The Carahunge site is considered the first astronomical observatory of mankind. Located near the city of Sisian, in northeastern Armenia, latitude 39 ° 34 ′ north longitude 46 ° 01’E, it is also known by the following names: Carahunj, Karahunj, Qarahunj, meaning „ringing stones” or „speaking rocks„, after the sound produced on menhirs by strong winds, or Zorats Karer, „the vertical stones”. It is located at an altitude of over 1700m above sea level. It was discovered and researched in 1984 by a team led by archaeologist Onik Khnkikyan.
Some sources estimates the initial construction of the sit at allmost 3500 years older than Stonehenge, about 7000-7500 years ago. The tumular tombs was built in relation to the rows of menhirs seem to date from the Bronze Age, so 3500-4000 years ago. There may be uses from different eras, but this hypothesis is not yet archaeologically proven. Further research is needed.
One year after its discovery, Elma Parsamyan suggested that the complex is likely to be used as an astronomical observer, given the orientation of 14 rocks toward maximum and minimum Moon rising and sunset orbits. In later studies, Armenian archaeologists and astronomers have concluded that there are at least two other ancient sites important for nearby prehistoric astronomy: Angeghakot and Metzamor, which require further research.
At the end of June 2019, a team of enthusiastic Romanian archaeo-astronomers amateurs was co-opted for an expedition to investigate some remarkable places in Armenia, organized by the Romanian Society for Cultural Astronomy (SRPAC), led by Dr. Marc Frîncu, from the West University of Timișoara (UVT) (left in bottom photo), specializing in archaeo-astronomy in USA, and our host, the Armenian archaeologist Levon Aghikyan (in center of the above photo).
One of the visited objectives was the Carahunge menhire ensemble. It was the place chosen for observing the sunrise at the summer solstice, this year taking place on June 21. With the consent of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, which is responsible for the site, we spent the night camping in the field, somewhere nearby, and conducted observations and measurements of the alignments in the morning of the Summer solstice.
I couldn’t miss the right place and the right time to catch some full Moon shots at 1-2 a.m..
The construction is complex, being a wide circular alignment of menhirs, continued approximately toward north and toward south by two quasi-linear alignments over a length of several hundred meters. The cataloged number is 223 menhirs, of which almost a third have circular holes of about 5-15 cm in diameter, which is not clear what they were used for, as a place for tying anchor ropes or as meshes of collimators to certain observation points. It is possible that the ropes tied to them in a certain way have a geometric or have a astrometric role?
Their large number and their arrangement oriented in a lot of directions, imprecise, did not allow us to glimpse any clear order of astronomical orientation, remaining an enigma. They could only play a practical role as hookers for handling them with ropes during construction?
Depending on where we stand in front of the hole of the chosen menhir, we can see almost any star or constellation through the holes. There is no preferential orientation, with most menhirs having the most elongated part oriented after the general alignment, not in obvious directions from the sky or horizon.
Some researchers have suggested that the holes were made after the menhirs were arranged, but the hypothesis is unlikely because ancient drilling technology involved placing the stones horizontally for the operation, which would have meant too much work without any sufficiently credible purpose.
In parallel with the north-south row of menhirs, a road was discovered guarded by a wall of arranged stones (uncovered in down photo), about one meter deep from the ground, which bordered at a distance of up to 1-1.5 m the southern row of vertical stones.
From this road start entrances to graves placed on the right and left. Most of them most likely robbed over the past millennia.
One of these burial tombs was of impressive size, it could hold both objects probably belonging to the deceased, an important person in the tribal hierarchy, household inventory, reflecting faith in another life after death, but also a whole car. Such a car discovered elsewhere with solid wood disc-shaped wheels (assembled planks) was exhibited at the Yerevan History Museum, being a worldwide rarity, for its very good condition. As the museum’s policy is not to allow its photography in any form, we cannot provide you his images.
In the center of the circular alignment is a large mound tomb, unearthed entirely archaeologically, said the archeologist Levon Aghikyan.
Menhirs surround this concentric mound. Analyzing the position of the entrance to the tumulus, from V-SV, we deduced that it could be oriented after the sunrise. With clear skies at the east of the solstice, I noticed the alignment with the wall on the right in this direction is toward the Summer Solstice Sunrise (the black arrow). Placing myself on the circumference of the menhirs, in this direction, I noticed the way in which the rocks were placed by the pre-ancient builders: the menhirs marked the tops of the mountains, at the observational horizon of this place.
Moreover, some of them were specially carved to look like the tips that represented them, as we will see in several following photos.
Such practices Carving stones in the form of revered mountains were common for many Neolithic sites.
The mountains were the hardest places where the earth met the sky, where the gods lived, the superpowers that controlled the winds, the clouds, the motion of the stars and planets, the celestial events, or the earth’s climathic events.
Thus, the preantic observer had a map on the ground to indicate angles, directions, and to study celestial events with dimensions that could be measured on a closer scale. It was an „imago mundi” of their county.
In the last couple ofphotos the angle is shifted due to the change of the place of observation, to see the correspondence with the mountain tops. And the one below was taken before the place of the observer was discovered, but close to it.
The next menhir is the menhir dedicated to the Summer solstice, reproducing proportionally the slope of the mountain on which the solstice Sun rises.
And behold we see a splendid Sunrise at the summer solstice, on the slopes of Mount Azix, on the border with Artsakh, a territory known by its Russian name, Nagorno-Karabakh. The epiphany of the Sun going up, on the slope of Mount Azix. Possibly captured in ancient local songs or legends. Now probably lost.
We can launch a hypothesis of the purpose of the whole Carahunj menhirs as having, in addition to the roles of place of funeral rites and initiation in the astronomical knowledge of the time, and that of a „command center” or zonal information, if lights signals were emitted from the peaks corresponding to the rocks, like a map. Because it was possible to determine the place of emission even in conditions of dark night or light fog, having marked on the ground the directions from where the light rays would come, even if we do not have weather condition to observe the horizon.
But any hypothesis can remain only a hypothesis, there is no definite proof of the use of mathematics or angular measurements at that time, when there was no writing in an elaborate, abstract form, but only ideograms and symbols more or less cataloged, more or less deciphered, interpretable.
A half-view of the menhirs below.
Sources: wikipedia, deskgram.net, instagram, hushardzan.am and information from archaeologist Aghikyan Levon.
Photo & film ©Adrian Bancu 2019
(Will be continued with other researches)
Alte articole: https://www.sciences-faits-histoires.com/blog/archeologie/armenie-retour-sur-les-mysteres-prehistoriques.html
