Aram Kalantaryan, Director of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, announced that on the western slopes of Aragats, near the village of Tsakhkasar (Armenia), archaeologists got on the tracks of an ancient settlement dating back to the Early Bronze Age. The monument is unique for its unprecedented scale of an ancient settlement. It occupies a territory of about 100 ha, and the settlement was surrounded with cyclopean fortress. Archaeologists have excavated a 300 sq/m ancient layer so far and found a unique bronze reaping-hook. Unfortunately, irrigation canals were laid there yet in 1930, which has partially damaged the monument.
     Kalantaryan said that an Armenian-American joint expedition near the village of Gegharot, on the northern slope of Aragats, found another unique monument of the Late Bronze Age - a sanctuary of the 15th-12th centuries BCE. Archaeologists found a woman's breast bronze decoration and semiprecious stones, including a cut rock crystal.
     Kalantaryan expressed satisfaction that for the first time since the independence of Armenia the state budget for 2006 envisages funds for archaeological excavations. The present season was partially financed from the governmental reserve fund.

Source: ArmInfo (16 November 2005)