You can’t help but wonder what historic events have taken place on these ancient lands throughout history.
Photo by Sahak Vardanyan
Garni, Armenia
03
25
13'
By Hayk Melkonyan
Can you see him on the left top?
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Armenian Goddess Astghik
03
25
13'
In the earliest prehistoric period Astghig, commonly referred to as Asya, Astghik, or Astlik, (Armenian: Աստղիկ) had been worshipped as the Armenian pagan deity of fertility and love, later the skylight had been considered her personification, and she had been the wife or lover of Vahagn. In the later heathen period she became the goddess of love, maidenly beauty, and water sources and springs.
Painting by Ara Abrahamyan
The Vartavar festival devoted to Astghik that had once been celebrated in mid July was transformed into the Christian holiday of the Transfiguration of Christ, and is still celebrated by the Armenians. As in pre-Christian times, on the day of this fest the people release doves and sprinkle water on each other with wishes of health and good luck.
With Aramazd, the father of all deities, the creator of heaven and earth, (the sun being worshiped as his personification) and Anahit that had been worshiped as Great Lady and Mother Deity (the moon being worshiped as her personification), she forms an astral trinity in the pantheon of Armenian heathen deities. In the period of Hellenistic influence, Astghik became similar to the Greek Aphrodite and the Mesopotamian Ishtar.
Her name is the diminutive of Armenian աստղ astġ, meaning “star”, which through Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr is cognate to Sanskrit stṛ, Avestan star, Pahlavi star, Persian sitara´, Pashto storai, Latin and Italian stella and astro, French astre, Spanish astro, German stern, English star, etc. Hence, the name is not believed to be related to Semitic Ishtar.
Her principal seat was in Ashtishat (Taron), located to the North from Mush, where her chamber was dedicated to the name of Vahagn, the personification of a sun-god, her lover or husband according to popular tales, and had been named “Vahagn’s bedroom”.
Other temples and places of worship of Astghik had been located in various towns and villages, such as the mountain of Palaty (to the South-West from Lake Van), in Artamet (12 km from Van), etc.
The unique monuments of prehistoric Armenia, “višap” vishaps (Arm. višap ‘serpent, dragon’) or “dragon stones”, spread in many provinces of historical Armenia – Gegharkunik, Aragatsotn, Javakhk, Tayk, etc., and are another manifastation of her worship.
Աստղիկ
նկարիչ` Գոռ Աբրահամյան
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Pagan Temple,Garni, Armenia
03
24
13'
Garni Temple, Armenia, 3rd century BC.
The first literary testimony to the existence of a fortress on the spur crowning the site of Garni comes from the Roman historian Tacitus and dates from the middle of the 1st century AD. Excavation of the existing remains was conducted for a brief period in 1909–1910 and was later resumed (1949) by Soviet archaeologists. The results have shown that the actual fortification had been erected much earlier, probably sometime in the 3rd century BC as a summer residence for the Armenian Orontid and Artaxiad royal dynasties.
The systematic excavation of the site has unearthed six successive occupation layers. The earliest traces of habitation date back to the eneolithic period. A Bronze Age and a Classical layer followed by three distinct medieval layers complete the occupation history of the site.
Mongait, A.L., Archaeology in the U.S.S.R., translated and adapted by M. W. Thompson, Baltimore-Maryland (1961), pp. 214–216
Garni, Armenia” The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Timothy Darvill. Oxford University Press, 2008.
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HAPPY PALM SUNDAY!
03
24
13'
Today Armenians celebrate Palm Sunday.
HAPPY PALM SUNDAY! Have a Blessed Sunday!
The Four Gospels, manuscript on paper, copied by the scribe Astuatsatour in Karbi in 1317.The picture shows Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem on the Feast of Palm Sunday. The two blue stamps inform us that in 1868 the manuscript belonged to the [Armenian] Parish Council of Edessa. (The British Library, MS.Or.2680).
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Armenian Alphabet
03
23
13'
For about 250 years, from the early 18th century until around 1950, more than 2000 books in the Turkish language were printed using the Armenian script. Not only did Armenians read Armeno-Turkish, but so did the non-Armenian (including the Ottoman Turkish) elite. The Armenian script was also used alongside the Arabic script on official documents of the Ottoman Empire written in Ottoman Turkish. For instance, the first novel to be written in the Ottoman Empire was Vartan Pasha’s (Armenian) 1851 Akabi Hikayesi, written in the Armenian script. Also, when the Armenian Duzoglu family managed the Ottoman mint during the reign of Abdülmecid I, they kept records in Armenian script, but in the Turkish language. From the end of the 19th-century, the Armenian alphabet was also used for books written in the Kurdish language in the Ottoman Empire.
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