The 2022-2024 Excavations of the Vedi Fortress in Armenia

Abstract

<p>The Ararat Plain Southeast Archaeological Project (APSAP) is a collaborative research effort between the University of Hong Kong and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Republic of Armenia’s National Academy of Sciences. APSAP’s goal is to investigate life and mobility at the important mountain-plain intersection of the Vedi River Valley, which connects the fertile Ararat Plain to the west with the resource-rich mountains to the east. As part of this wider focus on human-environment relationships in the valley, APSAP has undertaken three summer seasons of intensive excavation of the Vedi Fortress, a large and prominent site built to protect the valley’s entrance. This work indicates that the site was initially fortified during the Late Bronze Age (LBA; ca 1550-1200 BCE) with two lines of monumental walls. The Fortress continued in use through the Iron Age I (ca 1200-800 BCE), at the end of which it appears to have been burned and abandoned. Some evidence points to limited reuse of the site during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, but the next major reoccupation occurs in the Early Medieval (EM; Late Antique; ca 450-650 CE) period. During this time, when Armenia was under Sasanian Persian suzerainty, the Vedi Fortress was refortified by reusing and repairing the original LBA walls. We have uncovered the EM occupation of the site in multiple areas, allowing us to paint a picture of life and material culture in the South Caucasus at a time when it sat between the vying powers of the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires. This paper presents the results from APSAP’s excavations of the Vedi Fortress, which help situate Armenia within the wider world of the Sasanian Empire. <br></p>