MONUMENTS

1968

Yerevan is one of the few ancient cities in the world that has its own birth certificate.

In the fall of 1950, during excavations on the Arin Berd hill rising in the southeastern part of the city (archaeological expedition leader: architect Kostandin Hovhannisyan), a cuneiform inscription of King Argishti I (786-764 BC), ruler of one of the powerful states of the Ancient East, the kingdom of Van (Biaynil), was discovered, which speaks of the foundation of Erebuni Castle.

The inscription was made up of four copies, and all of them have the value of the original: one is located at the archaeological site, two are in the Erebuni Museum, and the fourth is in the History Museum of Armenia. The content of the inscription is: By the greatness of the god Khald, Argishti, the son of Menua, built this impregnable fortress and named it the city of Erebuni, for the power of the land of Biaina and for the terror of enemies. Argishti says… “The land was deserted, here I accomplished great deeds. By the greatness of the god Khald, Argishti, the son of Menua, the mighty king, the king of the land of Biaina, the lord of the city of Tushpa.”

This cuneiform inscription mentioning the name Erebuni is the written certificate of the birth of the Armenian capital, irrefutable proof that Yerevan is the legal successor of Erebuni, and with it the written history of Yerevan begins.

Argishti built the fortress in the heart of the Ararat Valley, in a deserted place, in the fifth year of his reign, in 782 BC, and settled 6600 soldiers here. Erebuni was of great strategic importance for strengthening the positions of the Van Kingdom in the Ararat Valley and the northeastern regions of the Armenian Highlands, and was a major administrative and cult center.
The cuneiform inscription of the Erebuni Fortress was copied in 1968 on the occasion of the 2750th anniversary of the founding of Yerevan. In 2005, it was placed on the left side of the entrance to the Yerevan History Museum, and a stone with the Armenian transcription of the inscription was erected on the right side. The cuneiform was copied on the smoothed surface of a single, massive stone of gray basalt.