Tigranakert is a ruined Armenian city dating back to the Hellenistic period. It is one of several former cities in the Armenian plateau with the same name, named in honor of the Armenian king Tigranes the Great, although some scholars, such as Robert Hewsen and Babken Harutyunyan, have posited that this particular Tigranakert may have been founded by Tigranes the Great's father, Tigranes I. It occupies an area of about 50 hectares and is located in the province of Askeran in the Republic of Artsakh, de jureAgdam in Azerbaijan, approximately four kilometers south of the Khachenaget River.
History
Primary sources first make mention of Tigranakert in the seventh century, stating that there were actually two such cities with the same name in the province of Utik. Archaeologists and historians have managed to date the founding of the first one to the 120s-80s B.C., during the reign of either King Tigranes I, or his son and successor King Tigranes the Great. Robert Hewsen has questioned the attribution to Tigranes II, as no coins or inscriptions bearing his have yet to be uncovered and the identification of the remains has rested on the local name for the site. The ruins of the second Tigranakert have yet to be uncovered, although it is believed to have been located in the district of Gardman. After the demise of the first Tigranakert in the early Middle Ages, the name of the city was preserved and used continuously in local geographic lore as Tngrnakert, Tarnakert, Taraniurt, Tarnagiurt, and Tetrakerte.
Excavations
Excavations at Tigranakert began in March 2005, when it was first discovered, and are currently ongoing under the directorship of Dr. Hamlet L. Petrosyan of the Armenian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography. Archaeologists have uncovered two of the main walls of the city, as well as Hellenistic-style towers and an Armenian basilica dating to fifth to seventh centuries. In 2008, the excavation team began to face funding issues, although the authorities of the Republic of Artsakh have promised to allocate 30 million drams to continue further research. In June 2010, a museum dedicated to the study and preservation of artifacts unearthed from Tigranakert's ruins was opened in the adjacent Shahbulag Castle, near the former city ofAghdam.
