Shengavit museum project continues fundraising effort
Published: Saturday May 25, 2013
>From left: Dr. Arshak Balayan, translator; Mr. Vladimir Tshagharyan,
Shengavit Director; Dr. Mitchell Rothman, archaeologist, Widener
University, PA; Dr. Susan Pattie, ALMA director.
WATERTOWN, MASS. – Vladimir Tshagharyan, director of the Shengavit
Historical and Archeological Preserve in Yerevan, gave an illustrated
presentation on the Shengavit Preserve at the Armenian Library and
Museum of America (ALMA) in Watertown on April 12.
The event was organized by the Cambridge-Yerevan Sister City
Association (CYSCA) as part of its participation in the Cambridge
Science Festival. CYSCA was joined in this effort by ALMA and the
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR).
Mr. Tshagharyan came to the Boston area at the invitation of CYSCA,
which has established a project to help preserve and restore
Shengavit. Tshagharyan’s presentation and the following discussion
were moderated by Dr. Susan Pattie, anthropologist and director of
ALMA. Joining in the discussion was Dr. Mitchell Rothman, Professor of
Anthropology at Widener University in Pennsylvania, who has spent
several seasons excavating at Shengavit and intends to publish a
monograph on the site. Rothman followed up Tshagharyan’s presentation
with a talk on the significance of Shengavit within the wider context
of “Shengavit” or “Kura-Araxes” civilizations.
Shengavit was the first Stone Age settlement discovered in Armenia,
located south-east of Lake Yerevan, across from the US Embassy. It was
inhabited as early as the fourth millennium BCE, and continued to be
occupied for over a thousand years. Among the remains recovered from
the site are obsidian stone tools, weapons such as mace heads and bone
knives, burnished clay pots, small statues, and even wheat flour which
has stood the test of time.
The Shengavit site was first excavated in 1936 by Eugeni Bayburtian
(1898-1938) and Joseph Orbelli (1887-1961). Bayburtian’s work on
Shengavit was regrettably cut short in 1938, when he was exiled to
Siberia and subsequently executed as part of Stalin’s Great Purge; his
writings were forbidden, and were discovered again only a decade ago.
Excavations of Shengavit were resumed in the 1950s under Sandro
Sardaryan (1912-1995) and then again in recent years under Hakob
Simonyan and Mitchell Rothman.
It is only in recent years that Shengavit has begun to receive much of
the attention that it deserves, brought about largely through the
tireless efforts of Tshagharyan and the continued support of CYSCA. As
a result of Tshagharyan’s persistence, two hospitals that had been
built upon the preserve returned a portion their plots to Shengavit,
which now enjoys an area of 5 ½ hectares. A fence has been built
around a portion of the site and policemen are now on guard to protect
the area. The Shengavit museum, made up of an old military barracks
and closed for more than two decades, was reopened in 2010. In 2012,
Shengavit was paid a visit by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and
U.S. Ambassador John Heffern. Although Shengavit is still unknown to
many of the citizens of Yerevan, and there are not yet many tourists
due to a lack of visitor facilities, it is hoped that the situation
will improve with the continued support of CYSCA.
CYSCA continued its involvement in the Cambridge Science Festival at
the Cambridge Public Library on the afternoon of Saturday, April 13.
CYSCA’s presence at the Festival centered on the Armenia Tree Project
(ATP), an environmental organization that has been instrumental in the
reforestation of Armenia since 1994. ATP has planted and restored more
than 4 million trees in Armenia, creating numerous jobs for
impoverished Armenians through its tree-regeneration programs. Also
featured at the Festival was ATP’s Building Bridges Program, an
environmental education program seeking to “build bridges” between
Armenian students in the Diaspora and their peers in Armenia. As part
of this effort to connect Armenian and American students with their
environmental heritage, CYSCA’s booth exhibited some of the activities
of the Ohanyan School in Yerevan, including costumes and dolls woven
from recycled garbage bags.
For more on these various projects, see and
Shengavit director hosted by Knights and Daughters of Vartan in Worcester
On April 29 Mr. Tshagharyan was hosted at a joint dinner meeting of
Knights Of Vartan Arshavir Lodge No.2 and the Daughters Of Vartan
Santoukht Otyag No. 5. About 100 people attended the illustrated talk
at the Armenian Church Of Our Saviour in Worcester. Dr. Tigran
Dolukhanyan translated Tshagharyan’s comments which were in Armenian.
Prior to the talk, Worcester’s Mayor Joseph Petty presented the key to
the city to Mr. Tshagharyan and praised Tshagharyan’s effort at
preserving Armenia’s historical heritage and cultural legacy. In
return, Mr. Tshagharyan presented the mayor with a book on Yerevan (in
English) together with a desktop Armenian flag and a flag with
Yerevan’s insignia. He invited the mayor to visit Yerevan as his
guest.
The oldest layer of the Shengavit archaeological site is a Neolithic
settlement (late Stone Age) with remains of buildings and artifacts
from the daily living of its inhabitants dating to 3500-4000 BC. Since
that time the site has been continuously inhabited, later becoming
part of the Urartun Empire, and then part of the early Armenian
kingdoms. The site has revealed ancient homes of the inhabitants,
tools, animal bones, grave sites, and flour which amazingly have been
preserved to this date. Mr. Tshagharyan described the history of the
site and its importance for the study of regional civilization as
Shengavit had cultural and trade relations over a wide area.
Mr. Tshagharyan has been director of the site for about 3 years and
has extensive experience in managing Armenia’s ancient historic
monuments. Shengavit was originally excavated in the 1930 but most
recently has been largely ignored with zero funding by both the
Armenia and Yerevan governments. During the last few years excavations
have resumed there but with no funding for maintaining the site,
including its small but interesting museum. About two years ago the
Cambridge Yerevan Sister City Association (CYSCA) initiated a plan to
financially help with site preservation and renovation. Since that
time much progress has been made but much more needs to be done to
make the site visitor friendly.
Following the formal part of the talk, a long and lively question and
answer session ensued, after which both the Knights and Daughters of
Vartan presented details of many programs they help fund. Both the
Avak Sbarabed of the Knights, Mr. Nighogos Artinizian, and the Avak
Dirouhie of the Daughters of Vartan, Agnes Sahagian, gave reports on
recent activities and accomplishments. The Knights of Vartan concluded
with a generous donation to Shengavit through the Cambridge Yerevan
Sister City Association.
From: A. Papazian