Events
"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
The defense of Ruzan Mkrtchyan’s doctoral dissertation took place at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography
On June 26, a doctoral dissertation defense was held in the reading room of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (IAE). The dissertation, titled “Bioarchaeology of the Sevan Basin (Middle and Late Bronze Ages),” was presented by Ruzanna Mkrtchyan during a session of Professional Council 007 (Archaeology and Ethnography). The dissertation is devoted to the reconstruction of the anthropological type, demographic profile, lifestyle, diet, and burial practices of the Middle and Late Bronze Age population of the Sevan Basin. The research is based on craniometric and osteometric data, sex and age determinations, and dental pathology analysis. The official opponents were Doctors of History, Professors Hayk G. Avetisyan, Garegin S. Tumanyan, and Hakob Ye. Simonyan. The leading institution for the dissertation is the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia. Several speeches were delivered during the defense, and all speakers highly praised Ruzanna Mkrtchyan’s scholarly work.
2025-06-27
A three-day conference entitled “Political Violence, Exile, and Memory in the USSR” took place
The conference titled “Political Violence, Exile, and Memory in the USSR,” organized by the Applied Anthropology Research Group of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography in collaboration with the Department of Modern Anthropology, has concluded. The event was held over two days in the city of Goris, Syunik Province, and one day in Yerevan, at the Memorial Complex dedicated to the Victims of Political Violence. The presentations in the first and second sessions of the conference explored specific episodes of political violence in Soviet Armenia — from the suppression of peasant resistance during the establishment of “kolkhozes” (collective farms) to the 1949 deportation of Armenians from Soviet republics in the Black Sea region. During the discussion of the deportation of the Hamshen Armenians, participants honored the memory of their late colleague Sergey Vardanyan with a minute of silence. Vardanyan had extensively studied the life of the Hamshen Armenians, who were exiled in 1944 and have still not been granted the right to return. The sessions also addressed less overt forms of political violence, including the restriction of individual and group identity choices during official Soviet censuses. Several presentations focused on the official, administrative, colloquial, and journalistic language used to “cover” acts of violence—language that, in reality, facilitated and legitimized the implementation of that violence. The concluding presentation examined the ethno-social composition of those repressed in Soviet Armenia between 1920 and 1953, based on materials from the National Archives of the Republic of Armenia. The third session took place at the Axel Bakunts House-Museum, honoring the writer who was executed in 1937 under the so-called “Stalin Lists.” This session featured individual stories of victims of political violence—shared as biographical sketches, memoirs, and most importantly, as integral parts of the broader narrative of political repression. On June 13, the conference participants took part in the celebration of the 126th anniversary of Axel Bakunts' birth in the city of Goris. On June 14—marked in Armenia as the “Day of Remembrance of the Repressed,” in accordance with the RA Law “On Holidays and Days of Remembrance”—they visited the Memorial Complex for the Victims of Political Violence in the USSR in Yerevan. There, they presented data on the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of those convicted in Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan according to Stalin’s lists, and read aloud the names of 200 individuals who were sentenced to death in Armenia between 1936 and 1938. The full conference proceedings and reports are available at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLclo6JyCE6xmbAfVBM2mZSUvf2lUUQEjw
2025-06-15
Lecture: “Application of Infrared Imaging in Archaeology”
On June 12, the latest seminar of the Architectural Modeling Scientific Group was held in Room 34 of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography (IAE) of the NAS RA. The topic of the seminar was “Application of Infrared Imaging in Archaeology.” Arshaluys Mkrtchyan delivered a presentation outlining the methodology for using infrared imaging in archaeological research. The seminar concluded with an engaging discussion, during which participants shared questions, experiences, and suggestions.
2025-06-12
Armenian-Italian Joint Archaeological Excavations in Aruch
Since June 2025, archaeological excavations have been ongoing as part of an Armenian-Italian collaboration, initiated by the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography (IAE) of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and the Italian Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies (ISMEO). The joint expedition teams are conducting excavations at the medieval palace-fortress in the village of Aruch and at the fortress and burial field in the village of Shamiram. Excavations at the Aruch fortress are being carried out under the co-leadership of Astghik Babajanyan, Scientific Secretary of the IAE, and Sergio Ferdinand, ISMEO representative. These excavations originally began in 2022. The palace-fortress dates to the 12th–13th centuries, though it remained in use in later periods. In the 20th century, residential houses and other structures were built on the site, which now complicates the work of archaeologists. Astghik Babajanyan, co-leader of the expedition, noted that the research and excavations are being conducted within the framework of the “Medieval Fortification on the Silk Road” program and will continue until June 23. Armenian and Italian specialists have also discussed plans to reinforce the excavated sections of the fortress, assess the technical condition of the Aruch temple, and explore the possibility of restoring its dome.
2025-06-12
