UNIQUE PLACES

Shengavit is one of the key monuments of the Early Bronze Age, representing universal value.

The Shengavit settlement is located in the southwestern part of Yerevan, on the flat top and slopes of the hill-promontory on the southern, left bank of the Hrazdan River, now Lake Yerevan. It consists of a multi-layered settlement and a burial ground.

Founded in the 4th millennium BC, it survived for more than 1000 years, until the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. In 2900-2700 BC, stone-built, 2-4 m wide walls were built along the perimeter of the top of the promontory. Shengavit was a continuously developing agricultural, livestock, metallurgical, religious and commercial-industrial center surrounded by neighboring villages. Not long ago, before the construction of Lake Yerevan, the village of Koghb was located on the site, with its gardens and arable land.

In the Early Bronze Age, irrigated agriculture reached a high level of development in the Armenian Highlands, as evidenced by the unprecedented number of agricultural tools found during excavations. Stone adzes, hundreds of flint sickle blades, which were attached to wooden or bone bases with bitumen, boat-shaped awls made of porous basalt, beaters made of river stones, sanders, mortars, etc.

Archaeological research in Shengavit began in 1936-1938. and continue to this day. It was found that Shengavit had at least 500-700 houses with a population of approximately 5000-6000. Traces of artisan activity have been documented in different parts of the city: metal and stone processing workshops, grain storage pits. Shengavit, with its construction, architectural monuments and complex religious system (a temple dating back to the second half of the 3rd millennium BC was discovered during excavations in 2012), is among the famous urban settlements of the Ancient East. As a result of the excavations, a three-row wall chain consisting of a rampart-retaining wall was discovered on the northern and western sides facing the Hrazdan Gorge, reinforced with rectangular wall-towers in plan. A 30 m long and 1.5 m high secret passage built of slabs and covered-disguised with earth (3rd millennium BC, state index: 1.11.2.1) descended into the Hrazdan River through one of the towers.

Outside the wall surrounding the city, in the abandoned suburb, a tomb field dating back to the first half of the 3rd millennium BC spreads. So far, 15 burials have been discovered. The ritual of embalming was widespread. The jewelry and beads made of gold, silver, bronze, sardius, jasper, marble, travertine, limestone, tuff, bone, sea snails, terracotta and glass found in the tombs testify to the deep social stratification. Among the monuments discovered during the excavations of the tombs is a phallus dating back to the 3rd millennium BC, placed in front of the museum. It is a stone, wide at the bottom, narrowing at the top, with a phallic ending. It is carved from gray tuff, and has dimensions of 210 x 60 x 40 cm. The cult of phalli, associated with the cult of male fertility, was widespread in the early agricultural and early Bronze Age cultures of the Ancient World. In the early Bronze Age culture called Shengavit or Kur-Araks, it was reflected in sexually emphasized signs: in male figurines, in relief sculptures of mobile and fixed clay cult centers (Karaz, Harich, Shengavit, Orkhevi, etc.).