Armenia
The Ararat Plain Southeast Archaeological Project
Open Archaeology is conducting archaeological fieldwork in Armenia to investigate past mobilities and ceramic production, use, and transport. Our main fieldwork project is the Ararat Plain Southeast Archaeological Project (APSAP). APSAP is directed by Dr. Peter J. Cobb with assistant director Dr. Elvan Cobb, in collaboration with Artur Petrosyan and Boris Gasparyan of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography at the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia. The project coordinator is Hayk Azizbekyan. Open Archaeology's work is supported by the University of Hong Kong.
Open access publication on our research: "Defending the Vedi River Valley of Armenia: The Fortification and Refortification of a Flatland-Mountain Interface," Bulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research (BASOR), 2024: https://doi.org/10.1086/732090
We are surveying and excavating sites on the southeastern edge of the Armenian Araxes River Valley and exploring how people have moved through and lived in this landscape with particular focuses on the Bronze to Iron Age transition and the Medieval period. Our main excavation is at the Late Bronze and Iron Age site called the Vedi Fortress. Our fieldwork focuses on ceramics and landscapes as well as the refinement of digital recording technologies. We hope to utilize the latter in data analysis and dissemination of information in open digital formats to the public.
Check out this video to hear from our students about their experience on the field.
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Read about our 2024 field season in Vedi.
Read about our 2023 field season in Vedi.
Read about our 2022 field season in Vedi.
Read about our 2021 season with students from a summer course at HKU
We engaged in remote study during the 2020 season.
Read about our 2019 summer field season in Vedi.
In 2018 we participated in a survey project in Vayots Dzor. Read about our 2018 field season.