ARMENIAN HISTORY MUSEUM

It is located in the same building as the National Gallery, which in Soviet times it shared with the not-to-be-missed Museum of the Revolution. Some 160,000 exhibits provide a comprehensive overview of more than 3,000 years of history that archaeological excavations at the sites of Medzamor (near Echmiadzin), Karmir Plour (near Yerevan) and Loripert (north) have shown to date back to the early Neolithic period. We can see Stone Age weapons, decorative or ritual objects in bronze or iron, two reconstructed wooden chariots dating from the 10th century B.C. discovered on the shores of Lake Sevan after the withdrawal of its waters, but it is the kingdom of Urartu, whose capital was Tushpa near the site of Amonpot, in the region of Lake Van (now in Turkey), which provides the most interesting pieces relating to Armenian antiquity: weapons, such as the pointed bronze helmet that protected the royal head of Arguishti I, or a bronze shield decorated with animal motifs dating from the 7th century BC and also discovered at Karmir Plour, and everyday objects such as a terracotta vase with painted decoration in the shape of a boot dating from the same period and discovered on the same site; also from the same period, but discovered in Loripert, a silver vase decorated with hunting scenes, jewellery including beautiful gold earrings, and statuettes, such as the bronze one of the Uretan goddess Aroubani who sat alongside Khaldi in the pantheon of the Armenian ancestors. Pieces from the Hellenistic period are also in the museum's collection, including a reproduction of the elegant statue of the goddess Anahit, the original of which is in the British Museum in London. The ethnographic section exhibits more recent objects telling the history and customs of the Armenian provinces: folk costumes, carpets, agricultural implements, handicrafts... The museum was enriched at the end of the 1980s with superb objects discovered on the site of Karachamb, in central Armenia, which testify to the advanced degree of civilization of the people who lived in these regions in the 20th century BC. The centrepiece of this "Karachamb treasure", which was exhibited in French museums in 1997, is a small silver bowl finely chiselled with human and animal figures blending Indo-European and Sumero-Babylonian motifs.