Project ArAGATS is a collaborative archaeological research program
dedicated to the exploration of southern Caucasia’s rich past and the
preservation of modern Armenia’s diverse cultural heritage. Our mission
is to investigate critical anthropological and historical problems in
the region from the earliest times through the modern era, utilizing
cutting-edge techniques of field study and laboratory analysis. In
order to do so, we are committed to educating and training a new
generation of archaeologists in contemporary approaches to analysis, to
presenting the results of work in both scholarly and popular fora, and
to preserving the region’s sites and material culture for succeeding
generations.
Founded in 1998 by Dr. Adam T. Smith (Department of Anthropology,
University of Chicago) and Dr. Ruben S. Badalyan (Institute of
Archaeology and Ethnography, Yerevan), Project ArAGATS is celebrating
its 10th anniversary in 2008.
To date, our investigations have been focused in the Tsaghkahovit
Plain of Central Armenia which lies just under the northern slopes of
Mt. Aragats.
In 1998 and 2000, we completed the first systematic intensive
regional survey ever conducted in the South Caucasus. This work
recorded a complex history of settlements, ranging from large Early
Bronze Age (Kura-Araxes) villages, to stone-walled Late Bronze Age
fortresses, to well-planned towns of the mid-first millennium B.C. But
beyond the restricted confines of these settlements our survey recorded a
landscape crowded with the cemeteries, irrigation canals, reservoirs,
and corrals of millennial of occupation.
Abramishvili 2003 (1.6 MiB)
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