#metsamor

ARMENIAN Գյուղացիները երգում են Կողթենի հնամենի գուսանական երգերը։ Ես լսում եմ դրանք ավտոբուսի պատուհանից, երբ անցնում ենք կողքով։ Արևը բրոնզացրել է Արագածոտնի դաշտերը, Արագածոտնի խաղողի այգիները, մեղվանոցները, ծիրանները։ Գյուղացիները երգում են, որ իրենք հարուստ են հողի առատությամբ։ Ես լսում եմ դրանք ավտոբուսի պատուհանից, երբ անցնում ենք կողքով։ Երբեմն փոքր երկրաշարժեր են լինում, և բոլոր ծիրանները դողում են իրենց ճյուղերի վրա։ Բոլոր խաղողը պարում է իր որթատունկի վրա։ Գյուղացիները ծիծաղում են և ասում, որ հողը պատրաստ է իր առատությունը պարգևելուն։ Գյուղացիները երգում են Կողթենի հնամենի գուսանական երգերը։ Ես լսում եմ դրանք ավտոբուսի պատուհանից, երբ անցնում ենք կողքով։ Արևը բրոնզացրել է Արագածոտնի դաշտերը, Արարատի լանջերը և Մեծամորի՝ Չեռնոբիլի քրոջ չորս սառեցման աշտարակները, որոնք սրբազան մի բանի պես խոյանում են գյուղատնտեսական հողերի վերև։ Ես դիտում եմ դրանք ավտոբուսի պատուհանից, երբ անցնում ենք կողքով։ Ահա այն բերքը, որի մասին Կողտենի հին գյուղացիները երբեք չէին կարող երազել։ Ահա բերքը։ ENGLISH The villagers sing the ancient Gusan songs of Koghten. I hear them from the bus window as we pass by. The sun has bronzed the fields of Aragatsotn, the vineyards of Aragatsotn, the beehives, the apricots. The villagers sing that they are rich in the abundance of the land. I hear them from the bus window as we pass by. Sometimes there are small earthquakes, and all the apricots tremble on their branches. All the grapes dance on their vines. The villagers laugh and say that the land is ready to give up its abundance. The villagers sing the ancient Gusan songs of Koghten. I hear them from the bus window as we pass by. The sun has bronzed the fields of Aragatsotn, the slopes of Ararat, and the four cooling towers of Metsamor, Chernobyl’s sister, towering like a sacred object above the farmland. I watch them from the bus window as we pass by. Here is the harvest that the old villagers of Koghten could never have dreamed of. Here is the harvest.

Notes.

Ah, Metsamor, 36 kilometers west of Yerevan in the Aragatsotn valley, the same design as Chernobyl, sitting on an earthquake fault line in the heart of Armenia's farmlands. What could possibly go wrong?

Back when I would take the autobus from Yerevan to Gyumri I would pass close by all of this and marvel at just how insane the entire thing was. Peace Corps had no contingency plan for a nuclear disaster (everyone was fairly certainly that it wasn't a question of if Metsamor would melt down, just when) other than issuing us all iodine pills and instructing us to flee to the nearest neighboring country to seek safety (because nuclear fallout respects international boundaries).

I use the line, "ancient Gusan songs of Koghten." Gusans are ancient bardic songs. What's important about Koghten is that it is a region in ancient Armenia famous for its "pagan" folk music, as one guidebook put it, which I'm assuming means pre-Christian poetry. I wanted to evoke an ancient tradition of prayers and blessings for a fruitful harvest.

Archaeologists in Armenia Discover an Ancient ‘Golden Tomb’

It's the latest find from a joint Polish and Armenian excavation effort begun in 2013.

Archaeologists at Metsamor, an ancient necropolis in Armenia, have discovered a tomb filled with gold pendants and more than a hundred amber and carnelian beads. Dating to the late Bronze Age (1,300 to 1,200 B.C.E.), the grave also held the remains of a man and a woman, who appear to have be buried at the same time.

“Their death is a mystery to us, we do not know the cause, but everything indicates that they died at the same time, because there are no traces of tomb reopening,” Krzysztof Jakubiak, an archaeology professor at the University of Warsaw, said in a statement.

Laid to rest in an eternal embrace, the couple was buried in a cist, a stone-lined chamber dug into the ground. Believed to have died in their 30s, one wore bronze bracelets, the other a tin wire ring.

The grave also included a wooden burial bed, a faience flask, and about a dozen ceramic vessels. According to researchers, the beads and pendants were originally part of three necklaces, and the flask would have been imported from the Syrian-Mesopotamian borderland.

The research project at the Ararack Valley is a joint effort the Polish Center of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw and Armenia’s Service for the Protection of Historical Environment and Cultural Museum-Reserves, led by Jakubiak and Ashot Piliposian. The partnership has been ongoing since 2013, according to the Greek publication Archaeology; an exhibition of their findings opened last fall at the Armenian History Museum in nearby Yerevan.

To date, archaeologists have discovered about 100 graves in the cemetery, but the newly found golden tomb is one of the few that were not looted prior to the start of excavations in 1965. The cist graves would have been covered with burial mounds of earth that have eroded over the centuries.

Because the ancient Armenians do not appear to have been illiterate, and left behind no written records, archaeologists know little about Metsamor society. The walled settlement was at its height from 4th to the 2nd millennium B.C.E., with temple complexes surrounding a central fortress.

“It was a very large settlement. Even fortifications made of huge stone blocks have survived to our times, encircling the so-called citadel on the hill,” Jakubiak said. “There was no other settlement in the region that could be compared in terms of importance and size.”

INTERVIEW: Metsamor Archaeological Site 

METSAMOR, which is located 32 km (20 mi) west of Yerevan, Armenia is one of the most interesting archaeological sites in the Caucasus. While first settled and founded as a Bronze Age city, people continuously inhabited Metsamor through Urartian rule until the early Modern Era, making it an especially rich archaeological site. James Blake Wiener (Ancient History Encyclopedia's Communications Director) speaks to Professor Krzysztof Jakubiak (Director of the Polish Team for the Armenian-Polish excavation at Metsamor) about the archaeological work undertaken at the site by his team as well as the Metsamor's importance in the region.

Erevan, near the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant, Armenia

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