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 On October 17 the Second International Congress on Armenian Studies «Armenian Studies and the Challenges of Modern Times» kiked off.

 Numerous reports were presented on the theme of ethnography and archaeology. Reports were made by the representatives of Armenia, the United States, Russia, France and Poland, including Vladimir Besolov, Gayane Shagoyan, Conrad Sekerskij, Grigor Areshyan, Levon Abrahamyan and others. Report themes were quite diverse and focused on different historical periods, ranging from the eneloit age to present day.
  On October 17, the first session opened by Boris Gasparyan’s «Main results of investigations  made in Areni -1 Cave» report, which presented the results of the excavations in the cave of Areni, Vayots Dzor region. Investigation of the cave in the Valley of the river Arpa  began in 2007. As a result of excavations 3 layers of  the remnants of material culture of  late eneolit period from fifth millenium B.C. until the middle of the fourth millenium B.C. were found. In addition to the late eneolit layer a large variety of remnants of material culture of the middle ages was found in the cave, which demonstrates the use of the cave in the later stages. He stressed the importance of the Areni-1 as an archaeological monument and the source, which played a major role in the life of the inhabitants of Vayots Dzor.
  Gayane Shagoyans report «Armenian Wedding. from Reconstruction to  Deconstruction» was also interesting. The author, provided a methodology for restructuring national rituals on scientific level. According to her, the national ceremony is at the basis of nationalism. Studing Armenian wedding ceremony as an example, the author tries to confirm the Armenian identity.
  There was also a report about the architecture along with other reports. Levon Abrahamyan in his report «Between National and Stalinist: Tamanyan’s Yerevan from Antropological Perspective» presented the cultural layers of Soviet architecture.He presented the architectural tendencies of the 1930s, comparing the projects and construction circumstances of the Opera and Ballet Theatre in Yerevan and the House of Councils in Moscow. Speaker drew attention to the fact that the House of Councils was built on the site of the Church of the Savior, and the Opera and Ballet at Gefsemanovskoj Chapel.
  The spokesman noted that despite the fact that the circumstances of the construction of the two buildings are similar, yet there is a big difference: the Church of the Savior in Moscow was built for topographic and anti-religious reasons, and the Gefsemanovskoj Chapel was built only for topographical.
   Tamanian was convinced that the chapel was the pagan temple of song and love.  Tamanian told about that to the Armenian prominent painter  M. Saryan too. L. Abrahamian summarizing his speech, underlined the fact that there are many architectural elements of Armenian churches in the architecture of Tamanyan.
  Grigor Areshyan, from United States, presented report on «The Armenian genocide on the Battlefields of Archaeology». The author referred to the problems of protection of Armenian and Ottoman monuments in Turkey. Underlining the fact that the recognition of the Armenian rights is an important step, Areshyan also noted the importance of cooperation with Turk scientists for the investigation and preservation of multicultural heritage  of Turkey. 
 
 

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