Excavations in Urartu era fortress-castle in Solak archaeological site make new discoveries

YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian-Italian joint expedition has opened the rooms of Solak-1 fortress-castle of the Van kingdom era. The pottery and other samples found in the archaeological site allow to affirm that the fortress-castle belongs to three archeological periods.

Artur Petrosyan – head of the Armenian side of the expedition, told Armenpress, most probably the Urartians built the castle, then lived there in post-Urartian and antique period, later it was used in the Middle ages.

“Our expedition has discovered the Solak-1 archaeological site as a result of a research conducted in the Kotayk province. Here excavations are being carried out since 2013. The castle can be dated back to the Urartu era, 8-5 centuries BC. Most probably, it is a part of the fortress that was linking the Urartu fortresses located in the south to the fortresses in the Sevan basin”, he said.

He informed that during the excavations of this year pottery fragments, logs have been discovered.

The archeologist said the excavations in Solak-1 fortress-castle have launched on July 3. They can already be considered as completed. “We conserve the archaeological site aimed at continuing the excavations next year”, Artur Petrosyan said.