YEREVAN, JUNE 7, ARMENPRESS. Unique discoveries were made as excavations resumed at the Arshakuni Tomb in Aghdzk, archaeologist Hakob Simonyan told a press conference.

Aghdzk is a village on the slopes of Mount Aragats.

King Shapur II of Persia exhumed the bones of the Armenian kings and took them to Persia symbolically taking Armenia's power. When Sparapet Vassak Mamikonian defeated the Persians and reclaimed the bones of the Arshakuni monarchs, he buried them at Aghdzk in the 4th century. 

Simonyan, head of the Scientific-Research Center of Historical-Cultural Legacy, says they’ve found a tombstone and a palace structure dating back to medieval times. The tombstone depicts certain images, he said.

He says the tombstone is unique in Armenian archaeology because they’ve never found one with a cross image. “We assume that the remains of a certain prominent individual are buried here”, he said.

He emphasized the fact that the tombstones feature Armenian-letter records. “Records weren’t made on churches of the early middle ages. We see Armenian-letter records after the 7th century. These tombstones are important and remarkable from this perspective,” he said.

Speaking about the palace structure, he said it is 30 meters in length and 15 meters in width.

“We can say that this is a 4th century palace,” he said, adding that only the eastern part is destroyed.

The government began sponsoring excavations in Aghdzk in 2015.

ENGLISH: Editor/Translator - Stepan Kocharyan