, after a boiled fish head stew seemed perfectly normal. It was absolutely delicious, but we had to rush dinner to make the concert in time.

The concert was inside a puppet hall, where there were displays of all kinds of puppets. There was about ten artists on the stage, all sitting with cups of wine and cognac and one by one each would stand up to sing a few songs. It was a great atmosphere as many of the singers sitting would join in. Despite not knowing the language it was easy to follow along with the emotions of the songs and also the onstage banter between the artists. One of my favourites was incredibly animated and his stage presence really helped to convey the story even without understanding Armenian. There was everything from folk, to acoustic pop, to opera. There was one female singer who was absolutely amazing, and when the concert was over she approached our director, Dr. Areshien, and gave him a big hug. She was then introduced to us as one of his former students and a fellow Bronze Age Archaeologist. On the way home from the concert we were pulled over by the police for speeding, which was a fun experience.

The day after the concert I became very sick and had to stay home from the excavation. The ladies of the house were very concerned even though I tried to explain to them it was not a big deal. They would come up to me and poke my stomach, and offer me tea, and wouldn’t let me sit on the floor or walk barefoot. If I wasn’t so sick I would have been amused. My friend Buzz had made Ice-tea, which sounded awesome since it was so hot that day and tea always settles my stomach, however, when I went to pour myself some all the ladies jumped up and grabbed it from me, which put an end to that.

Another evening we had guests from another archaeological project in Armenia come for dinner, fish and a meat dish called kufta was served. This dish is prepared by lashing meat until it becomes swollen and puffy and then is boiled. Not my personal cup of tea. The guests were very interesting, and one happens to be from Toronto and is a curator from the ROM and offered a free tour when I am in Toronto this summer. The singer from the concert was also at the dinner, and sang for us a few times over dinner. There were plenty of toasts (as always) to everyone. Although the toasts today left a bad taste in a few people’s mouths, as one toast mentioned “the fight for gender equality is not nessisary as women are already the centre of a man’s world”, and others toasted to specific peoples ethnicities such as the “Indo-Iranian race” leaving others backgrounds out. I personally was offended as there was a toast made to each person at the table, minus three people, which in my mind is rude. It made for a very tense night at the dig house and set the tone for the next few days.

Digging Week Three

Obsidian tool

Week two of excavation had left everyone slightly disappointed as we were finding medieval, bronze age, and chalcolithic materials side by side, making it clear we were not working with insitu materials. As week three commenced we began to reach richer cultural layers as we entered into unit seven (units are measured by each identifiable sediment layer) and we began to uncover more and more ceramic artifacts. We began excavating in five centimetre spits (meaning we take each square down five centimetres at a time, levelling off the trench floor) but by the end of the week moved the spits to ten centimetres to help progress the pace of the excavation. We also traced out lines for a step, making the trench even smaller but allowing for easier access into the trench and also showing the stratigraphy more visibly.

Between charcoal layers we found organic materials such as grape seeds and barley, and we stopped finding traces of medieval cultures, which is why we think we may have reach a level of primary context. Along the walls of the cave is where the majority of the ceramic is found, but the site is rich in pottery shards throughout. Strangely, despite being abundant in pottery shards there have not been any unbroken or even partially whole pots or vessels. The majority of the ceramics found have been undecorated or have only small incised geometric patterns, although many have been rubbed or burnished smooth and black. We are continuing to find faunal (animal) bone, primarily what we believe to be sheep or goat. We also have been finding a notable number of smoothed river rocks and pebbles not geologically natural to the karstic cave. Another strange observation to mention is that we are finding many holes in the ground which we cannot figure out how they were made, they are all the perfect size that we have been using them as trowel and brush holders.

The most exciting discoveries of the week however have been a rock which was burnished smooth and black and had been pierced at the top, which could have been worn as an amulet. The other exciting discoveries have been the obsidian objects found. Flakes of obsidian, raw obsidian, and most exciting: clearly worked obsidian blades. Obsidian, a glasslike volcanic rock is abundant in Armenia but there are no sources directly near the cave. Our lithics expert expects more obsidian tools to be found in our trench, as the current belief is that we are working on a midden site, or a garbage disposal area. This would account for the broken vessel fragments, the flaked and broken obsidian pieces, and the large number of faunal bones.

I also had the opportunity to work with Dina, one of the Armenian PhD students in trench three which is just outside of the cave. The ground here is so dusty that we just used brushes. I found an abundance of walnuts, and grape seeds as well as pottery and a piece of medieval glass.

Tatev Adventure

One sight I was dying to see in Armenia was Tatev, which is described as the most beautiful monastery in the country architecturally as well as ecologically, it is also one of the most important sites historically and although it is remotely located it draws in high numbers of tourists. My roommates Lauren and Taylor were equally excited to see this site. It is about three hours from Areni where we work and we were warned that it is a treacherous drive and a gruesome hike, as it is located at the top of a mountain. These warnings scared off the rest of the crew who were originally going to come. We ended up convincing Nathan to join at the last minute, and our neighbour Lillit accompanied us to make sure we didn’t get too lost. The cab arrived, and we fit four people in the back seat... four people in a backseat in forty degrees and no air conditioning on a three hour drive up a mountain is something I hope to not have to experience again.

I had to mentally prepare myself for the drive up the mountain, as I knew it was supposed to be quite bad, however, I never truly realised how completely dangerous a public road to a countries leading tourist destination could actually be. The road was barely wide enough for the cab, and directly on the other side was the edge of the cliff with no railings. I began to freak out as we spiralled up the cliff and begged to get out and hike. The road was not properly paved and the cab driver thought it would be a good idea to swerve to avoid them on this crazy road, so we would be at times facing the edge of the cliff. Then he got out his cell phone and began to drive with one hand... I lost it. I don’t think I have ever been so scared for my life.

When we finally arrived to Tatev my legs felt like jelly, but it truly was one of the most phenomenal places I have seen. The Monastery is larger than any of the others we have visited, and the entire complex is still standing – including the barracks, kitchens, bishops quarters, churches, classrooms, among many other rooms. It’s amazing to walk around and imagine life in the 900s as a priest. Tatev was the art university for priests learning calligraphy, painting, bookbinding and other arts. Many of the amazing Illuminated Manuscripts in the Matanadaran were created at Tatev or by those who studied at Tatev. The dorms were dark and cold, and the kitchen had only two lavash oven pits left inside. You could also walk on the roof of the monastery and look down at the highlands at the most amazing view I have ever seen. It was really breathtaking. My favourite part of the complex was a large carved column standing in the middle of the complex which was built in the 900s on a hinge that allows it to sway back and forth during earthquakes and storms. Some say it was used to detect such earthquakes before they occurred. It was called the demon tower by the enemy’s of Tatev, as when they saw it swaying they would run away in fear it was possessed.

After our visit to Tatev was finished we hiked up to a restaurant which overlooks Tatev for a small lunch. We had a yougurt, green onion, dill and cucumber soup with lavash, and then a ground beef kabob and potatoes. The ride downhill was much easier on my sanity, and I was entertained by Nathans ridiculously long jokes. On the way home we stopped at a roadside stand that was selling fresh teas in bouquets and also had natural gum in a jar. We bought some tea and stopped to talk to some locals as the car was getting gas (the gas tank is located in the trunk of a lot of cars here, which I found quite strange). One of the Armenian women we talked to had recently moved to Toronto and was visiting with her husband, always nice to see a fellow Canadian!

Shenanigans

The best word one could possible teach to the workers: Shenanigans

The workers have been trying to learn some English (mostly to perfect their flirting techniques) and so we have taught them a few key words and phrases. The best of these is the day we taught them the word “Shenanigans” ... nothing is funnier than hearing all the locals try and say this word. They are constantly asking us now to “do shenanigans.”Our field crew certainly has been up to some shenanigans, and so I decided I would list some of the random adventures and good times we have had in the past weeks:

4th of July: Being the only Canadian here we did not have any Canada Day festivities, but since there are many Americans in our crew we did celebrate Independence Day. We had barbeque and kabobs and lots of wine. They even found popcorn for a taste of home. Then we gathered up outside and lit fireworks from the streets which the local children loved.

Vardavar day (The Feast of Water): July 10th is a national holiday for Armenians and revolves around a old pagan celebration where water and rose petals were thrown at people as signs of luck and fertility. Today the holiday a day off for everyone so the entire country can partake in water fights. No joke. Everyone participates and if you leave your house you are fair game. Complete strangers will be soaking each other with buckets of water in the streets. July 10th happened to be one of the hottest days of our trip, so of course we were more than willing to partake in this Armenian tradition. It also happened to be myself and Taylor’s day to work on washing pottery and faunal bones at home and so we were home all day to watch the festivities from the balcony. Eventually the older women from the house rushed us out the gates and we braced ourselves because we knew what was coming. Next thing I knew we were drenched from head to toe with water being thrown at all angles. So we filled up our buckets and retaliated. Soon the children from the street saw us playing and ‘soak the “Americans” seemed to be the hit game so we were attacked by bands of seven year olds until it was time to get back to work.

Ice-creamy Beige: Ice-creamy Beige is an invention we discovered completely by mistake. We named it after the Old Greg youtube video (as he refers to Baileys as Creamy-Beige). We went to the lounge one night and tried for ages to order drinks... then we saw people ordering iced-coffees and we decided that would do. We then noticed they had Bailey’s Irish Cream on their shelf and so we decided that would be the perfect mix. We asked for coffee (which they held up), and then pointed to the Bailey’s, and then said ice. We thought they understood, but then a tray of chocolate ice-cream covered in Bailey’s came out. It became a hit, and we order it every time we go out now.

World Cup: As most reading this are well aware, my sports knowledge is limited... as is my interest level, but one of the guys on my field crew is so obsessed with soccer he would put Mahmud to shame. So when the world cup finale was on we all went (at midnight) to the local outdoor lounge to watch the game. We had previously convinced the bartenders to stay up late for us. So we all had some drinks and pistachios and cheered very loudly. Buzz was rooting for Spain because he lived there, and Nathan was rooting for Netherlands because his girlfriend lives there, and the rest of us were also voting for Spain purely on the grounds that they had the hottest team... and I guess I have some Spanish roots too. We were so loud and enthusiastic that the Armenians couldn’t stop laughing at us!

Arpa River: One day we ran out of dirt bags (we sift every inch of soil troweled up and so each bucket is dumped into labelled bags) so when the bags ran out we had nothing to do and still had a few hours before our driver came. The workers decided they would take us to the river that runs at the base of our cave for a swim. We were all dirty from work and it was a very hot day so we all ran into the river, which is crystal clear and actually quite deep. You could lay down and the currant would take you down the river. It was an amazing time, and the locals got quite the kick out of the “Americans” swimming with their dig clothes on.


More Sports: One day after supper we decided to play some games on the street, which attracted a lot of local old ladies and children who got a laugh out of watching us all fail pretty badly at Frisbee. After Frisbee the local children decided to teach us a game they play. This game was a cross between monkey in the middle and doge ball. Two teams were devided and one time would be in the middle between the second team as the second team tried to hit the third team. Once hit you were out, and if you caught it you got a point. Not sure how I feel about this game.


River shenanigans with some of the crew and workers

The Day The Workers Learned "I Love You"

One of the biggest cultural shocks for me here in Armenia is how ridiculously forward the men are here, and how even more ridiculously passive the women are expected to be. I definitely picked the right anthropological path for myself, because I don’t think I could ever truly be unbiased enough to be a cultural anthropologist – archaeology and physical anthropology suit me just fine. I find myself either cracking up laughing at the crazy scenarios or being slightly offended. One friend our crew has made is the son of the neighbours, Armen, who also volunteer with the dig and he explained to us that it is still typical for the first girl a guy talks everyone will expect them to marry. So talking and flirting essentially means marriage. Because of this, the girls on my crew have gotten a lot of male attention. I am not sure if this is because they know we are going home so it’s the only way to have fun hitting on someone without getting tied down, or because we look like walking green cards.

The workers who do a lot of the manual labour at our excavation (we really are spoiled because they carry our buckets down the cliff and sift them with our paleoethnobotanist Tamaera) are all around the same age as the myself and the rest of the field school students, so we have been prime targets of their affection. It began with staring at us from afar, but quickly escalated as they learned how to say “beautiful” and “I love you” ...it all went downhill from there. They would come up to us and tell us they loved one of us and try and hold our hands or make us hold hands with one of their shyer friends. They would call out the body parts they found beautiful which ranged from hair and eyes to Laurens arm?

As they got more comfortable around us one of the guys decided he would try and wipe the dirt off of my face for me. He got a look let me tell you. He later saw me putting on my work gloves after a break and he ran over took off my one glove, grabbed the second, and put them on for me like a child. He most definitely got THE look. My friend Nani has been asked on a date to the springs and was brought a bottle of wine, and Taylor and Lauren have been told that they appear in their dreams... like I said, the guys are forward here.

The other problem I have is that they often ask us why we are doing physical work. Many Armenian women in the smaller villages my age are married with children and certainly do not do the kind of work we do, which is considered ‘mans work’ by our workers. I must say I get a good laugh at how these men are taking orders from a group of girls, certainly not typical in small town Armenia.

One fashion statement that never quite made it to Armenia is women’s shorts (although they will wear short skirts and heels, jean shorts seem to be considered pretty racy). One evening when it was forty degrees out I decided I would walk to the internet cafe with the group in a pair of shorts, after we were done using the computers we went outside to the cafe to wait for the last few who were still using the internet. All of a sudden cokes appeared for all the ladies, and a table of guys smiled and waved. We thought it was very nice and waved back. Next thing I know the waiter is handing me a note that said “Amerpika. (Armerica?) I kiss you. Roman (his name?)” complete with a backwards N. We all got a good chuckle, until Roman came over and began hand gesturing for me to go with him. We said no thanks and left soon after. We then bumped into our friends Dina and Tamaera on the way home and stopped to talk to them when we noticed that Roman was still behind us. Later my friend Nathan and I split from the group to grab ice-cream at the lounge and we watched as Norman stood at the entrance for over an hour. Even in foreign countries I manage to attract stalkers. Just my luck.



My last story about our interesting male encounters occurred when myself and the rest of the non-Armenian-speaking girls decided to go adventure one evening for a walk around town. About three miles into our evening hike we walked past a guy who was suddenly very concerned for us (girls walking alone in the evening is not a usual sight) and was convinced we were lost. We tried to tell him that we were fine, but the next thing I know he was on the phone and his brother was showing up. We were told he speaks English, which he didn’t, at least not well enough to have a conversation. They pointed up the hill and made signals to say there was a statue there that they wanted to show us. We followed them up the hill and tried to communicate with them and explain that we were archaeologists and students. They understood the student part and said that they studied in Yerevan. After we reached the hill with the statue they grabbed their phones and typed in numbers to tell us when the statue was built (1945) and how many steps there were to the monument (101). When we reached the top (there was probably only fifty steps, we found out later that 101 is the same as saying “many”) we had the most stunning view of the villages and although the sun had gone down there was just enough light to appreciate the view. We took photos with the boys and began to walk down the stairs (they insisted on holding our hands so we wouldn’t fall... we also tried to explain that we climbed a cliff every day to work. Then we were handed a telephone and there was a lady speaking French on the phone.. I think they got our languages confused.

On the way back home they continued to walk with us until they reached their home. They invited us inside but we refused since it was a little sketchy and it was dark out now, so they asked us to wait outside... next thing they know they are bringing their mother out to meet us. I spoke to her in French briefly and they asked us to wait again. This time they brought out boxes. When they laid the boxes on the road we found out they were filled with baby ducks. So we played with their baby ducks and then carried on our way. They were very concerned and wanted us to call a taxi home but we told them we were fine to walk home. They knew the town we were from was still a few miles away. So we said goodbye and carried on our way. Twenty minutes later a car pulls up beside us and we heard “Aurora! Lauren! Taylor!” and the boys jumped out. When we refused a drive home one of them insisted on walking us home. When we were almost home we bumped into our chef who is VERY over protective and told him to get lost! They asked our chef if we were students, and if we had “life partners” in Armerica.


Classic times with local boys at a statue in the village.

Digging Week Two

Ceramics and faunal bone drying after being cleaned

Our first week of digging left everyone in the crew pretty frustrated as we had yet to hit a cultural layer (a layer where there are signs of human occupation). We were hoping that beneath the last of the dung layer (yes, layers and layers of solidified animal poop... fun times) that our cultural layer would begin. We had also hoped that because we had already gone through nearly four units (for different sediment layers) that we would directly hit the Chalcolithic period and not have any ‘modern’ artifacts, which would imply a homogenous layer which allows for better analysis than a “mixed layer” (a layer with more than one distinct time period together) means the layers have been tampered with at some point and stratigraphical studies mean significantly less.

The first find of any dig is really exciting, and we had found a few sticks, pieces of straw, and small faunal bones amongst the dung layers, but Taylor got the first artifact (organics are referred to as ecofacts) and found a large piece of ceramic which could not be specifically dated on site, I however found the second shard which although smaller was easily identifiable to the early Bronze Age because of its smooth black burnishing, trumpet lip, and incised geometric pattern. Soon everyone had found a few shards, which gave hope that we had reached a cultural layer, but our big concern came true when medieval pottery started coming alongside early Bronze Age. The mixed layer could have been caused by whoever brought in the sheep dung to create the flooring. If this is the case there could be homogenous layers deeper down, and only time will tell.

The rest of the week kept at a similar pace, the deeper we got, the more mixed context artifacts (primarily wood, faunal bone, and ceramic). We also sectioned off the trench to allow for a side profile to record the stratigraphy of the side of the trench better making it a tight fit for everyone in the trench. Both the coordinators of the projects have different views on why this area is of mixed context and why the dung layer was formed. One theory that it was brought by the medieval people to seal over remains of the past cultures who once lived there, another theory is the original cultures of the trench (late Neolithic to chalcolithic groups) created the flooring during the occupancy or before they left. This is why the charcoal samples we collected in the burn layers will be important, as they will be sent for testing to hopefully construct a general chronology of the dung layers.

Outside of digging we have been spending our time hanging out at the dighouse, going for walks into the town to hunt for recognizable munchies, and the internet cafe... and of course sleeping, six thirty am comes too early.

Wine Tasting and Noravank

The third of July was our first day off from excavating at Areni and we decided to continue our touring near our village as everyone was really tired of all the long drives from the following week. We began the day with wine tasting (its Armenia, wine at 10 am is perfectly acceptable... and I like it). Areni has its own type of grape named after it, and the region is well known for its wine and vineyards. We went to a local winery and had a tour of the property and the areas where the wine was aging. After the tour came the tasting and out came the bottles.... my past experiences in wine tasting have been just a little splash in each glass to taste... but when the owner began pouring he topped of each glass.... for every bottle we tried. So after our tasting/binging we purchased wines for supper and for everyone to take home and carried on to our next stop, which happened to be a church, which seemed a little ironic in our state.

Noravank is one of the most recognizable of Armenia’s many churches and monasteries and is very close to the cave site we are digging at. Like many of the area’s oldest religious sites, the churches are situated at the top of a large mountain and have beautiful views. The first of the two churches we went into we were able to observe a sermon that was being spoken by an Armenian priest. It is not common for Armenians to have masses or organized sermons, rather, a priest will throughout the day give sermons and pray aloud whether there is an audience or not and parishioners will stop by to listen or to just light a candle and pray. I noticed that some people removed their shoes when entering the alter part of the church, and so a few of us followed the example. I was told by an Armenian woman that I could put my shoes back on because “I looked frail” and the cold floor would make me sick.

(This is a perfect example of two things I am beginning to notice about Armenia, if you are thin you are considered frail and Armenian women will try to CONSTANTLY feed you until you can barely move. I have never encountered so much food. When it’s my turn to stay home for lab duty the cook, Gohar, sits and watches me eat and will constantly add more food to my plate and looks very hurt when I finally tell her I have had more than enough. The other thing the above story outlines very well is the fact that Armenian’s think EVERYTHING will make you sick. If you have a water fight and get splashed with luke warm water in 35+ weather you are going to get scolded, if you even dare to sit down on the concrete steps in 40 degrees you will have the entire household of Armenian women yelling “bad health, bad health!” at you and motioning for you to get up. I tried to explain to them that I am from Canada where 40 degrees don’t even exist and that sitting on concrete won’t make me sick... but the concept hasn’t sunk in yet.)

Now back to my Noravank adventure... the second church at Noravank is one of my favourites as it as these steps that go from either side of the the churches entrance to a second entrance on the second level. The stairs are EXTREMELY narrow, I’m pretty tiny and I had trouble balancing, and also have no railing. I was feeling brave (thanks wine for smoothing over my fear of heights) and so I climbed up to the second level. There are pictures to prove it. Once I was up at the top I had a conversation with an Italian family who were vacationing who happened to be from the same small town, Borgo a Mozzano, where my family originated from, needless to say I got lots of kisses. I posed for a picture at the top before coming down, however one guy saw me pose and thought I was standing at the top because I was nervous and before I know it he was at the top to hold my hand while I walked down. Typical Armenian boy... they are very forward here. I think I should do an entire blog post on the funny things me and the girls and my crew have encountered from the local guys here. After Noravank we went to a local restaurant for lunch. It was beside the Arpa Valley River and it was a gorgeous little outdoor restaurant which served chicken barbeque, lavash, yogurts, veggies and fruit.

Everyone came home and had monster naps until supper, where we devoured some left over lamajoon, along with the typical spread and tried to decide what to do with the rest of our day off. Some wanted to go hiking, most wanted to sleep, and I wanted to find somewhere to swim because it was boiling out and I could not handle another hike in forty degrees. Lucky for me my roommates caved and abandoned their hike to find a place to swim with me. Our neighbour Lilit who speaks English offered to take come with us to a “lake”. The cab driver (in his thirties and a little rough looking) on the way asked us if we wanted to listen to music, and so he turned some music on. Celine Dion. I jammed out to the song and my roommates made fun of me for being “so Canadian.” Then as the next song came on we realised that this was a Celine Dion CD that we was playing.. and he knew all the words. I really need to blog about the music selections of Armenia at a later date.

The “Lake” turned out to be a mineral spring with a manmade rock parameter with about 60 guys in tighty whities wading in water that barely when past my belly button. We were the only girls there, but we got a good laugh out of it. We also got a lot of stares, and Lauren and Taylor decided to swim in shorts and a Tshirt.. but since I was wearing a nice dress I didn’t want to ruin I decided to be brave and go in my bikini. It was absolutely hilarious how much we stuck out of the crowed.


The "Lake" in Areni


Noravank stairs


Winery in Areni

Digging Week One

The Areni Cave site

So now I am at the truly exciting part of my Armenian adventure, the excavating! Our first day at the cave was just being acquainted with the site and the history. The site currently consists of three trenches (trench one, three and four). Trench two was taken over by trench three when it was expanded. Trench four is on the slope of the hill as you walk up the cliff to the cave and is a midden site based on the amounts of ‘trash’ and the mixed context layers. Trench three is the largest trench and my personal favourite. The upper layers were of mixed context and provided some great medieval artifacts from pottery, textile, a piece of a manuscript, a Armenian version of a hearth, among other things dating to the medieval period. However, the majority of the trench is dedicated to the time period called the aneolithic or chalcolithic which is the name used for the copper age. The copper age was a short period between the Neolithic (when people became less nomadic and began domestication of plants and animals) and the Early Bronze Age. The Chalcolithic is an amazingly interesting transitional phase in human history. Trench three is where the famous Areni Shoe was found (dating 5500 years) and is also home to many in situ ceramic vessels of all sizes. There has also been many grape seeds and plum pits found here which are being genetically tested and examined to determine if the species were wild, domesticated or in the in-between stage. This will help us understand the technological advances, and how sedentary these people were at the period. Trench one is inside the cave, which is lit with lights strung on rope on the cave walls. Trench one is was completely uncontaminated and everything there was considered to be in the exact place they were left when the people abandoned the sight (referred to as in situ). Trench three was recently victim to looting, the only painted vessel known in Armenia dating to this period (the only others similar are found in Iran) had its lid broken and the contents were stolen. Because we don’t know what was in there yet we are now missing a large piece of the puzzle. It is also possible that this pot contained human remains as many burials were in ceramic vessels. The initial test borings conducted in Trench Three uncovered three of such burials. These burials are considered primary burials in the archaeological context, but secondary burials from a biological anthropologists standpoint as they would have been dismembered immediately after death (based of the quality of organic preservation) and defleshed (based on cutmarks) and then placed in the pots and buried. The interesting part was that the skulls were caked in unbaked clay before put into the pots for burial. This has no practical use and so it can be assumed that this was ceremonial in purpose. One of the skulls has amazingly preserved brain matter and is considered “the world’s oldest brain.”

After getting a history of the last few years of excavation at Areni, the history of the Chalcolithic people of the Caucuses, and the geological history of karstic caves, such as Areni, we watched the surveyor’s grid the new trench two which is where we will be working. At my last field school we did all our own survey work and I really enjoyed using a theodolite and doing mapping and gridding... to me is just comes with the territory. The Areni site is fairly high profile now and so it has the budget to hire a survey crew. I was a little frusterated with the lack of translation during the surveying as I feel it’s an important skill for all archaeologists to learn and would have been a great refresher for me. I loved how the theodolite here had a laser... so no one had to stand with a stadia rod like the old school theodolite we used at MUN.

The rest of the week we spent opening our trench, and if any of my Chain Rockers are reading this ... if you think lifting the sod on Signal Hill was bad... try three feet of solid dung. It was like cement. We had to take pick-axes to it and have the workers take their shovels just to get to a softer layer. So week one is done, and we haven’t even gotten our trowels out yet.

We also began lab rotations and began washing pottery from last year’s excavation. It’s really interesting to see the ceramics from the site, most are considered stonewares and there are no glazes. Some of the pots are burnished black and some have ochre coloring. I noticed that the majority of the pottery shards show signs of reduced kiln atmosphere, which is when the firing temperatures are not hot enough and it cases the clay to layer as the insides were never completely baked.

Can’t wait to reach a cultural layer and get finding some of our own artifacts!

Areni Bound

On the 25th it was time to bid farewell to Yerevan, Armenia’s capitol city. I have really fallen in love with the city, the gorgeous opera house and republic square which has coloured light and fountain shows, the amazing outdoor cafes and bars, and the open air markets. However, we were all so excited to finally see Yereghnadzor and Areni where we would be living and digging. In the morning we met up at Kristine’s apartment and walked to the Armenian Institute of Archaeology. When we arrived at the Institute we got to meet with the head of the Institute and we talked to him about our individual interests and areas of study and he talked about the opportunities the institute offers. He invited us all to come back and that we can have access to any research they have in the future if we wish to continue the study of Caucuses history. He was excited to hear that my area is late antiquity to medieval periods as these areas are the least studied here in Armenia (recent years the primary focuses has been on Urartian, Copper Age and Bronze Ages.

We visited the lab at the institute and watched one of the conservationists and ceramicists putting together Bronze Age pots. We also stopped outside of a house in the outskirts of Yerevan and when we went inside we saw it had been turned into a laboratory for physical anthropologists and archaeologists. Not sure what made us drool more... the amazing amounts of human bones being sorted and studied, or the house full of the most attractive Irish archaeologists I have ever encountered. Every girl in my crews jaws dropped. I was really hoping some of these archaeologists would be making their way to Areni, but unfortunately they will be staying in Yerevan unless we uncover some crazy remains. We got to see the pelvic bone that was excavated from our cave site that is under study now, and we got a briefing on how to handle organics that will be tested in the future. Obviously no touching with hands or work gloves but they also must be extracted with a sterile trowel and they even go as far to say that protection suits must be worn so your breath and saliva does not contaminate the remains, from there the remains are bagged in tinfoil bags and put in an environment controlled cooler box and taken to the lab.

From here we piled into the cars and began hour drive to Yereghnadzor which is closer to the Azerbaijani and Iranian borders. On our way we stopped at two historic sites, one was just a grassy field which was once an ancient trading centre, the other was the very famous Khor Virap Monastery. The Khor Virap Monastery is famous as it is the monastery that Gregory the Illuminated was held prisoner in for 13 years. Gregory the Illuminator is considered the founder of the Armenian Christian Church and the dungeon he was said to stay in is a major tourist attraction and pilgrimage location. It was the said the King who put him in there was turned into a pig and the only way to cure him was to free Gregory and become Christian. Many of the crew went into the dungeon, and I am kind of kicking myself now for not going in. I was wearing a dress and flip flops and I am not a fan of heights and it was a twenty foot drop off with only a rickety ladder that didn’t go the entire way. Another highlight of Khor Virap was the wedding we got to witness and the most intense moustache I have ever seen on a man. I took pictures... expect them soon.

Our next stop was to a road side vendor who was selling fresh cherries with braided stems that allowed them to be held as a bundle, we washed them in the fountains and they were so delicious! I love all the roadside vendors selling teas, fruits, vegetables... and my favourite... homemade wines! As we got near our destination we pulled up to a stand that had two older women selling what appeared to be Coca Cola. Once we arrived we found out that the Coca Cola bottles were used and refilled with the homemade wine they were selling. We got to taste test the wines and we bought both dry red wine and semi sweet red wine for supper (aka sweet wine, and really fucking sweet wine.... no such things as an actually dry or white wine here in Armenia as I have discovered... but I am really learning to love the sweet red wines here).

After taking another quick stop at the cave to look around we headed to the dig house in Yereghandzor, which is the capitol of the Vayots Dzor province. However, it does not look like a capitol and is a very rural place. The dig house is much nicer than I pictured, we have the upper floor which has two living rooms, a small kitchen, and five bedrooms. The bathroom is located in a separate area off of the patio and has a large shower (with unlimited hot water... we are living the life!) and even more exciting a REAL TOILET! Not only does it flush, but it’s not a hole in the ground with a place for your feet as many toilets are here. We finished the night with an amazing supper made by our house cook Gohar who made many different vegetable salads, fried eggplant and peppers, pickled veggies, meat dumplings and much more... Armenian dinners are at least a two hour event. Really glad to be “home”... we have the most amazing view of the mountains from our deck and I really love the big dinners outside on the deck... it’s also nice to have the entire crew under one roof.


Buying wine on the side of the road in Areni in coke bottles


Washing cherries on the side of the road


Epic Moustache


Khor Virap Prison

Last Field Trip

Our field school coordinators definitely saved the best for last when it came to feild trips, the 24th was the last organized field trip day as the rest of my stay in Armenia will be spent digging in Areni. Our first stop was my favourite of all our trips and the most phenomenal monastery that I have ever seen. The monastery was called Gerhard and it is a huge complex with multiple rooms and chapels carved into the mountain. The inside of the monastery was dark and had intricate stone wall carvings that where only visible where the skylights hits. One of the coolest parts was the running stream through one of the chapel rooms. Buzz and Nathan and myself, after looking through the monastery, decided to climb up the mountain to check out some of the other chapels caved out of the rock, it was an incredibly steep climb but the view and the tunnel chapels where so worth it. I really cannot justify this place in words. Once down by the van we went to see the lines of street vendors selling gata (a decorative pastry with sugar and honey layer inside) taetu lavash (basically a homemade fruit roll up with raspberry, plum or apricot). The old ladies who are at the stands will yell at you to buy stuff and to not buy from the others, very strange. I also bought a doves to release at the top of the monastery, totally got ripped off but I could not pass up the chance to feel like a Michael Bolton video. I also must add that I nearly cried the entire drive to Gerhard because we were driving in out Partridge family van on the edge of the scariest cliff in the middle of the Armenian highlands (one of my many car related phobias).

The next stop was also absolutely stunning, and it was our only non-Christian religious site we visited. When Christianity became the national religion of Armenia there was a call for all pagan sites to be demolished. Garni is the last standing pagan site in Armenia, and it has been partially reconstructed from the damage that was done to the site during this period. The site had an amazing view of the mountain ranges and we also go to see an Armenian bride take her wedding photos by the temple. Outside the temple there were more street vendors selling jams and honeys and I bought some honey with the comb still in it, can’t wait to break that out when I’m home.

I was really excited to visit Lake Sevan since being in a landlocked country has definitely taken some adjustment from my usual peninsula/island home. Lake Sevan is the largest lake in Armenia and looks more like an ocean as it has great waves. I was hoping to swim, but we didn’t have the time. We climbed up to see the Lake Sevan Monasteries which were beautiful and had stone mazes around each chapel. The view was also amazing as it over looked the lake and the other mountains. On the hike down there were men selling chunks of obsidian to tourists for five bucks when if you could pick up some on the side of the road if you wanted!

After stopping to put our feet in the water in the lake we headed off to a local restaurant for a late lunch. The restaurants here are often a series of small rooms so you get your own room to dine. The restaurant owner is known for his pilaf (a roasted rice and lamb and garlic dish that is absolutely amazing) and he cooks it in the traditional way outside on a fire stove and he wears a traditional outfit while making it. He is very proud of his pilaf and invited all of us to watch him make it. We had the pilaf for supper along with a fish head soup (surprisingly good), and other traditional Armenian appetizers. The owner decided he loved us so he gave us crawfish kabobs as and extra and then invited us into his office to show us an article in National Geographic about his restaurant which he called the most famous in all Armenia. Just as we were about to hope into the van and leave he called out to us and brought out two trays of wine and asked us to join him. The wine was more like syrup and was incredibly sweet and we later found out it was a pomegranate wine. This is a perfect example of my experiences with Armenian hospitality.
We got into the two cars to leave and took a scenic route home, the van holding Kristine, Nathan, Buzz, Collette and Nani decided to stop on the roadside and so our driver pulled over too. The next thing I know we are all dancing on the side of the road in the middle of the Armenian highlands to traditional Armenian music while Kristine teaches us all traditional dancing. I think someone slipped something into the pomegranate wine because everyone was definitely a little loopy.

For our last night in Yerevan myself and my roommates Lauren and Taylor decided to adventure on our own downtown and we walked around the city and stopped into a cafe. The cafe had bruchetta and we were extremely happy to have something we recognized. The waiters here are always so excited for “Armericans” and the one here spoke some English and would come by every ten minutes to tell us the soccer scores and sat with us after his shift to watch the game with us.


Lake Sevan


Garni


Gerhard

The Armenian Holy See

The field trip on the 23rd was the one I was anticipating the most. I am a Religious Studies major and religion, especially early Christianity, is a major interest of mine, as is early monastic life and religious architecture. Today’s focus was almost entirely on Armenia’s rich Christian heritage. Most people don’t know that Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as their national religion in 301 CE. The Armenian Apostolic Church separated early from the Roman Church and so the Christianity practiced in Armenia is a far cry from most Christian groups we are used to in the western world; their variant of Christianity is most like Greek Orthodox Churches.

The day began with the Armenian Museum of Art and Ethnography, which was a nice museum that had great displays on Armenian textiles, costumes, foods, as well as historic and prehistoric Armenian artifacts. It’s always really cool to see artifacts in museums that were found by our professor Dr. Areshian. I can't wait to see my name next to an artifact plaque someday.

After the museum of Ethnography we went to Etchmiadzin, which is the Holy See of Armenia or the “Armenian Vatican.” The main church in Etchmiadzin is absolutely beautiful, with vibrant religious frescos, and beautiful architecture. One thing I really like about Armenian churches is the candle stands they have. They hold sand and water and when you visit the church you stick long yellow candles into it and then light the candle as a prayer. Another unique thing is there are not any masses or sermons, you simply visit the church when you please and often a priest will be there preaching or praying aloud. I also noticed at Etchmiadzin, which is also were priests are trained and where many live while studying the religion, that there is an insane number of very young men becoming priests. Not something seen in Catholicism these days. We walked around the grounds of the church and we were hoping to see the basement of the Etchmiadzin church, as archaeologist’s uncovered pagan temple ruins in the basement. However, the clergymen were not happy about our request, even though one of the members of the group was involved in the excavation, and we were not allowed to see it. They would rather that no one knows the pagan ruins exist because the site of the church, according to Christian legend, was picked divinely by God. The existance of these pagan ruins show that like many Christian sites, it was only chosen out of convenience for converting the local pagan groups.

After Etchmiadzin we headed into the nearby town for lunch, were we once again had veggies and salty basturma pizza. I am really, really craving bbq or something that’s not vegetables or salty beef jerky on sauceless pizza.

Next we visited one of the Vagharshapa churches. The story behind this is 32 virgins were killed by a King who was mad that one of them wouldnt marry him. They are now thought of as matyrs, and a church was decated to each of them. I loved this church, it was stunningly beautiful and had a large painting above the arches. The trademark of Armenian churches is the large red stone brick used on their exteriors, and the raw stone interiors with open skylights and windows without glass. The side doors of the Armenian churches are often wooden and very tiny (I have to duck when walking through, and I’m only 5’6) and extremely elaborately carved. There were some priests and elderly women sitting at the entrance of the church, and even though I was wearing a floor length dress (which I bought specifically for visiting churches and monasteries on this trip) and long sleeve shirt over it we all got plenty of disapproving stares for our attire.

Our last site to visit in the area was the Zvartnots ruins. This church (which we saw a model of in the National Museum) was once one of the grandest churches in Armenia. The Ruins were stunningly beautiful, with only elaborately carved stone columns still standing. Everyone was really quiet when we first arrived as it was so breathtaking and surreal. We walked around the site to also find where wine was once made nearby, with large pithoi still in situ.

That night everyone was exhausted, but we got together for dinner at a place in Yerevan known for their Armenian bbq and kabobs. We had lamb, chicken, and beef kabobs and they were all amazing. I have really acquired a taste for lamb, even though I never was a huge fan before. After dinner we went for a walk around Yerevan trying to find a dance club, but it was clearly the wrong night and we were never able to find a place to party. The boys got tired of walking around town and headed home, so myself and the rest of the girls decided to hit up “old faithful” our favourite outdoor lounge and hooka bar for some drinks and munchies. I was so dehydrated from the heat that I opted out of my typical Mojito and went for a non-alcoholic fresh squeezed watermelon juice. So yummy, I really want to try the fresh squeezed kiwi juice next time.


Zvarnots Ruins

Vagharshapa, Church of the Virgins

The "Armenian Vatican" Etchmiadzin Basilica

Around the Holy See

Yerevan Museums

On the morning of the 22nd me and my two roomates woke up and waited for our driver (who says my accent is too strong to understand and that I should speak better English!) to come pick us up. We met with the rest of the crew at one of the best views in the city, the A tower which commemorates the war period between Armenians and the Turks. After a brief history lesson and some group photo shots we got into our jeeps and headed to a place just outside of the city called Erebuni.

Erebuni is a Urartu fortress that was built in 785 BCE. The Fortress has been reconstructed and a small museum was built to display artifacts recovered as well as artifacts from the period found elsewhere in the region. I was astounded at how large some of the pithoi (essentially big clay jugs for my non-archaeologists) were - many were much taller than I am.

My absolute favourite museum of all time is the Matenadaran Institute, also known as the Armenian Manuscript Museum. The building is phenomenal with amazing statues outside to represent Mesrop Mashtots, the creator of the Armenian alphabet. Once inside I was in absolute heaven. Most people know I have a big thing for medieval manuscripts, especially illuminated ones (aka the ones with the pretty pictures). I have pretty much begged to see the Book of Hours that Memorial University has, but since I have no “research reason” they wont let me see it in person. So this was my first time getting to really look at illuminated manuscripts. The institute is not only a museum but also a research and conservation facility so we were able to see manuscripts which were considered “sick” and in a state of restoration. I was in absolute awe over the displays as the pigments and inks used where still extremely vibrant and were not in a friable state like I would imagine most vellum manuscripts of that age to be. The artwork and scribary was amazing, the bindings were extravagantly adorned with precious and semi precious stones, and they came in all sizes, from ones you could fit in a back pocket to ones the size of a dining table! Most were written in Armenian or Greek but they had a selection of manuscripts from around the world, including one in Hebrew which was a nice test for me since I am VERY out of practice. Unfortunately, I was only able to sneak one picture past the gaurds, which makes me very sad as it seriously may be the highlight of all the field trips for me.

After the manuscript museum everyone was starving, so we headed back to Caucasus, which seems to be the favourite restaurant of everyone in the field program. We had the typical fresh herbs, cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, and lavash spread. We also tried Spas which is a thin yogurt and barley based soup. I personally wasn’t a fan of this traditional soup, but everyone except me and Nathan loved it so our bowls never went to waste.

From lunch we went to the Armenian Genocide Museum and monument. It’s sad that we learn so much about the Holocaust in schools and we hear about Rwanda, and many other well known Genocides, but we are never taught about the Armenian Genocide. I can’t remember ever learning about the Armenian Genocide in history classes and I was shocked to hear the number of casualties, statistics and events of this period. Our guide did an excellent job talking about such a sombre topic and it was clearly very emotional. The Armenian Genocide happened in stages, first killing Armenian intellects such as writers, artists, scientists and composers, and then clergymen, and finally rounding up Armenian citizens for death. The photographs blown up on the walls showed horrifying images of emaciated bodies of both adults and children, and mass execution graves eerily resembling the well known images of the Holocaust seen in textbooks. After our tour we went out and went to the memorial which is a large stone structure with a torch in the middle. Everyone was really quiet and taking it all in, as there were other visitors there leaving flowers and praying... until we saw a guy who followed us at the Manuscript museum who felt it was appropriate to walk up and say “heyyy whassup girl” and started throwing pick up lines at us, so embarrassing and disrespectful.

The final Museum on our tour was the National Museum of History, although we were a little stretched for time and with someone who loved to lecture about the Bronze Age (and hated my beloved medieval period), we were able to rush through the Museum and look and some amazing artifacts from all periods of Armenian history (including some of the most intense bling I have seen).

After all of our Museum hopping we went home to rest and then met up with everyone to find the same Lahmajoon place we had been to before, as some of the girls had not been. We got very lost and ended up walking for three hours around Yerevan, and when it was found it was closed. We went to another pizza place which served the saltiest pizza with Basturma (a dried Armenian sausage) on top.

After supper myself, Taylor, Nathan, and Lauren split from the group to discover the Armenian nightlife. We heard some booming techno coming from a club and so we walked in only to find a room the size of a bathroom with a strobe light, a boom box, and some guys with bottles of alcohol on the table! After that sketchy experience we opted for one of the many outdoor bars and lounges in Yerevan and had some cocktails. I also lost my Hooka virginity. Most people know I don’t smoke at all, but I couldn’t turn this down because it’s so popular here and it’s something I’ve never had the chance to try it at home. I was really surprised at how smooth it was, iand it smelt amazing because we had a mix of rose and mnt. It was a really great night and a hilarious time, I really enjoy the outdoor lounge vibe and the servers here love us!


Armenian Genocide Monument


Hooka with Lauren, Taylor and Nathan


Spas (Yogurt soup) and lavash with herbs and lori cheese.


Pithoi from Erebuni


Group shot