The Archaeology of Ancient Southwest Asia: Investigating the Human Past in the Vedi River Valley of Armenia

This talk briefly introduces HKU’s ongoing archaeological fieldwork in the South Caucasian country of Armenia.  Located at the intersection of three continents, ancient Southwest Asia (also known as the Ancient Near East), saw many early developments in complex human society, from agriculture to writing and cities.  In collaboration with the Armenian Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, HKU is researching a small area within the mountainous northern part of this region, the Vedi River valley of Armenia.  This valley was always an important transportation route between the fertile Ararat Plain to the west and the resource rich mountain ranges to the east.  Thus, in the Late Bronze Age, around 1500BCE, a local polity arose and fortified a prominent hill protecting the entrance to the valley, thus controlling mobility through the valley.  This site, called the Vedi Fortress, was used until about 800BCE when it was likely burned and abandoned.  However, given the prominence of the site and its existing monumental fortification walls, it was reused periodically, especially during the Late Antique/Early Medieval period of around 450-650CE, when Armenia was under Sassanian Persian Suzerainty.