Republic Square in Yerevan is known for the fact that many sights and interesting places are concentrated around it. The National Historical Museum of Armenia is among the most famous and most visited. This institution with a century-old history (it was founded in 1921) can be called a real treasury, because its expositions are able to instantly transfer a person to the distant past of the country and tell about ancient people, the formation of peoples and their life on the local lands for centuries.
The huge collection is considered the richest in Armenia — the total number of objects in it is over 400 thousand!
Almost all the exhibits are finds from numerous expeditions made by outstanding ethnographers. In the past, they were owned by the Ani and Nakhichevan museums and the Etchmiadzin collection of ancient manuscripts, but later the funds were merged. Also, many things were purchased from other countries or received as a gift.
What to see
The exhibition is divided into several parts, represented by objects from archaeological excavations, folios, ancient manuscripts, coins and objects of particular importance for ethnographic research. They cover a huge time period-from the era of the erect man to the present day and tell about various forms of intercultural interaction of tribes who lived on the lands of present-day Armenia, Byzantium, Iran, Persia, Egypt, Assyria and other countries.
Objects of the Bronze Age deserve special attention: jewelry, weapons, tools, and, of course, finds related to the history of the ancient kingdom of Urartu: obelisks from the cities of Erebuni and Taishebaini, royal armor, cuneiform tablets, ceramics, figurines, bone products and jewelry.
There is a separate hall with wooden carts from the Lchashen settlement, a unique collection of coins, including those that were in use during the ancient Artashesid dynasty, which ruled more than a thousand years ago. Among other things, you can see a lot of particularly valuable written artifacts — the only ones of their kind.
Among other exhibits, there are early Christian book miniatures belonging to the Hellenistic period, wall paintings and sculptural reliefs. And the exposition concludes with royal decrees and diplomatic documents on the life of Armenian communities in Russia, old printed books, as well as samples of folk crafts of the new time.
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