#artaxata

Temple of Tyr-Apollo

Artashat (Artaxata), Armenia

1st century CE

The site is located on the left bank of the Arax River, next to the Taperakan (Artashat) Bridge. An earlier temple complex (189/188 BCE) was destroyed in the early 1st century, during the Roman campaign led by Domitius Corbulo, which sacked the city in 59.

A new platform was built over the old during the reign of T'rdat I (r. 53-60) and a new building was built on top. Both the platform and temple were made of limestone. Six wide steps (4.85m) led to the eastern entrance of the temple. The walls were decorated with bas relief sculptures. For a long time the locations of this site had been unknown and widely disputed. Among the artifacts found were varying sizes and types of imported and locally-made pottery including a remarkable find, a polished red lion-headed lug bowl. Also found was an eagle head made from limestone with eyes and neck painted dark red. In ancient times the lion was the symbol of the summer sun and the eagle was the symbol of both the sun and a messenger of the gods.

After Christianity was adopted as state religion the new temple, too, was destroyed.

PLACES IN THE ANCIENT WORLD: Artashat (Capital of Ancient Armenia) 

ARTASHAT (aka Artaxata) was the capital of Ancient Armenia from 176 BCE and remained so for over 300 years of the kingdom’s history. Located just south of Armenia’s modern capital Yerevan, according to the ancient historian Plutarch, the city’s original fortifications were planned by the Carthaginian general Hannibal. The city would need all the defences it could muster as it was attacked multiple times by Roman armies throughout its history until it was eventually replaced by Vagharshapat and Dvin as the country's first city.

Around 200 BCE Artaxias I (aka Artashes or Artaxerxes), backed by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus III (r. 222-187 BCE), was made the Seleucid Empire’s satrap in Armenia. Artaxias would reign until 165 or 160 BCE and found the Artaxiad dynasty which would rule Armenia until the first decade of the 1st century CE.

PORTATO ALLA LUCE EDIFICIO ECCLESIASTICO CRISTIANO DI IV SECOLO AD ARTAXATA, ARMENIA Gli archeologi della National Academy of Sciences of Armenia e dell'Università di Münster hanno portato alla luce i resti di una chiesa paleocristiana finora sconosciuta nell'antica città di Artaxata. Il ritrovamento consiste in un edificio...