The ruins of Dvin - the capital and the biggest administrative, cultural and religious centre of Mediaeval Armenia are situated in Ararat Marz of the Republic of Armenia, about 35km to the south from Yerevan. The city was founded in 30-es of the 4th century during the reign of the Armenian Arsacid King Khosrov Kotak (332-339) in the province of Vostan - the royal domain in the Ararat Government. Along with its suburbs it occupied a territory around 400 ha. According to the 5^th century historians Pavstos Buzand and Movses Khorenatsi, Dvin is a Persian word that means "hill".

After the decline of the Armenian Arsacid kingdom, since 428, Dvin became the capital of the Marzpan (margrave) Armenia. In 470-es during the reign of the Catholicos Gyut the Armenian religious centre, the Catholicos' residence was moved here from Vagharshapat. The role of Dvin in the political and religious life rose especially after the rebellions against Persians in the 50-es and 80-es of the 5^th century.

During the Marzpan period the handicrafts and trades were developing. According to the Roman historian Procopius of Caesarea the surrounding villages of Dvin were inhabited by farmers and tradesmen who had active trading relations with the peoples of India, Georgia, Persia and Byzantium. Dvin was one of the important outposts of the international transit trading in the Near East. These relations are proved by the numerous finds of the objects, coins, seals and weights imported from various countries. According to the data of "Mghonachapk" of Anania Shirakatsi six important highways sprang from the city that connected Armenia to the civilized countries and the most important economical centers of that period. In 640 Dvin was captured by Arabs and terribly destroyed. Since the end of the 7th c. during one and a half century Dvin was the center of the Arab province "Arminia" ruled over by an Arab governor-general (vostikan). The Arab government in Armenia was a hard blow at the country's economy - the handicraft production, trading and the building activity. Representatives of several royal families were exterminated, the others abandoned the country. In such a situation the development of Dvin was also regressing despite of certain building activity by the Arabs at the first period. In the 8th c. a mint was established: its copper and silver coins with inscription "Dabil" were large spread in the Transcaucasus and the Near East. The silver dirhams of Dvin mint were found in the monetary treasures of Baltic and Scandinavian countries.

In the 9th-11th centuries the city was an apple of discord between the Arab emirs and Armenian Bagratids. According to the historians Dvin was a fabulous city at that time - with cross shaped squares, stone and mud-brick houses and occupied a large territory. In the center of the city there was the invincible citadel with huge mud-brick fortification walls and over 44 towers. The citadel was surrounded by a water ditch: the bridges over the ditch connected the citadel with the city districts. The city itself was surrounded with massive fortress walls, which are still preserved partially up to now.

The gates of "Ani", "Tiflis" and "Qeidar", called so for the related trading routes, were mentioned by the historians. The city was known fro its handicraft production. According the Arab geographers the exporting silk and woolen tissues and dress, carpets, covers and pillows were of an extreme fame.

In 1203 Zakarians liberated Dvin. Nevertheless, its new raising was suspended because of the invasion of Jalal Ed-Din, the son of the Khorezm Shah in 1225 and the Mongols in 1236, when the city was occupied and completely destroyed. The ruins of this formerly big, powerful and flourishing city were covered by a thick layer of soil being forgotten by the coming generations.

During the next centuries on the place of the city several villages were established. In the 17^th-19^th cc. the ruins of Dvin were mentioned by the Armenian, Russian and Western European travelers.

The archaeological investigation of Dvin is first and foremost related to the name of Nikolaj Marr who conducted prospecting excavations on the territory of the city in 1899. In 1907-1908 Khachik Vardapet Dadyan uncovered the Mother Church. Since 1937 the systematical investigation of Dvin began - first, under the direction of Prof. Smbat Ter-Avetisyan (until 1939); in 1946-1976 the excavations were directed by Prof. Karo Ghafadaryan, and since 1977 up to now - by Dr. Aram Kalantaryan.

During around 60 years' excavations many parts of the city belonging to various epochs were uncovered - secular, religious, fortification, industrial buildings as well as numerous samples of handicraft production were found. The chronological pattern of the city was outlined. The excavations of Dvin were crucial for the investigation of the urban-building and social-economical history of the Mediaeval Armenia.

Dvin was one of the most important centers of the forming of Armenian Architecture. In the building up of the city three building periods were observed - 4^th -7^th, 8^th -10^th and 11^th-13^th. During each of these periods the lay-out net of the city was changed. During the first period, which commenced with the establishment of the city and finished at the Arab epoch, the majority of Dvin's religious and secular monumental buildings were founded. In the 8th-10th cc. the clay monumental architecture was dominant. After the 894 earthquake, which caused major destruction to the city buildings, the city itself and the citadel obtained a new lay-out image. The use of clay and raw stoned was much spread in the dwelling architecture.

The religious and secular monumental buildings of Dvin are among classical samples of the early mediaeval architecture of Armenia. The church of St. Grigor Katoghike in the Central district is one of those rare monuments which had preserved all the lay-out changes realized during the whole term of its existence. Originally, it was a three-nave basilica - the biggest one among the similar buildings in Armenia. It was built at the 2nd half of the 4^th - beginning of the 5^th cc. Upon the establishment of the Armenian religious centre in Dvin, in the 480-es the external column hall of the church was built. The church undergone to fire in 572 was resorted at the beginning of the 7^th c., becoming a construction with a central dome and a cross-shaped layout. It was destroyed during the earthquake in 894.

One of the earliest monuments is the three-nave basilica (4^th c.) of the citadel with its exceptional layout and internal decoration. It is one of the rarest samples of the Armenian Christian architecture - a result of relations of the Armenian and Assyrian architecture. The single-nave church (5^th-7^th cc.) of the Central district must be also mentioned.

Among the monumental buildings of Dvin two Catholicos palaces are known. The first one was built to the south-west from the Catoghike church. It is a big building with a central column hall (three pairs of columns). It was built in the 70-80-es of the 4^th c.; in the 560-es it became a residence of a Persian official. In the western part it has a Zoroastrian temple. It was destroyed during the 572 rebellion and was never restored.

The second palace was built to the north of Catoghike church at the beginning of the 7^th c.. It has a square, cross-shaped layout, eight columned central hall and lateral rooms. Their remnants are still preserved, as well as a fabulous column head with a palm-tree decoration. In the 10^th c. the palace was turned into a mosque and was ruined in the 13^th c.

The handicraft production of the biggest centre of the country - Dvin, was well known in the internal and external markets. High-artistic objects found during the excavations come to prove the perfect skills, exceptional taste and creative mind of Dvin's craftsmen.

The existence of workshop rows, burning furnaces, forges and other sorts of industrial buildings testify the productive economical growth of the city life, which could not be hindered either by natural disasters or foreign invasions. Dvin was famous for its ceramic production. The potters' workshops were located under the walls of the city and the citadel. According to the demands of the mass consumers the market was supplied with wonderful monochrome and poly-chrome glazed vessels and faience. The houses of the rich were decorated with fabulous red luster jars and other vessels of personal order.

The collection of glass objects of Dvin is considered among the best ones of the Near East. The glass-making masters, continuing the best traditions of the glass-making of Hellenistic epoch, created brand new forms. Large variety of forms, colors and the use of various technical methods were typical for the Dvin glass production. The glass was of large use in the life. During the excavations window glass, lamps and alchemical flasks and test-tubes were found. The glass making was especially developed in the city after the 9^th c. The production of Dvin craftsmen was competing equally with the production of the biggest glass-making centers of the Arab world.

The crafts related to the metal working were very famous in Dvin as well - forging, metalworking, silver-working and jewelry. The working tools, bronze vessels as well as adornments of local production were much spread. Golden bracelets, rings, pendants and earrings found from Dvin are among the best samples of jewelry. Dvin was also the biggest centre for the armament production. Numerous iron projectile points, spears, axes, swords and armor parts were found. There are known many objects related to the wood, stone and bone working as well.

In the Armenian mediaeval sources around 100 crafts are named. Such a wide branching in the handicraft production was conditioned with the further deepening of the labor division process, which was typical for feudal cities, especially for such an economical centre, as Dvin was. This aspect is brightly reflected in the archaeological materials.

Dvin was an international trading centre. The city was the very junction were the major trading routes of the region crossed. Goods from a vast territory between the Far East, Byzantium, Russian steppes and Egypt flew to the Capital. During the excavations fabulous glass vessels from Egyptian, Assyrian, Mesopotamian and Byzantine centers, as well as exceptional samples of faience made in famous Persian centers as Rey, Qashan and Sultanabad were uncovered. Thousands of Sasanid, Byzantine, Arab, Seljuk and Georgian copper, silver and golden coins found in Dvin prove the intensive trading.

The hill of Dvin was inhabited since remote times. During the excavations traces of a big Early Bronze age (3^rd mill. BC) settlement with "cyclopean" walls and corresponding materials were uncovered. In the 9^th -8^th cc. BC one of the most important religious settlements of the Ararat Plain was situated here with its mud-brick buildings, temples and industrial buildings. There were numerous ceramic vessels, bronze and iron weapons, adornments, molds and thousands of glass paste beads found. The settlement was destroyed due to a vast fire, which was a result of the invasion of Uratians into the Ararat Plain.

In the 2^nd c. BC, after the establishment of Artashat as a capital of Armenia, several settlements were founded around the latter, the Hellenistic settlement of Dvin among them. It is well known that in 59 BC the Roman general Corbulon set fire to Artashat and the Dvin settlement at the same time. It is supposed that in the 1^st c. AD in the vicinity of Dvin the temple of Tir was founded, which was destroyed during the adoption and distribution of Christian religion in Armenia (at the beginning of the 4^th c.).

Professor Dr. Aram Kalantaryanis the former director of the Institute of Archaeology & Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences, Republic of Armenia.  Dr. Kalantaryan directed the excavations at Dvin during the period from 1977 to the present.

This article was published in the summer 2005 issue of Ararat Quarterly Magazine.