Zorats Karer

Carahunge
Քարահունջ
History

Shown within Armenia
Alternate name	Zorats Karer, Carenish, Dik-dik karer
Location	near Sisian, Syunik Province, Armenia
Coordinates	39°33′2.52″N 46°1′42.96″E / 39.5507000°N 46.0286000°E / 39.5507000; 46.0286000Coordinates: 39°33′2.52″N 46°1′42.96″E / 39.5507000°N 46.0286000°E / 39.5507000; 46.0286000
Type	possibly a necropolis or observatory
Founded	construction date unknown
Periods	Middle Bronze Age to Iron Age
Site notes
Condition	Is being protected by the government.^[1]
Website	carahunge.com

History of Armenia

Etymology Timeline Traditional Urheimat
Prehistory Stone & Copper Age Shulaveri-Shomu culture c.6500–3400 BCE Areni-1 Cave Complex Kura–Araxes culture c.3400–2000 BCE Legend of Hayk (?) 2492 BCE Bronze & Iron Age Hayasa-Azzi c.1500–1290 BCE Arme-Shupria c.1300s–1190 BCE Ararat/Urartu Nairi Tribes 1114–860 BCE Kingdom of Van 860–590 BCE Scythian & Mede Invasions 6th Century BCE
Antiquity Achaemenid Period Satrapy of Armina 549–331 BCE Orontid Dynasty Ancient Armenia Armenia Minor 331–72 BCE Kingdom of Armenia 321 BCE–428 CE Artaxiad dynasty 189 BCE–12 CE Empire 84–34 BCE Arsacid dynasty 52–428 CE Roman–Parthian War 58–63 CE Roman Province of Armenia 114–118 CE Christianization 301 CE Kingdom of Sophene c.200–94 BCE Kingdom of Commagene 163 BCE–72 CE Marzpanate period Byzantine Armenia 387–536 Persian Armenia 428–646 Mamikonian dynasty Battle of Avarayr 451
Middle Ages Arabic Period Emirate of Armenia 653–884 Hamamshen 700s–1300s Amatuni Dynasty Medieval Armenia Bagratid Armenia 884–1045 Bagratid dynasty 861–1118 Kingdom of Vaspurakan 908–1021 Artsruni dynasty Sajid dynasty 889–929 Sallarid dynasty 919–1062 Kingdom of Tashir-Dzoraget 979–1118 Kingdom of Syunik 987–1170 Kingdom of Artsakh 1000–1261 House of Hasan-Jalalyan Battle of Manzikert 1071 Cilician & Turco-Mongol Period Seljuq rule 1071–1201 Georgian union 1201–1236 Ilkhanid rule 1236–1335 Principality of Khachen 1261–1750 Turkmen rule 1335–1508 Kingdom of Cilicia 1198–1375 Rubenid dynasty 1000–1261 Hethumid dynasty 1226–1373 Lusignan dynasty 1341–1375
Early modern age Perso-Ottoman Period Safavid & Qajar rule 1502–1828 Five Melikdoms Nakhichevan deportation 1606 Ceding of Eastern Armenia 1828 Ottoman rule 1548–1915 Six Vilayets 1878 Hamidian massacres 1895–1896 Armenian Genocide 1909–1918 Russian period Russian rule 1828–1918 Armenian Oblast 1828–1840 Western Armenia 1915–1918 National Liberation Movement Armenakan 1885 S.D. Hunchakian Party 1887 ARF (Dashnaktsutyun) 1890 Caucasus Campaign 1914–1918 Battle of Sardarapat 1918 Battle of Karakilisa 1918 Modern Armenia First Republic of Armenia 1918–1920 Treaty of Batum 1918 War with Azerbaijan 1918–1920 War with Georgia 1918 Treaty of Sèvres 1920 Wilsonian Armenia 1920 War with Turkey 1920 Treaty of Alexandropol 1920
Modern age Soviet Period Armenian S.S.R. 1920–1991 February Uprising 1921 Republic of Mountainous Armenia 1921 Treaty of Moscow 1921 Treaty of Kars 1921 Territorial claims against Turkey 1945–1953 Independence Armenian diaspora Hidden Armenians Republic of Armenia since 1991 Post-Soviet transition 1991–1995 Modern era since 1995 Nagorno-Karabakh Republic since 1994 Nagorno-Karabakh War 1989–1994
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Zorats Karer (Armenian: Զորաց Քարեր, locally Դիք-դիք քարեր Dik-dik karer),^[2] also called Karahunj, Qarahunj or Carahunge and Carenish (Armenian: Քարահունջ և Քարենիշ) is a prehistoric archaeological site near the town of Sisian in the Syunik Province of Armenia. The phrase Zorats Karer is literally translated from Armenian as Army Stones. It is also often referred to in international tourist lore as the 'Armenian Stonehenge.'^[3]

Location

The Carahunge site is on latitude of 39° 34' and longitude of 46° 01' on the mountain plateau having altitude 1770 m and occupies a territory of about 7 hectare on the left side of the Dar river canyon, the tributary of the river Vorotan (at 2 km). It is located on a rocky promontory near Sisian.^[4]

Name

Armenian historian Stepanos Orbelian in his book 'History of Syunic' (I-XII centuries) mentioned that in Tsluk (Yevalakh) region of Armenia, near town Syunic or Sisian was a village Carunge,^[5] which means in Armenian Stone Treasure or Foundational Stones.

The name Carahunge is interpreted as deriving from two Armenian words: car (or kar) (Armenian: քար), meaning stone, and hunge or hoonch (Armenian: հունչ), meaning sound. Thus the name Carahunge means Speaking Stones.

This interpretation is related to the fact that the stones make whistling sounds on a windy day, presumably because of multiple reach-through holes bored under different angles into the stones in prehistoric times.

In 2004, the site was officially named the Karahunj (Carahunge) Observatory, by Parliamentary decree (Government decision No. 1095-n, July 29, 2004).

Carahunge is also known in local lore as Zorats Karer (Զորաց Քարեր), Dik-dik Karer (Դիք-դիք քարեր), and Tsits Karer (Ցից Քարեր), meaning Vertical Stones in vernacular Armenian.

Stones

Map showing the layout of the upright stones at Carahunge

The Carahunge Monument consists of the following parts: the central circle, the north arm, the south arm, N-E alley, the chord (crossing the circle) and separate standing stones.

The site is rich with stone settings, burial cists and standing stones - Menhirs. In total registered 223 stones.

The heights of the stones range from 0.5 to 3 m (above ground) and weight up to 10 tons. They are basalt (andesite) stones, eroded by time and covered with moss and lichen of many colours. The inside surface of holes preserved much better. There are also many broken and unnumbered stones.

About 80 of the stones feature a circular hole, although only 37 of the stones, with 47 holes, are still standing. They have been of interest to Russian and Armenian archaeoastronomers who have suggested that the standing stones could have been used for astronomical observation. Seventeen of the stones were associated with observations of sunrise or sunset at the solstices and equinoxes, and 14 with the lunar extremes.^[6] However, this must remain conjectural as the holes are relatively unweathered and may not even be prehistoric in origin.^[7]

Investigations

The astronomical significance of megalithic structures at Zorats Karer was first explored by Armenian archaeologist Onik Khnkikyan in 1984.^[8] A year after, a hypothesis about the existence of an astronomical observatory at Zorats Karer (Carahunge), as well as analyses of other megalithic sites at Metzamor and Angeghakot, was made by Armenian astrophysicist Elma Parsamyan.^[9]

Investigation by radiophysicist Paris Herouni and his research team during 1994-2001 led them to the now disputed conclusion that Carahunge is the world's oldest astronomical observatory.^[10] In 1999, Herouni got in touch with British-born American astronomer and archaeo-astronomer Gerald Hawkins, renowned for his analysis of Stonehenge in which he proposed its purpose as an ancient astronomical observatory. In a letter to Herouni, Professor Hawkins confirmed his Armenian colleague’s similar conclusions about Zorats Karer, stating, in particular: “I admire the precise calculations you have made. I am most impressed with the careful work you have done, and hope that the result will ultimately get recorded in literature.”^[11]

Zorats Karer was investigated in 2000 by archaeologists from the Institut für Vorderasiatische Archäologie, University of Munich, as part of a field survey of prehistoric sites in southern Armenia. They identified the site as a necropolis dating mainly from the Middle Bronze Age to the Iron Age, finding enormous stone tombs from those periods within the area. Team leader Stephan Kroll also concluded that the lines of stones were actually the remains of a city wall, possibly from the Hellenistic-period, that had been constructed mostly of rubble and loam, and in which the upright stones had acted as reinforcements.^[12]^[13]

Archaeoastronomer Clive Ruggles wrote that 'Inevitably there have been other claims—more speculative and less supportable—relating to the astronomical significance of the site. One is that it can be astronomically dated to the sixth millennium BCE and direct comparisons with Stonehenge, which few now believe was an observatory, are less than helpful.'^[7]

Armenian biologist and mathematician Vachagan Vahradyan has recently further developed the hypothesis about the astronomical function of this archaeological complex.^[14]

A recent critical assessment found several problems with the archaeoastronomical interpretations of the site. The northeast avenue, which extends about 50 meters from the center, has been inconsistently associated with the summer solstice, the major northern lunistice, or the rising of Venus.^[6] Herouni had postulated that in order to use the holes in the megaliths for astronomical observations sufficiently precise to determine the date of the solstices, it would have been necessary to restrict the field of vision by inserting a narrow tube in the existing perforations. Without these modifications, for which there is no archaeological evidence, the claimed astronomical significance of the orientations of the holes vanishes. As a consequence, González-Garcia concluded that the archaeoastronomical claims for the site are untenable, although further investigations to determine the astronomical potential of Carahunge and similar sites are merited.^[15]

Museum

In the nearby city of Sisian, there is a small museum dedicated to findings in the area, including palaeolithic petroglyphs found on mountain tops in the area, and grave artefacts form the Bronze Age burial site with over 200 shaft graves.

Gallery

One of the stones with a hole in it
Stones row
Interior part
Circular stones row
Karahunj (Zorats Karer)
Karahunj (Zorats Karer)
Karahunj (Zorats Karer)
Karahunj (Zorats Karer)
Karahunj (Zorats Karer)

References

Notes

↑ "Decree N853-Ն (2009) of the Government of the Republic of Armenia". Armenian Legal Information System (Arlis). Retrieved 13 July 2015.
↑ Քարահունջի չտեսնված հմայքը. 1in.am (in Armenian). 3 July 2013. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
↑ "The Vorotan Project". Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. 2005. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
↑ Herouni, Paris (2004). Armenians and Old Armenia. Yerevan, Armenia: Tigran Mets.
↑ Orbelian, Stepanos (1986). History of Syunic (I - XII centuries). Yerevan. p. 395.
1 2 González-Garcia, A. César (2014), "Carahunge - A Critical Assessment", in Ruggles, Clive L. N., Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy, New York: Springer Science+Business Media, p. 1455, doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_140, ISBN 978-1-4614-6140-1
1 2 Ruggles, Clive (2005), "Carahunge", Ancient Astronomy: An Encyclopedia of Cosmologies and Myth, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC CLIO, pp. 65–67, ISBN 1-85109-477-6
↑ Khnkikyan, Onik. Zorats Karer of Sisian (in Armenian: “Սիսիանի Զորաքարերը”). Armenia’s Nature Magazine No. 4. 1984. pp. 33-34.
↑ Parsamian, Elma S. About the possible astrological role of megalithic rings in Angeghakot: Collection of scientific articles (in Armenian: “Անգեղակոթի մեգալիտիկ կառուցվածքի աստղագիտական նշանակության վերաբերյալ” and Russian: “О возможном астрономическом назначении мегалитических колец Ангелакота”). Reports of Byurakan Observatory No. 57. The Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR. 1985. pp. 101-103. ISSN 0370-8691 (http://byurakan.asj-oa.am/351/)[]
↑ Paris Herouni, Armenians and Old Armenia, Yerevan, 2004.
↑ Herouni, Paris (2004). Armenians and Old Armenia, p. 24.
↑ "2000 Survey in Southern Armenia".
↑ "2000 Survey in Southern Armenia". Archived from the original on 2007-12-23.
↑ Vahradyan, Vachagan & Vahradyan, Marineh. “About the Astronomical Role of ‘Qarahunge’ Monument” in “Armenians and the World History” (http://www.anunner.com/vachagan.vahradyan/About_the_Astronomical_Role_of__%E2%80%9CQarahunge%E2%80%9D_Monument_by_Vachagan_Vahradyan,_Marine_Vahradyan)
↑ González-Garcia, A. César (2014), "Carahunge - A Critical Assessment", in Ruggles, Clive L. N., Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy, New York: Springer Science+Business Media, pp. 1453–1460, doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_140, ISBN 978-1-4614-6140-1

Bibliography

Herouni, Paris (2004). Armenians and Old Armenia. Yerevan, Armenia: Tigran Mets.

Ruggles, Clive (2005). Ancient Astronomy. ABC CLIO. ISBN 1-85109-477-6.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zorats Karer.

European megaliths

Armenia	Metsamor Zorats Karer

Azerbaijan	Gobustan Rocks

Bulgaria	Beglik Tash Garlo

England	Arbor Low Avebury Barbrook One Birkrigg Boscawen-Un Boskednan Brown Willy Cairns The Bull Ring Burnmoor stone circles Castlerigg Craddock Moor Devil's Arrows Doll Tor Drizzlecombe Duloe Fernacre Gardom's Edge Goodaver Grey Wethers Hoarstones Hordron Edge Hurlers Leper Stone Long Meg and Her Daughters Mên-an-Tol The Merry Maidens Mitchell's Fold Nine Ladies Nine Stones, Altarnun Pipers Rollright Rudston Monolith Scorhill Stannon Stanton Drew Stonehenge Stripple Swinside Trippet

France	Barnenez Tumulus of Bougon Caixa de Rotllan Carnac Menhir de Champ-Dolent Dolmen de Bagneux Broken Menhir of Er Grah Filitosa Gallardet Dolmen Gavrinis Harrespil Kerzerho Locmariaquer megaliths Mane Braz Paddaghju Peyre-Brune Tremeca Verziau of Gargantua

Germany	Altendorf Denghoog Fraubillen cross Harhoog Lancken-Granitz dolmens Lohra Megaliths in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Niedertiefenbach Oldendorfer Totenstatt] Riesenstein Route of Megalithic Culture Sieben Steinhäuser Wotanstein Züschen

Ireland	Ardgroom Beltany stone circle Bohonagh Brownshill Dolmen Brú na Bóinne Carrigagulla Carrowmore Castlestrange stone Creevykeel Court Tomb Drombeg Gaulstown Portal Tomb Glantane East Grange stone circle High cross Knocknakilla Meehambee Dolmen Piper's Stones Poulnabrone dolmen Reask Templebryan Stone Circle Turoe stone Uragh Stone Circle

Jersey	Jersey Dolmens La Hougue Bie

Malta	Megalithic Temples (Borġ l-Imramma Borġ in-Nadur Buġibba Debdieba Ġgantija Ħaġar Qim Ħal-Ġinwi Kordin Mnajdra Qortin l-Imdawwar Santa Verna Skorba Ta' Ħaġrat Ta' Marżiena Ta' Raddiena Tal-Qadi Tarxien Tas-Silġ Xemxija Xrobb l-Għaġin) Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni Xagħra Stone Circle

Netherlands	Hunebed

Northern Ireland	Aughlish Ballynoe Beaghmore Corick Drumskinny Legananny Giant's Ring

Poland	Brąchnówko Grzybnica Odry Węsiory

Portugal	Almendres Cromlech Anta Grande do Zambujeiro Cunha Baixa Dolmen

Russia	Dolmens of North Caucasus Thunder Stone Megaliths in the Urals Russian Geoglyph

Scandinavia	Picture stones Runestones Stone circles Stone ships

Scotland	Balquhain Callanish I II III IV VIII X Carlin Cat Stane Clach an Trushal Colmeallie Drybridge Easter Aquhorthies Lochmaben Stone Pictish Ring of Brodgar Sheldon Stenness Steinacleit Strichen Yonder Bognie

Ukraine	Boundary stones

Wales	Barclodiad y Gawres Bedd Arthur Bedd Taliesin Bodowyr Bryn Cader Faner Bryn Celli Ddu Bryn Gwyn stones Capel Garmon Carreg Coetan Arthur Carreg Samson Coetan Arthur Foel Chwern Llanfechell Lligwy Burial Chamber Maen Llia Maen Madoc Meini Hirion Moel Tŷ Uchaf Parc Cwm long cairn Penrhos Feilw Pentre Ifan St Lythans burial chamber Trefignath Tinkinswood Tŷ Newydd Burial Chamber Whetstones

General articles	Standing stone Dolmen Henge Menhir Stone circle Stone row Concentric stone circle Recumbent stone circle Chambered cairn Harrespil Photographs of stone circles Middle Eastern megaliths

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