Stone and Bronze Age artifacts found in Armenia are evidence of an advanced culture which was already flourishing in that part of the world 5.000 years ago. One of the greatest empires of the Iron Age, the Urartians (who called themselves and their land Biainili, and their capital Tushpa, by Lake Van) rivaled Assyria for control of strategic trade routes between Central Asia and the Mediterranean. Powerful enough to invade the fabled Kingdom of Babylon, Urartian armies amassed what some say was the first Armenian Empire, connecting the lands of the Armenian Plateau and Anatolia with the Caucasus Mountains.

Urartu survived by some 300 years, but none of her kings aspired to claim the title of emperor of the land. Rather, they left a record of creativity seldom surpassed by other civilizations. These nobles took pride in the building of their temples, waterways and canals (the Canal of Shamiram is still in use today), and cities Erebuni, founded in 782 BC, became Erevan, the capital of Armenia ; Dushpa later became the city of Van; Asteghani, now called Kars, and Akhuriani became the great center, Ani.

The Hurrian Kingdom, on the shores of the Western Tigris, and the Mitani Kingdom, south of Lake Dushpa (Lake Van), were the first organized states in Armenia. This same area, often called the Fertile Crescent was also settled by the Hittites. According to Hittite inscriptions, the Hayasa, with which the Hittite created strong ties through marriage, took shape in this period. The Hayasa adsorbed many features of Hittite life and culture. Assyrian inscriptions reveal the existence of another sovereign state, Nairi (country of rivers), known as the land of the "Twenty-three Kings" lying on the Armenian Highland.

When the Urartians started to decline, the Hayasa country united the local tribes upon which it exerted a profound economic and cultural influence, and having penetrated farther into the Armenian Highland, subjugated the Urartians which in time became mutually assimilated the Hayasa people.

In this way, during the 6th century BC there arose the Armenian Kingdom which comprised large areas of Hayasa, Nairi and Urartu. The process of emergence of the Armenian people that lasted six centuries was thereby completed.

Anahid/Aphrodite Goddess

The statue has been identified as a nude Aphrodite, her left hand pulling drapery from a support at her side, like the famous statue of Aphrodite at Knidos by the fourth-century sculptor Praxiteles. It has also been suggested that the statue represents the Armenian/Iranian goddess Anahita, who was later assimilated with the Greek goddesses Aphrodite and Athena.

The size of the head suggests that it came from a cult statue, though excavations made at Satala in 1874 by Sir Alfred Biliotti, the British vice-consul at Trebizond, failed to discover a temple there. The statue may date to the reign of Tigranes the Great, king of Armenia (97-56 BC), whose rule saw prosperity throughout the region. The thin-walled casting of the bronze head suggests a late Hellenistic date.

Tigranes the Great, King of Armenia 97-56 BC

Under Tigranes, Armenia ascended to a pinnacle of power unique in its history and became, albeit briefly, the strongest state in the Roman east. Extensive territories were taken from the kingdom of Parthia in Iran, which was compelled to sign a treaty of alliance. Iberia (Georgia), Albania, and Atropatene had already accepted Tigranes' suzerainty when the Syrians, tired of anarchy, offered him their crown (83 BC). Tigranes penetrated as far south as Ptolemais (modern 'Akko, Israel).

For the people of western Asia religion permeates every aspect of life. Quite naturally, therefore, artistic expression most commonly relates to religious observance. As with the religious carving and church architecture upon which the Armenians focused their greatest attention, so it is with the art of painting. In Armenia, painting became most highly developed in the monumental art form of church frescoes and in miniature paintings for religious manuscripts. Artistic styles in the two media seem to have developed rather concurrently. But due to the method employed, very few examples of fresco painting remain. Therefore the history of painting in Armenia can best be traced in the pages of religious manuscript paintings.

Before the invention of printing, the Bible or its parts were carefully copied by hand, in exquisitely stylized penmanship. It was a tedious operation. The pages of beautiful calligraphy were then decorated, or illuminated, with paintings. Over the centuries a large number of manuscripts was produced. Armenians attached great importance to them, regarding them as treasures from God. Commissioning the copying of a manuscript merited almost as much praise as that of erecting a church.

Manuscripts were not necessarily copies of the entire Bible. Often they contained copies only of specific or favorite books, most often the four Gospels. A typical Gospel manuscript would begin with several full-page paintings of scenes from the life of Christ, and would also be accompanied by a historic notation listing the date of completion of the manuscript, the name of the patron or family who commissioned the work, and often an account of the circumstances surrounding the making of the copy. These accounts, called colophons, also included descriptions of the condition of the country particularly when under siege by foreign armies. The manuscripts have therefore become unique sources of historical information.

Tens of thousands of illuminated manuscripts were produced during the thirteen centuries of medieval Armenia. Most of them have perished. However, a significant number of well-preserved works still exists in the Repository of Manuscripts (the Matenadaran) in Erevan, Armenia, as well as in the library of St. James of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Mekhitarist Library of San Lazzaro in Venice, the Mekhitarist Library of Vienna, and in numerous private collections and museums in Europe and the United States.

Reliquaries are presented in the established classical forms. The most prominent among these is the "Holy Cross of Khotakerats" commissioned by Prince Eatchi Proshian in the year 1300, which is significant not only because of its age but also for its artistic embellishments and delicate engravings. Equally delicate decorations are found on the chalices and the reliquaries which are sometimes studded with precious gems. Gems add a unique richness to the art on crosses, manuscript covers and stafls. All of these were created in centers of the Armenian goldsmith's art, such as Sis, Adana, Vaspurakan (especially Van and Ardzgh), Constantinople, Smyrna, Garin, Gesaria, Yerevan, Tiflis and New Julfa. The Garin tradition was later carried on by the masters who moved to Akhaltzkha (presently in Soviet Georgia) during the nineteenth century. Armenian goldsmiths were masters of the techiniques of engraving, shaping, meshing, threading and granulation. Belt buckles made at the same centers are predominantly in silver, sometimes gilded and adorned with pearls.