Landlocked Proof?: Scientists say Aghdam holds remains of Tigranakert

ArmeniaNow ^ | September 01, 2006 | Gayane Abrahamyan

[SunkenCiv]

East of the NKR capital of Stepanakert, in Aghdam, archeologists uncovered remains believed to be part of a kingdom built by Armenian king (1st Century BC) Tigran the Great... The first stage of the excavations revealed a 33-meter long wall of one of the citadel terraces with huge polished stones, swallow-tailed couplings, a 5th to 6th century basilica and thousands of pottery, jewelry and casks. "The masonry with the swallow-tailed couplings is very important for dating for this construction technique is very typical to Hellenistic epoch, when the monolith blocs of stones joined by big metal couplings, were filled with lead and grouting," says Doctor of Archeology Lyuba Kirakosyan. The masonry of the walls can be found also in Artashat and Armavir, but Kirakosyan says, this is the first time the found masonry is made in such a scrutiny and precision. The preliminary studies of the findings have shown the city of Tigranakert existed without interruption from the very day of its founding in the 1st century BC until the 13th-14th centuries AD.

[SunkenCiv]

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An archeological find a few weeks ago may add weight to Armenia's claim of historical ownership of Nagorno Karabakh.

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[SunkenCiv]

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[Moonmad27]

Interesting! (I have to admit, while being archaeologically savvy, I felt absolutely clueless when first reading the title of the article!)

[SunkenCiv]

Sounds made-up. :') I edited out the political spin when I excerpted it.

[neb52]

It would be nice if they had provided a map of the find. Has Armenian really ever had definite borders. Even in Tigran's day it ebbed and flowed, dependent on the many joint Armenian-Pontus invasions of Roman Asia Province. Was it Lucuis Lucullus or Pompei that finally killed of Tigran Armenia and destroyed his Hellenize capital?

[SunkenCiv]

Does any country? ;') Each time a new ethnic group migrated in, kingdoms toppled, borders changed, etc etc. Nineveh endured a long while as the capital of Assyria. In its final years it managed to hold off the wolves by alliance. Trouble was, the ally was another potential competitor, and two-on-two became three-on-one. (':

[Fraxinus]

I suspect that the entire anglophone world has a tendency to regard borders as permanent because the borders of those countries have rarely if ever undergone changes.

The British Isles were insulated from the frequent changes in borders that occurred in Europe before 1870. The US has only once (in 1863) had a state's border change, and many of the Eastern states have had permanent borders since the mid 1700's.

Thus many people today tend regard borders as permanent because there have been few if any changes world wide since 1945, and for most English speaking countries since circa 1870, as most of the changes in Africa were of the governments not where the borders of the countries were on the maps.

[SunkenCiv]

The British Isles were insulated from the frequent changes in borders that occurred in Europe before 1870. The US has only once (in 1863) had a state's border change, and many of the Eastern states have had permanent borders since the mid 1700's.

Quibble -- some of the eastern states have had fixed borders, but in the early 19th c VT and NY struggled over their common border, and states with no states to their west tried to claim everything straight out from their own western borders (same time frame. And British Isles borders have changed plenty of times.

But the whole world began for each of us at our births, so any change (sometimes even things for the better, like the reunification of Germany) can be disruptive and seem less commonplace that perhaps it is. :')

[ARCADIA]

Me too! I couldn't figure out what civ it referred to.