Burial of two closely related infants under a “dragon stone” from prehistoric Armenia
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“Dragon stones” are prehistoric basalt stelae carved with animal imagery found in Armenia and surrounding regions. These monuments have a complex history of use and reuse across millennia, and the original date of creation is still a matter of debate. In this article, we present a unique dragon stone context excavated at the site of Lchashen, Armenia, where a three-and-a-half-meter high basalt stela with an image of a sacrificed bovid was found above a burial dating to the 16th century BC. The burial stands out among hundreds from this site as the only one in connection with a “dragon stone”, and one of very few containing the remains of newborn babies. Furthermore, our analyses of ancient DNA extracted from the well-preserved skeletal remains of two 0–2-month-old individuals showed them to be second-degree related females with identical mitochondrial sequences of the haplogroup U5a1a1 lineage, thus indicating that the infants are closely related. Additionally, we assessed that the buried individuals displayed genetic ancestry profiles similar to other Bronze Age individuals from the region.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Artikelnummer | 104601 |
| Tidsskrift | Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports |
| Vol/bind | 57 |
| Antal sider | 15 |
| ISSN | 2352-409X |
| DOI | |
| Status | Udgivet - 2024 |
Bibliografisk note
Funding Information:
We express our gratitude to the Metsamor Historical-Archaeological Museum Reserve, Armenia (director Artavazd Zakyan) for permission to work with materials from Lchashen as well as to the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography (director Pavel Avetisyan) and Service for the Protection of the Historical Environment and Cultural Museum-Reservations, Armenia (Scientific director Ashot Piliposyan) for supporting our undertaking. For essential hints we thank Sargis Hayotsyan, Chairman of the Higher Education and Science Committee, RA MESCS, as well as cultural anthropologists Levon Abrahamian, Armen Petrosyan and Tork Dalalyan. Ray Kidd and Erik Marsh offered helpful comments on using OxCal methods. The archaeological part of the work has been realized in the frames of the Higher Education and Science Committee, RA MESC grant no. 21AG-6A080; the UGAMS radiocarbon dates were funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), project number 462731233; the open access was possible by funding of Ca' Foscari University of Venice. A special thanks to Thomas P. Gilbert for his support with the project. Data availability, The aligned sequence data (BAM format; after MAPQ 30, length filter 30 bp and removal of duplicates) reported in this paper can be accessed through the European Nucleotide Archive under the project name: PRJEB74217.
Funding Information:
We express our gratitude to the Metsamor Historical-Archaeological Museum Reserve, Armenia (director Artavazd Zakyan) for permission to work with materials from Lchashen as well as to the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography (director Pavel Avetisyan) and Service for the Protection of the Historical Environment and Cultural Museum-Reservations, Armenia (Scientific director Ashot Piliposyan) for supporting our undertaking. For essential hints we thank Sargis Hayotsyan, Chairman at Science Committee RA, as well as cultural anthropologists Levon Abrahamian, Armen Petrosyan and Tork Dalalyan. Ray Kidd and Erik Marsh offered helpful comments on using OxCal methods. The archaeological part of the work has been realized in the frames of the RA Scientific Committee grant no. 21AG-6A080; the UGAMS radiocarbon dates were funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), project number 462731233 . A special thanks to Thomas P. Gilbert for his support with the project.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s)
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