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Hebrew University Seminar publishes New Armenian Inscriptions
from Nazareth
A sequel to Michael E. Stone's remarkable discovery of the oldest Armenian writing in the world (made public in 1990) was recently published in an article by M.E. Stone, Th. van Lint and J. Nazarian, "Further Armenian Inscriptions from Nazareth," Revue des Etudes Arméniennes 26 (1996-7), 321-337 (just out, in spite of the date). These oldest inscriptions were written before the middle of the fifth century, that is, within 20 or 30 years of St. Mesrop Mashtots's invention of the Armenian alphabet.
5th century Armenian inscription from Nazareth
In the Seminar on Armenian Inscriptions held in the Armenian Studies Program of the Hebrew University two years ago, Professor Stone, together with visiting scholar Dr. Th.M. van Lint of Leiden University and Armenian Studies Master's student Julia Nazarjian edited and published a new collection of photographs of these old inscriptions which add a few precious letters to the previously known ones. The centerpiece of their joint article, however, is a group of inscribed stones, of unknown provenance, which Stone and his colleagues found in the storerooms of the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. These witness to the continuation of Armenian pilgrimage and presence in Nazareth and the Galilee long after the fifth-century travellers were there.
This article is one of three that were produced by the Armenian Studies Inscriptions Seminar. One of the emphases of our work is the study of unpublished sources for Armenian history, thought and culture actually done hands-on by students and professors working together in research seminars. The other articles will be presented soon on this Web Site
The Galilee was traditionally on the pilgrim route, because of the importance of the Christian sites in this part of Israel. The sites around the Sea of Galilee formed one focus; Mount Tabor was a second and, Nazareth formed a third major magnet for pilgrims to the Galilee. However, the information about Armenian pilgrimage to the north of Israel has been rather sparse. Perhaps the best-known single source relating to Armenian pilgrimage is the homily attributed to Eghishe On the Transfiguration. This source clearly speaks of a group of Armenian pilgrims to the Galilee (perhaps in the seventh century), some of whom remained as monks on Mount Tabor.
In the course of the fieldwork in the museum at the Basilica of the Annunciation on the occasion of the first discovery, we were also shown an store room beneath the Basilica in which a number of inscribed rocks were kept. Some rocks in this store room bore inscriptions in Armenian and these were photographed. Nearly all the dated inscriptions group around the same year (1688 C.E.) and two of them, with quite similar hand-writing, were written by persons bearing the local designator Mashker[ts]i. Mashker is in Turkey near Arabkir. Therefore, it is not unlikely that most of this group of inscriptions came from the same site and were written by the same group of travellers, who may have come from Mashker. They provide direct witness to Armenian pilgrimage to Nazareth and its environs in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They have been deciphered as far as possible, and in some instances drawings are presented in the article. However, much remains obscure about them, and not merely their provenance.
17th century Armenian inscription from Nazareth
In addition, new black and white photographs were taken of the previously known fifth-century inscriptions. As a result three new fragmentary inscriptions became evident, and one additional letter of a previously known inscription. Unfortunately, no meaning can be assigned to any of these scattered letters.
