The Vayots Dzor region, home to the important Chalcolithic site of Areni-1, has seen an increase in research in recent years by a growing scholarly community. The VDFLP aims to understand the rise and fall of fortress culture along the river valleys and roads of this region through a variety of archaeological and historical investigations.
In 2022, we returned to the field to perform intensive and extensive field survey and excavations at the fortress site of Karagluck-2. We focused our efforts on expanding a sounding initiated in 2018 to a create a broad exposure of the exterior wall of the fortress. Meanwhile the survey team continued to investigate features identified in satellite imagery as well as cultural heritage site monitoring. Stay tuned for more updates on our recent field season!
In 2018, we were joined by a team from the University of Pennsylvania, which completed extensive and intensive survey in the Yegheghis river valley. The team employed a variety of novel digital recording methods (read more here). Meanwhile, we excavated soundings at Karaglukh-2, a cyclopean fortress site located south of the Selim pass. The excavations revealed a significant high medieval re-occupation at the site, and we anticipate that future seasons’ research will clarify the full occupational sequence.
In 2017, we focused our efforts upon investigating a north-south corridor in southern Armenia that follows the Yegheghis River north to the Selim pass. We paired extensive survey with intensive survey to elucidate large sites along with smaller-scale features. In this first survey season, we documented more than 30 sites using drone-based photogrammetry along with other digital documentation methods.
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