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. During the summer of 2005, they excavated two sites, Tsaghkahovit and Gegharot, with funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society. This final dispatch, from the excavations at Gegharot Kurgan, was sent in by Maureen E. Marshall (University of Chicago) and Armine Harutyunyan (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Yerevan).

The modern landscape of Armenia includes numerous clusters of small mounds that pepper the verdant hills and plains. Travelers and drivers speed past them everyday, shepherds rest a moment as their herds graze around them, and farmers cut and plow around them, making these mounds particularly noticeable in the summer months. These mounds, however, are not necessarily "natural" features of the landscape-they were built by ancient communities as monuments to the dead.

The study of burials provides archaeologists with a great deal of information about ancient life, ritual, and beliefs. By studying human bones we can learn about demography, health, physical stresses, and causes of death in individuals and populations. The offerings and artifacts included in the graves (as long as they are undisturbed) provide important examples of pottery, tools, weapons, and jewelry and provide critical clues to the conduct of burial rituals and the nature of ancient religion. The construction of tombs help us to understand the proper ways of treating the dead and the processes and rituals that the mourners went through to bury their dead (for example, we can think about all of the rituals, processes, issues, and people involved in the funeral services Pope John Paul II, President Regan, or a personal loved one).

This summer, Project ArAGATS excavated a burial mound, (also known as a kurgan), just below Gegharot fortress. The area of the kurgan is defined by an outer circle of large stones (called a cromlech) about 11.5m in diameter. The area within the cromlech was then covered with about a meter of earth mounded above the ancient ground surface. This mound of earth was then covered over with small stones. The size of the construction and the black and white stones used to cover the exterior would have made it an impressive monument and prominent feature at the northern base of Mount Vardablur. As we slowly uncovered the burial over the course of two months of work, we discovered three chambers underneath the mound, each covered with large capstones. Each of these chambers represents different types of commemorations, with different types of funerary practices. The earliest chamber was built during the transition between the Middle and Late Bronze Ages (sometime in the 16th or 15th centuries B.C). This chamber included over 24 ceramic vessels and the bones of several animals. The central chamber appears to have been built just slightly later (15th or 14th centuries B.C. and probably incorporated the earlier burial into its construction. This central chamber contained an adult 35-40 years old and a child (about 1.5 years of age). Included with these individuals were the skulls and legs of two horses, several obsidian and bronze arrowheads, a blunt bronze dagger or standard, and two beads. Almost a thousand years after the kurgan was built, inhabitants of the area during the Yervandid period (mid 1st millennium B.C.) dug into the mound to create another burial chamber. This chamber included only a single bowl, a fragment of a long bone, and 5 human teeth. The repeated use of the burial mound demonstrates its prominence in local ritual and its enduring importance to the very different cultures that inhabited the Tsaghkahovit Plain over a millennium. Further analyses will help to clarify the relationship between the three chambers, the deceased, and the ritual processes that went into creating the burial mound.

The 2005 season of Project ArAGATS came to a close in mid-August.