Moz (Vajoz Dzor)
Moz in the province of Vayots Dzor Province was an ancient city in the south of Armenia , which has gone down by an earthquake and a volcanic eruption in the 735th It is the oldest historically documented settlement in Vajoz Dzor. In the 7th to 8th centuries it was an important trade and handicraft center on the Silk Road and had several thousand inhabitants. The Armenian princes of Sjunik from the Orbelian family moved their headquarters from Moz to Jeghegis after the destruction .
location
Moz is located on an almost 1200 meter high hill above the right bank of the Arpa River, four kilometers southeast of the village of Malishka . In its heyday, the city was surrounded by fertile lands and dense forests. After the forests disappeared, the area began to devastate . The place itself has disappeared. The ruins are still on an important transport route, the M2 motorway , the only transit route for cargo from Iran to Yerevan and on to Georgia.
history
The oldest traces of settlement in Moz are dated to the Bronze Age. They include a large grave field that extends over scattered hills about two to three kilometers east of Moz, as well as individual graves in Moz itself. People were buried in them in pairs. In addition to human ashes, the archaeologists found dog skeletons, burned branches, clay and ceramic vessels, obsidian , ornate bronze needles and other objects. Due to their decor, they are dated to the early 1st millennium BC and assigned to the Traghk Vanadzor culture. Finds from later times show that the place had an important function in the Urartian Empire . Hellenistic artifacts show the continued importance of the place after the fall of the empire.
In the 7th to 8th centuries, Moz was an important trade and handicraft center on the Silk Road. At that time the city had several thousand inhabitants. An earthquake and a volcanic eruption destroyed the city under the rule of the Armenian Orbelian princes in 735. After the destruction, they moved their headquarters from Moz to Jeghegis . The medieval historian Kirakos Gandzaketsi describes the downfall of Moz as God's punishment for the death of Stepanos Siunetsi, who is said to have been slain by a prostitute in Moz. According to him, an impenetrable darkness enveloped Moz's borders immediately after the murder. Then the earth shook for forty days and buried tens of thousands of people. What was left was a desert, which is why the place was given the name Vajoz Dzor (= valley of deserts), which is still in use today. Dates recorded on khachkars (cross stones) and gravestones (1266, 1284, 1311, 1321, 1471, 1483) as well as tribute payments to the Tatev monastery in the 13th century show that the place was not immediately abandoned, although it had lost its importance. Later, the small village of Novlar (also known as Moz) lay on the deserted village. The successor settlement was abandoned at the beginning of the 20th century.
The first excavations took place between 1978 and 1979 under the direction of Hasmik Israyelyan. The artefacts from the Bronze Age and the Middle Ages found during this excursion and subsequent excavations are shown in the regional museum of Jeghegis.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Helix Consulting LLC: Silk Road 6: Moz - Silk Road: Moz - Armenian Heritage. Retrieved November 30, 2017 .
- ^ A b c Black Sea Silk Road: Moz settlement - Armenia - Black Sea Silk Road Corridor. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 1, 2017 ; accessed on November 30, 2017 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 39 ° 42 ′ 15.7 ″ N , 45 ° 26 ′ 13 ″ E