Zorats Karer

The complex is located on a field dotted with stones, which served as its building material. The structure itself consists of 223 (only numbered) basalt ( andesitic ) stones 1.5–2.8 m high, weighing up to 8.5 tons. Some of the stones are arranged in a rather uneven row, stretching from the northwest to the southeast. In the center of the row, the stones form an oval, on the opposite sides of which passages-corridors are visible. In the center there is another circle and a stone mound . On the side of the mound there is a tomb in the form of a stone box . There are also free-standing stones. The stones are weathered and covered with moss and lichens. A lot of broken and unnumbered stones.

The most intriguing part of the structure is through holes with a diameter of 4-5 cm in the upper part of 80 stones. They were made roughly, some turned out not to be straight, but at an angle, since the conical drilling was carried out from two sides. Holes inside have better preservation than the surface of stones. Currently there are 37 stones with 47 holes.

There is also a small cromlech made of small stones. There is modern creativity - a circle in a circle.

Age

There is no consensus on the age of the structure. There are various estimates, from 5.7 thousand to 2 thousand BC. e. ^{[3] [4]}

The complex was located next to the Bronze Age settlement, to which it belonged. It clearly had not the only function that manifested itself simultaneously, or at different periods of existence. Perhaps the most ancient destination that defines the general configuration of the structure is a corral for livestock . ^[5] The holes in the upper part of the stones are intended for pulling ropes or belts into them, on which it was possible to hang fences in the form of nets, mats, skins.

The funeral function is also undeniable, since there is a stone box in the mound, and a burial was discovered under the menhir.

Efforts have been made to prove that the complex is an ancient observatory . Seventeen stones were associated with observations of sunrise and sunset on the days of the solstice and equinox, as well as with the 14 phases of the moon. But these attempts are inconclusive, if only because the holes are relatively well preserved for prehistoric times. And besides, they do not narrow the field of view of the observer sufficiently. ^[four]

The complex is also known under the Turkic name Goshun-Dash ( tour. Koşun taş - military stones). According to popular legend, the military leader was buried in the dolmen, and his soldiers were standing under separate stones: hence the name: “military stones” ^[6] .

Other names - Zorki kar ^[7] , Zorki karer ("stones of warriors") ^{[8] [9]} , Zorats Kar ("stone army") ^[10] .

In 1985, Elma Parsamyan connected the complex with the village of Karakhundzh located in the same area of ​​Zangezur . The name of the village was divided into parts “kara” (stone) and “hung” (bouquet, hunge → punge) and a parallel was drawn with the name Stonehenge in view of the external similarity of the objects and the supposed astronomical purpose ^[11] .

29 kilometers east of the complex, near the town of Goris , there is the village of the same name Karahunge, 80-90 kilometers northeast, in Nagorno-Karabakh, there are 2 more villages of the same name. The name Karahunge (Քարահունջ) consists of two Armenian words “car” (քար), that is, “stone” and “hunch” (հունջ) or “hunch” (հունչ) that is, “voice”, “echo”, “sound”, actually the name “Karahunge” can be translated as “talking stones”. The Armenian historian Stepanos Orbelian in his work “History of Syunik ” (XIII century) mentions the village of Karundzh near the city of Syunik / Sisakan (modern Sisian ). This name is translated from Armenian as “stone treasure” or “fundamental stones” ^[12] .

Philologist Hrach Martirosyan criticizes the hypothesis that the names Karahunge and Stonehenge are connected ^[13] .

For the first time, the archaeologist O. Khnkikyan and astronomer E. Parsamyan spoke in the 1980s about the astronomical purpose of the monument. ^{[11] [14]}

Radiophysicist Academician Paris Heruni organized several expeditions (including those with international participation) to the monument. In 2004, he published the book “Armenians and Ancient Armenia”, in which he hypothesized that the presence of holes in the stones indicates that Zorats-Karer (Karahunj) was the oldest observatory. ^[fifteen]

In September 2010, Oxford University, together with the Royal Geographical Society, explored Carahunge - the expedition was organized by an Oxford astrophysicist Dr. Phys.-Math. Sciences M. Vardanyan to verify previous results, as well as for the production of modern 3D-maps of the monument. The head of the expedition M. Vardanyan stated that the monument may be one of the oldest observatories in the world. ^[16]

• Petroglyphs of Armenia

• Lisician S. D. Koshun-Dash. Megalithic settlement in Sisian (Zangezur) // Academician N. Ya. Marr. - M.-L.: Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1935 .-- S. 709-721 .
• Հերունի Պ. Մ. Prehistoric Stone Observatory Karahunj-Karenish = Նախապատմական քարե աստղադիտարան ՝ Քարահունջ-Քարենիշը // Հայաստանի ԳԱԱ Զեկույցներ. - Er. , 1998. - Vol. 98 (4) . - S. 307-328 . - ISSN 0321-1339 .
• Herouni P. Carahunge - The Prehistoric Wonder in Armenia. // Armenians and Old Armenia. - Yerevan: TIGRAN METS, 2004 .-- P. 7-76. - ISBN 99941-0-101-3 .
• Martirosyan, H. Sisian, Zorats Karer, Tsits Karer, Karahunge ... // Relation of Astronomy to other Sciences, Culture and Society. Proceedings of XIII Annual Meeting of Armenian Astronomical Society, held October 7-10, 2014 in Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory, Armenia. - Yerevan: "Gitutyun" Publishing House of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, 2015. - P. 299-321. - .
• González-García AC Carahunge - A Critical Assessment / Ruggles, Clive LN // Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy. - New York: Springer, 2015 .-- P. 1453-1460. - ISBN 978-1-4614-6141-8 . - DOI : 10.1007 / 978-1-4614-6141-8_140 .

• CNN International Explores the Secrets of Armenia's Stone Henge. - youtube.com (English)
• Armenian TV News Release (in Armenian)
• “You distort history!”: Passions according to Armenian Stonehenge // Gazeta.Ru , 2 Aug 201