In the American imagination, archaeology holds a romantic and exotic place, thanks to such popular portrayals as Hollywood’s iconic explorer, Indiana Jones, and the glamorous adventurers on television’s History and Discovery channels, who transport us from our living rooms to distant and buried civilizations.

In reality, becoming a professional archaeologist is no easy task, and entails as much a life of study as one of daring exploration. The stimulating though arduous process, from the day a student is admitted into a graduate program (in archaeology or anthropology) to the day she or he proudly parades in the cap and gown of academic regalia to receive a diploma, takes no less than six years and usually a few years longer than that (for a Doctor of Philosophy, or Ph.D.). After the day-to-day hurdles of class work and the seemingly endless litany of exams are overcome, by the end of the third year in a Ph.D. program the most daunting project that separates a graduate student from a professorship in archaeology still remains: the dissertation—a lengthy thesis, usually several hundred pages, which serves as the foundation for a career in academia.

Since Armenia gained its independence in 1991, several graduate students from such institutions as the University of Arizona, the University of California, Santa Barbara, the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, New York University, and Sapienza Università di Roma have turned to Armenia to conduct archaeological research for their dissertations. From the perspective of American and western European archaeology, this is an unconventional choice. The canon of world archaeology is built on such famous locales as the earliest city-states of Mesopotamia, the pyramids of Egypt, the grand public monuments of Greece and Rome, and the temple-pyramids of the Maya, to name just a few. These are the civilizations that immediately come to mind when we think of archaeology and they are the focus of most archaeological dissertation research, as well.

For some pioneering graduate students, however, it is the less well-trodden archaeological terrain that captures their intellectual curiosity and kindles the adventurous spirit. And for such students willing to learn Russian and/or Armenian, Armenia is an absolute treasure trove. Lying off the beaten path of mainstream archaeology, Armenia offers all of the critical elements for successful dissertation research, and more, while at the same time providing the exciting opportunity to broaden the world’s archaeological horizons through discoveries and research that are truly new to American and European scholarship.

DATA

This is made possible, foremost, by the profusion of archaeological sites on the territory of Armenia. As in much of the Near East and Eurasia, Armenia is host to a staggering number of archaeological remains, including settlements, burials, fortresses and other monuments that date from as early as the Neolithic period (ca. 6000-3500BC), and extend through the Bronze Age (ca. 3000-1150BC), the Iron Age (ca. 1150-800BC), and into the historic periods of Urartu and the subsequent dynasties of Armenia. Recent and current dissertations by American and European graduate students have employed “data” (or, in this case, collections of material culture) from many of these periods in order to understand some aspects of social, political, cultural, or economic life on the territory of Armenia and its surroundings at a particular period of the human past.

One scholar, for instance, analyzed hundreds of shards of pottery found on the territory of Armenia and dating to the Early Bronze Age (ca. 3000-2400BC), in order to better understand the spread of a particular phenomenon known today as the Kura-Araxes culture, which seemed to extend from the Levant to the South Caucasus in the third millennium BC.  

Another scholar conducted his dissertation research at a small town located at the foot of a Late Bronze Age fortress on the Tsaghkahovit plain of central Armenia. He has used the data from these excavations to address broader questions about the organization of communities in the Late Bronze Age (1500-1150BC) and the dynamics

namics between elite and non-elite groups. Working at this same site and in this same period, another graduate student has spent several summers excavating Late Bronze Age burials. Her project entails the close study of human remains (bioarchaeology) in order to reconstruct forms of group identity.

The first American dissertation to be completed on the archaeology of Armenia entailed a close examination of the monumental fortresses of the Kingdom of Urartu (ca. 800-600BC), in order to understand the spatial organization of political authority.

Moving later still in time, this author is conducting her dissertation research on the period when Armenia is incorporated into the Achaemenid Persian empire (ca. 550-330BC). I examine the impact of this conquest on the political and social organization of communities on the territory of Armenia. 

INSTITUTIONS

A rich archaeological record, however, is not sufficient for a successful research environment. Without institutions in place to facilitate and organize the conduct of research, archaeological remains cannot be properly surveyed, excavated, studied and conserved. Armenia’s institutions for archaeological research were established in the early Soviet period and have endured until the present in three primary venues: Yerevan State University, the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, and the Commission for the Preservation of Monuments.

These institutions play a crucial role in training Armenian scholars, supporting scholarship, and issuing permits that govern the rights and responsibilities of Armenia’s archaeologists. Scholars in these institutions have also opened their doors to foreign graduate students eager to learn about Armenia’s antiquities. These students have benefited from the generosity, engagement, support and assistance of scholars at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, the primary institution of archaeological research, without which it would be impossible for them to realize their own academic goals. In addition, this institution provides such critical resources as a laboratory for the restoration of artifacts, experts in conservation, storage facilities, and a well-stocked library.

These institutions enable the continued study of Armenia’s cultural heritage. Without the proper functioning of such institutions, not only would the many Armenian archaeologists have to discontinue their work, but the growing community of foreign scholars whose efforts, in effect, are bringing the archaeology of Armenia into American university classrooms, would also have seek out other countries in which to conduct their fieldwork.

Unfortunately, the economic difficulties that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union have adversely affected Armenia’s archaeological infrastructure. Crucial resources for new equipment in laboratories, the training of specialists, ongoing book acquisitions, and basic infrastructural upkeep are in very short supply. The country lacks the state-of-the-art archaeological facilities that are required for the proper study and stewardship of its rich cultural heritage.

Although Project Discovery! has already begun to address this problem (for example, the organization recently financed a new laboratory at Yerevan State University), there is much more work to be done. Infrastructural degradation is outpacing the best efforts of the archaeological community.

COLLABORATORS

Fascinating archaeological data and established (though impoverished) institutions are thus two factors that have encouraged the emergence of a group of foreign graduate students looking to build their academic careers on the archaeology of Armenia. A third critical factor, however, is the collaborative nature of archaeological research in this country. The single most rewarding aspect of doing archaeology in Armenia is that it is done side by side with knowledgeable Armenian scholars. The Soviet period produced a sizeable community of archaeologists, who have welcomed the opportunities, created by Armenian independence, for the mutual exchange of information, skills, and insights with foreign archaeologists. Such collaborations ensure that all archaeological research conducted in Armenia is disseminated within the halls of Armenian scholarship, and not merely serving the curiosities of foreign investigators.

For collaborative archaeology to continue in Armenia it is absolutely essential for a new generation of Armenian archaeologists to emerge alongside the burgeoning group of American and European young scholars. The young generation of Armenians growing up in the first decade of independence witnessed first hand the risks and economic difficulties entailed in professions, such as research and university teaching, that are largely dependent upon government dispensation. The result, fifteen years later, is a severe shortage of students interested in pursuing careers in academia.  The burden of investigating and preserving Armenia’s rich cultural heritage now rests on a shrinking generation of scholars who received their training in the Soviet period, when archaeology was a well-financed and flourishing branch of Armenia’s scientific establishment. Fortunately, there is a small community of young scholars in Armenia whose enthusiasm for the study of Armenia’s ancient past is inspiring them to commit to a career in research and teaching despite the economic difficulties such a choice may entail.

These students have reason for optimism. In the past few years Armenia’s archaeological institutions have witnessed incremental improvements in their financial viability thanks to the efforts of some visionary leaders in the field, rising state budgetary allocations, and, in no small measure, the work of Project Discovery! These perseverant students should be directly supported, however. Just this year, Project Discovery! launched a scholarship program, which aims to create opportunities for Armenian graduate students to study archaeology in the United States.

NOW AND TOMORROW

Two of the American graduate students mentioned above have received their Ph.D.s and are now professors at major research universities in the United States, raising the profile of Armenian archaeology world-wide. Other students are fast following in their footsteps. These scholars will continue to conduct archaeological fieldwork in Armenia because of its rich archaeological record, its established and welcoming institutions, and the dedicated Armenian archaeologists with whom they work.  Armenia’s rich past—perhaps its best kept secret—is getting out thanks to a new generation of archaeologists working to bring this fascinating heritage to the world.

Lori Khatchadourian is a Ph.D. candidate in the Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art & Archaeology at the University of Michigan.  In 2006, she was a US Fulbright Scholar in Armenia.  Khatchadourian has been conducting archaeological research in Armenia since 2003, pursuant toward her doctoral dissertation. Khatchadourian is also one of two graduate students, one American and one Armenian, who serve on the Academic Advisory Board of Project Discovery!