Events
The international conference “Heritage and Depopulation in Europe” was held at Charles University in Prague
The international conference “Heritage and Depopulation in Europe” was held on the August 27–29 at Charles University in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. The event brought together scholars, experts, and researchers from approximately 106 countries to address pressing issues concerning demographic transformations, the preservation of cultural heritage, and questions of cultural identity. Among the participants were senior researchers of the Department of Diaspora Studies at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia: Lusine Tanajyan (PhD) and Sona Nersisyan (PhD), as well as researchers Nelly Khachaturyan (PhD) and Mariam Harutyunyan. Their presentations focused on ongoing transformations within the Armenian diaspora communities in Europe, exploring the specific features of community life, challenges of cultural heritage preservation, and the dynamics of religious practices.
2025-09-10
The Ancient Settlement of Kapan: On the Path to New Discoveries
In Stepanos Orbelyan’s “History of the Syuniq”, regarding events of the 5th century, it is mentioned: “And Father Hovhannes came from Kapan; taking the monks, he went to the riverbank and asked the Lord to grant fish for the needs of the monks…” (p. 118). The settlement of Kapan mentioned by Stepanos Orbelyan is located on a low hill to the left of the road from today’s regional center of Syunik, the town of Kapan, leading to Kajaran, on the right bank of the Voghji River. The locals call this area, now entirely forested, “Tandzu Lenj” (Arm: “Slope of Pear Trees”). Already in the 5th century, this place was the site of a residence-fortress of the princes of Syunik, which by the 10th century had grown into a city, becoming the royal residence and capital of the Kings of Syunik. After the fall of the Kingdom of Syunik, the settlement lost its significance, was abandoned, and fell into ruin. At present, the archaeological expedition of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia is conducting excavations at the site. According to the head of the excavations, archaeologist Gagik Sargsyan, some studies had already been carried out here during Soviet times, and the site had been recognized as a historical and cultural monument. However, such large-scale systematic excavations and complex studies are being conducted here for the first time. Numerous foundations, walls, and ruins of structures have been preserved at the site. Of particular interest is the royal palace, where the buildings belong to different periods. Under a later construction, the foundations and column bases of an earlier (4th–5th centuries) three-nave basilica church were discovered. A wall was later built along the edge of the horseshoe-shaped apse of the church. The original floor of the building was paved with stone slabs, but later a new pavement was laid on a layer of fill about 25 cm thick. Next to the church, a stone-built olive press about 1.2 m in diameter was also uncovered. About 30 m south of the so-called palace complex, the ruins of another building have been preserved, which was a small chapel with a rectangular apse. Despite the entire area being forested and overgrown with brush, it is clearly visible that the settlement-fortress was completely enclosed by walls. In some sections, the walls were built in two layers. On the eastern side of the structures, part of a once-massive tower about 4 m high has been preserved, from which one of the fortress entrances was located. Excavations are ongoing, and archaeologists still have many questions to answer.
2025-08-26
Study of Artsakh Games and Folklore in Lori Province
Children from Artsakh who have settled in different regions of Armenia continue to play popular games in their own dialectal variations, sharing them with local children while also learning the games of their new communities. The older generation, meanwhile, preserves the memories of traditional games and game folklore that have largely fallen out of use today. A research group at the Department of Folklore Studies of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography is studying Artsakh games and game folklore through fieldwork in the Lori region (including Stepanavan, Vardablur, Gyulagarak, Hobardzi, Gargar, Lori Berd, and other villages). This project is carried out with the support of the Science Committee.
2025-08-23
Participation in the Ninth Annual Conference of the Memory Studies Association
On July 14–18, we participated in the Ninth Annual Conference of the Memory Studies Association (MSA), which took place in Prague—a city whose historical layers, political legacies, and cultural milieu provided a unique platform for collective reflection on issues of memory. The conference, which brought together 1,200 presenters from all continents, was held at a time when the field of memory studies is undergoing a process of rethinking—shaped by the geographical diversification of academic centers and the emergence of new thematic research directions. With the participation of nearly all leading scholars in the field, discussions focused on the reconfiguration of memory studies discourses, particularly in the context of global crises, wars, forced displacements, and the weakening of democratic institutions. Set against the backdrop of major global anniversaries (the end of WWII in 1945, the end of the Vietnam War in 1975), commemorations of genocides and massacres (Srebrenica, 1995; Sudan, 2005), and ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, our aim was to bring visibility to the underrepresented case of the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) conflict and the mass ethnic cleansing of its Armenian population. We examined how displaced Artsakh Armenians, stripped of international recognition and legal-biographical status, continue to resist erasure by reconstructing both personal and collective identity through acts of memory. Within this context, a group of researchers from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia (Gayane Shagoyan, Ruzanna Tsaturyan, Gohar Stepanyan, Zara Hambardzumyan, Hasmik Knyazyan, and Shushanik Saratikyan) convened a panel titled: “Framing the Ongoing Crisis in Artsakh/Karabakh: Memory Instead of Biography.” The panel featured five studies exploring how collective memory becomes central to belonging when biography is denied or criminalized by state discourse. Topics included: The materiality of memory and destroyed identity documents (Gohar Stepanyan, Identity Documents and the Forced Displacement of the Artsakh Population in 2023); Grassroots digital archiving as a tool of cultural resistance (Hasmik Knyazyan, Challenging Erasure: Grassroots Digital Archiving and the Reclamation of Cultural Memory After Forced Displacement); Memory of endurance and defiance during the Lachin Corridor blockade (Ruzanna Tsaturyan, Remembering Endurance and Defiance: Resistance in the Artsakh Blockade); Ethical and methodological challenges in teaching unwritten histories of displacement (Zara Hambardzumyan & Shushanik Saratikyan, Navigating Memory in Education: Challenges of Teaching in the Context of Forced Displacement from Artsakh). Due to time constraints at the end of the panel, a choice had to be made between holding a discussion or presenting the final paper. Thanks to the gracious initiative of the panel moderator, Gayane Shagoyan, priority was given to questions and discussion. As a result, her compelling presentation titled “Framing Collective Trauma: Forced Displacement from Karabakh and Genocide Memory” was unfortunately not delivered in full. However, key aspects of her argument were later addressed in her opening remarks and during the Q&A session, where she provided valuable context on the historical and social dimensions of the Artsakh crisis. Most of the research presented in this panel (except for Ruzanna Tsaturyan’s presentation) was conducted within the framework of the project “Artsakh: Digital Archive of Oral Histories,” supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.Partial support for participation in the conference was generously provided by the Hovnanyan Family Foundation.
2025-07-24
"Solutions through Cooperation" International Museum Conference Opens in Yerevan
On July 22, 2025, the "Belt and Road" International Museum Conference, titled "Solutions through Cooperation," opened in the hall of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia. The event brought together representatives from museums in Armenia, China, and Georgia, as well as from the Cultural Center of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the National Bureau of Cultural Heritage of China. Participants also included scholars and experts from scientific institutions affiliated with the NAS RA. The conference was organized by the "Armenian-Chinese Partnership Center" NGO, the Institute of Geological Sciences of the NAS RA, the "Service for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Reserves-Museums and Historical Environment" SNCO of the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports of the Republic of Armenia, the History Museum of Armenia, and the "Belt and Road" Cultural Development Association. The opening address was delivered by Pavel Avetisyan, Vice President of the NAS RA, Scientific Director of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, and Doctor of History. Astghik Babajanyan, Scientific Secretary of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, presented a report titled “Armenia-China Relations: Current Archaeological Studies and Cooperation on the Silk Road in Armenia.”
2025-07-22
Participation in the 16th International Congress of Anthropologists and Ethnologists of Russia
On July 2–6 of this year, the 16th International Congress of Anthropologists and Ethnologists of Russia (XVI Конгресс антропологов и этнологов России – XVI CAER) was held in Perm, Russian Federation. The event served as a platform for dialogue between scholars from regional and specialized scientific centers of Russia and foreign anthropologists and ethnographers. Nelly Khachatryan, Ph.D. in History and Researcher at the Department for Diaspora Studies of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (NAS RA), also participated in the congress. She presented a paper entitled “Specific Features of Studying the Phenomenon of Ethnoreligious Identity in the Context of Transformations in Contemporary Societies” (Особенности изучения феномена этнорелигиозной идентичности в контексте трансформации современных обществ), co-authored with Ruzan Karapetyan, Doctor of History and Head of the Department for Diaspora Studies. The report was prepared within the framework of the research project titled “Interaction of Ethnic and Religious Components in the Identity of Diaspora Armenians: Challenges and Perspectives”, and implemented within competition titled The Research in the Fields of Social Sciences, Armenian Studies and Humanities - 2024 under the code 24SSAH-6A008, supported by the RA Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports (MoESCS) and the RA Committee of Science. As a result of the participation in the congress, an agreement was also reached to sign a Cooperation Memorandum between the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of NAS RA and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).
2025-07-17
