The American-Armenian Project for the Archaeology and Geography of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies (Project ArAGATS) is a collaborative research program directed by Dr. Ruben Badalyan (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Yerevan) and Dr. Adam T. Smith (Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago). Since 1998 they have been leading archaeological expeditions to the Tsaghkahovit Plain in northwestern Armenia, an elevated plateau below the north slope of Mt. Aragats. They are currently "in the field" excavating two sites, Tsaghkahovit and Gegharot, with funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society. Over the next few weeks, the American and Armenian members of the team will be sending dispatches from the field describing the progress of their work and providing a window into everyday life on an archaeological expedition in the Republic of Armenia. This first dispatch was sent in by the project directors.

Typically, archaeological excavations begin slowly. It can take several weeks to work your way through the layers of topsoil and earth deposited by wind and water over several centuries or, in our case, three and a half millennia. But it was clear from our first week that the 2005 season of Project ArAGATS was in no way typical.

At the end of our last field season, in 2003, we had uncovered a sensational shrine on a high citadel overlooking the modern village of Gegharot. The shrine was built and then violently destroyed during the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1500-1150 B.C.). Simultaneously, we were uncovering contemporary occupations at the nearby fortress of Tsaghkahovit. Our goals this summer are to expand our study of Tsaghkahovit to the lower town (built during the Late Bronze Age and re-built during the mid-1st millennium B.C.) and expose more of the shrine complex at Gegharot. Within a week of recommencing our work in the shrine at Gegharot we found: a series of obsidian arrowheads (perhaps the remains of the assault on the site that led to its destruction), two unusual stamps (possibly used to mark sacred bread), and a unique figurine. Such dramatic and complete views into ancient ritual life are extremely rare. Shrines from the well-known site of Metsamor, on the Ararat plain, have been much discussed. But it is clear that the shrine at Gegharot is 2-3 centuries older.

The complexes at Gegharot and Tsaghkahovit were built at the very beginning of the rise of early complex societies in the region. That is, around 1500 B.C. people began to relinquish long-held traditions of nomadism and settle in and around fortified citadels. Such citadels hosted the earliest centralized institutions of government in the South Caucasus, establishing new ways of life that would later resonate in the emergence of empires such as Urartu.

But research is only one element of any archaeological expedition. We are a group of 12 Americans and Armenians, living for two months out of our homes. The Tsaghkahovit Plain is under-developed, but each year we employ more than 25 people to help in all aspects of the work. Archaeology, for now, is providing an engine of economic development in a region rich with monuments to the past. As a result, we are members of these communities. Each year, we celebrate new births and mourn for lost relatives. We see roads re-built after years of neglect. And we see young villagers grow into experienced archaeologists.

Stay tuned for next week's dispatch from the work at Gegharot.