My Armenian Sandbox: 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.