Early Christian square
From the outset of archaeological research at Tigranakert, the expedition dedicated attention to uncovering the city’s medieval traces, conducted alongside the excavations of the Fortified Quarter. In 2005, it was already clear from the site survey that the abundant material traces of medieval culture were visible across a seven-hectare expanse, stretching from the late medieval castle to the southeast. This area stood out from the surroundings at a height of 4-6 meters. It became evident that the terrain formed an artificial hill, a product of centuries of cultural activity shaping the landscape. Conventionally named Central, this area occupies an intermediate position compared to the Fortified Quarter, the early Christian cemetery, the Antique Quarters, and the late medieval Castle, as if encircled by them. It features stone structures, various architectural fragments, tonirs (an oven in the form of a deep round hole), wells, and hundreds of simple and glazed pottery sherds. In the central part of this quarter, prior to excavation, large masses of stone walls were visible on the eastern and western sides of a wide pit running from west to east (Figs. 1, 2). Considering historical accounts, Makar Barkhudaryants, who described the Tigranakert area at the end of the 19th century, talks about the ruins of a large church in the Tigranakert area: “The upper part of the province is the Tigranakert town, which is now a ruin. However, it is necessary to state that this was a large rural town and sometimes a seat of the diocese and governor. There are still the ruins of a large church, the half-destroyed stone buildings of the market, houses and baths, etc.” We presumed that the pit stretching from west to east could be the remains of the church described by Barkhudaryants.
In 2006, we focused on a specific area within the pit, roughly corresponding to the inner corner of the apse and the prayer hall of the structure. This corner, known as one of the strongest junctions of the church structure and typically better preserved, was our starting point. We separated a square of 5 meters by 5 meters and commenced excavation. Within hours, at a depth of about 0.5 meters, we uncovered the first smooth-polished stones of the apse and the adjacent south wall of the church. As a result of excavations in 2006-2009, the ruins of a large early Christian temple were discovered at a depth of about 3.5 meters below the surface (Fig. 3).
The church, with its volume-spatial composition, belongs to the type of single-nave halls spread in Armenia and the Caucasus between the 4th-6th centuries AD and is one of the most spacious structures of that type. Its external dimensions are 28.85 meters by 11.25 meters. The archaeological remains of the temple and the facts verified during the excavations make it possible to almost completely restore the original volume-spatial solution of the structure and the changes it underwent clarifying the construction technique and the main description of the decoration. Originally, it was a single-nave hall with a five-faceted apse from the outside. Later, the pentagonal volume was incorporated within the rectangular volume, and the southern depository was attached, which had access from the outside. Excavations revealed a drain constructed of pipes and tiles in the yard adjacent to the depository from the south. This is sufficient basis to assume that the southern depository was built as a baptistery, and the water line also provided drainage for the baptistery. Apparently, after the construction of the depository, the southern outdoor colonnaded hall was added. We think the requirement to include the sitting apse in the rectangular volume was due to the addition of the depository from the south.
Due to these changes and additions, the interior of the church has remained the same. In addition to the semi-circular stage, the rectangular, extremely stretched, regular-slabbed hall also features a 2.5-meter-wide choir in the east, positioned 0.5 m above the level of the prayer hall. It is completely slabbed; two steps descend from it to the prayer hall. Excavations of this part of the church also found pillars’ fragments of the stone railing separating the chancel from the prayer hall (Fig. 4). In early churches, the area in front of the main apse, the so-called chancel (or class in Armenian literature), was usually one step above the floor and was divided off by a partition of a stone lattice. Here, the clergy stood one by one and sang together during services and liturgies. Believers had no right to enter here and entered only to receive Holy Communion. It is worth noting that, although the presence of a chancel in early churches can be widely assumed, this is the first time that it is attested in an actual architectural structure.
The church, constructed of large, smooth-polished blocks and lime mortar, was situated on a three-level base. It featured one western, two southern, and two northern portals, as well as a dentil cornice and a roof made of wood and tiles. The portals had pairs of carved pillars topped with elaborately ornamented capitals attached to the walls. Excavations uncovered numerous examples of dentil cornices, ornamented pillars, hundreds of tile fragments, and two capitals. One of the capitals depicts the cross of luminaries; the second is the cross in a floral environment, themes typical of early Christianity (Figs. 5, 6). Particularly noteworthy is the high relief and realistic portrayal of vines-branches, leaves, tendrils, and clusters-on the second capital, characteristic of the earliest examples of these compositions.
According to preliminary data, the church was destroyed and burnt at the end of the 9th century, and dwelling complexes were built on its ruins. Only about a century later, the section next to the southern depository again acquires a religious function; a khachkar is erected here, and burials are made to the north and the west.
The remainder of the early Christian square has been transformed into a densely built residential district since the 10th century. The excavations have revealed three cultural layers:
- 9th and 10th centuries: Temporary dwellings with small surfaces, conical small tonirs (ovens), and irregular appendages attached to the smooth-polished walls were erected on the ruins of Christian structures. The plain pottery is characterized by small pots with vertical handles. The early examples of glazed pottery fell into two main categories: underglaze polychrome (rarely monochrome) painting beneath a tarnished glaze and engobe painting, and monochrome under a single-colored and bright glaze (see “Medieval Pottery and Glass” section for further details).
- 11th century-mid-12th century: This period witnessed the construction of dwelling/economic complexes with relatively regular layouts. These complexes possessed clay floors, various heights inside the rooms, large pits up to three meters deep, sizable tonirs measuring up to 1.5 meters in diameter (Fig. 7), and the presence of Ildegezid coins.
- End of the 12th-first half of the 13th century: This time frame is characterized by a large, semi-underground complex with slanted two-row walls, narrow corridors, and light roofs made of reeds, supported by wooden columns. Tonirs were smaller in size, and numerous hearths took the form of not very deep pits.
The last two layers are characterized by zoomorphic (especially ram-headed) water vessels, engraved small pithoi and jugs, and luxurious pottery. This pottery features the removal of the engobe in the background under multi-colored glazes or engraving on the engobe. The iconography of these vessels is distinguished by animals and birds depicted on a floral background.
The presence of such a large early Christian basilica is an important argument in favor of the reality that Tigranakert retained its status as a prominent settlement in the early Middle Ages. The testimonies of early medieval Armenian sources (Sebeos, Kaghanakvatsi, and Yeghia Archyshetsi; see the section “Tigranakert in Written Sources”) about Tigranakert in Artsakh fully correspond to historical reality.
The presence of two northern entrances can be added to the above-mentioned architectural features of the church. If the presence of the west entrance was quite standard and the presence of a pair of southern entrances also seemed natural, given the church’s size and the adjacent structures to the south, the presence of a pair of northern entrances was extraordinary. As a rule, early Christian churches do not have a northern entrance; only in unique cases, when it is impossible to open a western or southern entrance conditioned by the location, can a northern entrance be found. This allows us to assume that there was some important structure (or structures) in the yard adjacent to the church from the north, which caused the opening of the pair of entrances to the north. Therefore, after the opening of the church and the southern yard immediately adjacent to it, we decided to continue digging to the north. Expectations were fully justified, as excavations revealed a large paved yard with the remains of an early Christian cross-bearing stele (base, plinth, column, and fragments of a winged cross), a small church with an outwardly highlighted apse, a graveyard adjoining it to the west, and a sepulcher under the eastern apse (Fig. 8).
While only the smooth-carved stones of the wall base (albeit incompletely) and the foundations constructed from rough stones and lime concrete have survived from the church, its layout, dimensions, and construction techniques remain fully discernible. It comprises a single-nave hall with a rectangular plan on a two-step wall base, an externally emphasized apse, and western and southern entrances (external dimensions: 16.3×8.3 meters). The floor was covered with smooth-carved slabs. The southern courtyard of the church is covered with rough, irregular cobblestones about 5 meters wide, equal to the width of the foundation of the open-air stele. The pavement leading to the southern entrance is lined with larger stones, one of which is an anthropomorphic stele dating back to the beginning of the first millennium BC. To the west of the church the graveyard with sarcophagi and slab-grave binary burials were opened. Beneath the stage the reliquary is situated (for further details, see the section “Sepulcher-Reliquary with Eastern Entrance”).
These studies have also enabled the reconstruction of the general structure of the early Christian square of Tigranakert (Fig. 9) and the understanding of its development sequence (Fig. 10):
a. construction of a sepulcher with relics of saints,
b. construction of a small church, including the sepulcher,
c. construction of the southern paved yard and memorial,
d. formation of a graveyard in the western courtyard of the first church,
e. construction of a large urban church south of the small church.
