During excavations carried out in the administrative territory of the Pokr Vedi community in the Ararat Province of the Republic of Armenia, a colonnaded structure has been discovered. This was reported by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia.
Staff of the RA Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports visited the excavation site to familiarise themselves on the ground, study the column foundations, and discuss possible means of their future preservation. The excavations are being carried out by the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia.
According to the head of the expedition, M. Zardaryan, the discovered structure is colonnaded and constitutes one of the buildings of the historic Artashat capital. The bases of 4 columns have been discovered, while the traces of the remaining columns are still beneath the layer of soil. According to the expedition’s studies, the said structure has several cultural layers, which are dated to the period of paganism — the 2nd-1st centuries BC and the 1st-2nd centuries AD — and after a full study, it may be possible to turn it into a museum, creating a tourist site unprecedented in Armenia, with the development of infrastructure in the community.
Thus, the legally defined possibilities for the preservation and museumification of the monument were discussed, and the coming two weeks have been set as the deadline for reaching a final decision.
