Further Russian Excavations in Armenia (1949-1953)

Abstract

The Russian excavations at Karmir-Blur, conducted since 1939 jointly by the Institute of History of the Armenian Republic and the Hermitage Museum, are the only excavations of an Urartian site of any importance as yet made under scientific conditions. A summary of the first part of their publication was published in this Journal in 1952, and it is in keeping with the importance of this excavation that a further summary, covering the seasons 1949 to 1953, should be made available to English readers.Part II describes the seasons 1949–1950, during which the expedition continued work on the citadel and a sector of the town of , especially on its domestic quarters, and showed that this city was one of the principal administrative centres of Trans-Caucasia (Fig. 1). Particularly important was the discovery of two great storerooms, numbered 25 and 28, used for storing wine in vast pithoi (jars), the total content of which is estimated to have been about 150,000 litres of wine, apparently the equivalent of 600 akarki—the Urartian unit of liquid measure. It is pointed out, however, that King speaks of building even greater wine cellars, capable of holding 900 akarki. Remains of grape pips point to the cultivation of grapes of the type of Voskeat (Chardji), Mschali, Ararat (Hachabash) and also some black grapes.