The Armenian-Italian joint expedition of Dvin Report of 2021 Activities

From October 10 to November 20, 2021, the joint Armenian-Italian expedition represented by the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and the University of Florence carried out archeological research on the site of Dvin, one of the largest medieval urban centres in Armenia. The site has a history of almost a century of archaeological research. After a long break, this excavation season marked a new stage of Dvin archeological research. The excavations concentrated on three sites (Fig. 1). 1): the area called the Dvin Market (4th site), where archeological excavations begun in the 1950s were left incomplete; 2) the south-eastern part of the Lower Fortress, where the Italian team initiated stratigraphic excavations in an area of 5×5 square meters (area 1000); 3) exploratory excavations were carried out about 200 meters south of the market in a residential-economic complex opened during a tree planting in one of the villagers’ garden . The architectural structures and materials uncovered are datable to 5-13th centuries, but most material dates to the 12-13th centuries. Before starting the excavations proper, the joint Armenian-Italian team delineated the borders of the selected area to be excavated. Namely, work was planned in the so-called "Lower Fortress" (6th site) (Ghafadaryan 1952, 24) and "In the Dvin Big Market" (4th site) (Ghafadaryan 1982, 106). The names of these archeological sites refer to the work of previous expeditions, as well as the numbering of sites in the scholarly literature. The Italian team, whose members represent the Chair of Medieval Archeology of the University of Florence, SAGAS Department, mainly concentrated their work in the «Lower Fortress» area. Expedition staff. From Armenia: archaeologists Hamlet Petrosyan, Tatyana Vardanesova, Ruben Hovsepyan, architect Lyuba Kirakosyan, drone operator Vanik Yepiskoposyan, intern Victoria Hakobyan. From Italy: archaeologists Michele Nucciotti, Elisa Pruno, Leonardo Squilloni, Kristina Alecsic, armenologist Zaroui Pogossian, architect Laura Aiello.