Medieval settlement excavations at Arpa, Armenia: regional context and chronology for a Silk Road Town

This article focuses on the results from the Vayots Dzor Silk Road Survey (VDSRS) 2023 excavations of village contexts at the high and late medieval (thirteenth–fif- teenth centuries CE) site of Arpa, in Vayots Dzor, Armenia. Strategic excavations were carried out in medieval layers threatened by the use of the site as a local cemetery. These latest results provide insights into the living and working areas and material assemblages of Arpa. They are further contextualized within the wider context of VDSRS surveys in Vayots Dzor, and previous excavations in the region and in wider Anatolia/ South Caucasus. In connection with epigraphic information (architectural and funerary inscriptions) present at the site, the 2023 excavated assemblages are dated to the late Medieval period (fourteenth–fifteenth centuries). The stratigraphic results contribute to correcting a long-standing assumption of an early (fifth century) date for the site based on literary sources; meanwhile, the results shed light on the later life of the site and transformations in movements along what are now referred to as the “medieval Silk Roads.”