Metsamor
Dates of work: 1–31 September 2018
Team:
Co-directors: Assist. Prof. Krzysztof Jakubiak (Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw),
Prof. Ashot Piliposyan (Service for the Protection of Historical Environment and Cultural Museum-Reservations NCSO)
Archaeologists: Tatiana Adamowska (PhD candidate, Antiquity of Southeastern Europe Research Center University of Warsaw), Elisabeth Bastien (freelance), Mateusz Iskra (PhD candidate, Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw), Levon Mkrtchyan (PhD candidate, Service for the Protection of Historical Environment and Cultural Museum-Reservations NCSO), Dan Socaciu (PhD candidate, Institute of Archaeology, University of Liverpool), Marek Truszkowski (PCMA UW), Dr. Zuzanna Wygnańska (PCMA UW), Karol Zajdowski (PhD candidate, Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw), Artavazd Zakyan (PhD candidate, Metsamor Museum, Service for the Protection of Historical Environment and Cultural Museum-Reservations NCSO)
Pottery specialist: Tigran Zakyan (Service for the Protection of Historical Environment and Cultural Museum-Reservations NCSO)
Anthropologist: Hasmik Simonyan (PhD candidate, Service for the Protection of Historical Environment and Cultural Museum-Reservations NCSO)
Archaeozoologist: Kinga Bigoraj (PhD candidate, Antiquity of Southeastern Europe Research Center University of Warsaw)
Documentalist: Deborah Gawlikowska (Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)
Topographer: Menua Gevorgyan (Service for the Protection of Historical Environment and Cultural Museum-Reservations NCSO)
Archaeology student-trainees: Otto Bagi, Jerzy Ciastek, Kornelia Kasperkiewicz, Aleksandra Konrad, Ludmiła Krukowska, Julia Maczuga (all Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw), Lusine Aleqsanyan, Nerses Mamikonyan (both Service for the Protection of Historical Environment and Cultural Museum-Reservations NCSO), Astghik Simonyan (Yerevan State University), Maciej Sobczak (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań)
Volunteers: Jakub Gronowski, Małgorzata Reszka (both University of Wrocław)
The Metsamor site in the 2017 season was excavated in two areas. The main area was the so-called town area where several dwellings from the Early Iron Age were cleared. Evidence of violent site destruction included two human skeletons belonging most probably to victims of a sudden attack, left unburied after the town had been destroyed. The cemetery was the second investigated area. Exploration of kurgan XIX demonstrated that it had been looted. Nevertheless, some human remains and several artifacts in the form of bronze snake head bracelets were recorded inside the burial chamber.
Text: Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 27/1