Rural

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Examining the Late Medieval Village from the Case at Ambroyi, Armenia

Kathryn J. Franklin, Tasha Vorderstrasse, and Frina Babayan

Introduction
This article examines the archaeological evidence from excavations at the medieval Armenian village of Ambroyi dating to the 13th–14th centuries ad (all dates throughout are ad). It focuses on reconstructing medieval life in the village and situates its analysis within wider trends of studying village archaeology in the medieval Near East. First, the article examines how villages have been approached in the wider Near East, before looking at the specific challenges of studying the village in Armenia in particular. It will then turn to evidence from archaeological excavations and what they reveal about villagers in medieval Armenia as participants in various social institutions, and in medieval life as a greater phenomenon. The data from Ambroyi contributes to an important work of integration, bringing studies of medieval Armenian and Near East society into conversation with each other. The research presented here also demonstrates the significance of medieval Armenia as a case study which bears upon wider discussions of medieval sociality, interaction, and complexity in Eurasia generally. A critical result of the research at Ambroyi is the empirical foundation for arguments regarding not only the continuation of social life in villages during periods of so-called “upheaval,” such as the 13th c. Ilkhanid period, but also for the participation of village inhabitants in interactions extending beyond the village site itself to towns, cities, and the passing travelers who slept and ate at the nearby caravan inn.

Medieval Villages in the Near East: Discourses and Deconstructions

The village as a site of social life has been historically marginalized in archaeological investigations of the medieval Near East. In general, with the exception of salvage excavations or cases of accidental discovery, archaeological excavations have followed the lead of medieval geography and focused on life in urban centers. This concentration on cities began with the first archaeological excavations in the Near East that targeted Islamic cities. Early excavations focusing on the medieval period in the Near East were frequently underwritten by museums and private individuals, and driven by the aim of procuring material for museum collections. As a result, these projects focused on major centers of medieval elite life such as Samarra, Nishapur, Rayy, and Fustat, where the results were expected to be the most spectacular and thus generate exemplary museum objects.¹ Significant excavations of village sites, such as those carried out at Alishar Huyuk and Chatal Hoyuk in the Amuq, were undertaken in the course of investigations of earlier periods that underlay (or were intruded by) medieval contexts and materials.²

A major influence on research has also been the latent presumption that while village life was socially important in the Byzantine and Christian medieval ecumene, the primary locus of social production within the so-called “world of Islam” was the “Islamic city,”³ which has therefore been the focus of historical and archaeological scrutiny to the exclusion of rural settlement. Emphasis has been placed on the construction of new Islamic cities, or the evolution of already-existing cities after the Islamic conquest in the 7th century.⁴ In the historical and geographical sources often used as the source of inspiration for these archaeologies, villages generally do not have names or are only mentioned in passing. Village names do appear in other sources, such as endowment inscriptions (see below), manuscript colophons,⁵ and lists of churches.⁶ In a similar trend, intense study on the part of historians, archaeologists, and scholars interested in Islamic period (i.e., post-7th c. medieval) architecture has focused primarily on the monumental forms which are both located in and categorically define cities. This focus on urban centers as the locus of Islamic social life, centered on monumental institutions, has only relatively recently been complemented by research on extra-urban social contexts as well as the architectural forms, such as castles and caravanserai, which have long attracted study as part of the larger monumental corpus.⁷

In the Caucasus, this is also manifested in the excavation of cities (see Figure 1), namely the Armenian cities of Ani and Dvin,⁸ as well as the fortresses of Garni and Anberd.⁹ In Azerbaijan, attention has again largely focused on cities, such as Oren-Kala, Gabala, and Shamkir.¹⁰ The same is also true in Georgia, where again excavations focused on the fortress city of Dmanisi and cities including Mtskheta and Tbilisi, or on well-known monastery complexes such as David Gareja.¹¹ There have been a number of recent publications of material from Georgia and Armenia that have largely focused on the medieval pottery of the region,¹² again primarily coming from these city excavations, thus emphasizing the cities as important centers of wealth and commerce.

Figure 1. 

Map of the Caucasus and adjoining regions, showing the locations of some of the medieval sites mentioned in this article. View Large ImageDownload PowerPoint

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The Archaeology of Medieval Villages Currently Inhabited In Europe

Introduction

Test pit excavation as a method for reconstructing the development of currently-occupied
rural settlements: Evidence from England
Carenza Lewis

Village Archaeology in France. A twenty-five year retrospective
Edith Peytremann

Investigating medieval village formation in the Netherlands
J.P.W. Verspay, H. Renes, B. Groenewoudt, J. van Doesburg

Is this a village? Approaching nucleated settlements in Scandinavian contexts
Ingvild Øye

The Archaeology of Currently Inhabited Villages in Spain: The Case of Asturias
Margarita Fernández Mier, Jesús Fernández Fernández

Conclusion
Chris Wickham

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