Lchashen

a complex of archaeological monuments and re-mains of various periods near the village of Lchashen in Sevan Raion, Armenian SSR. The site includes a cyclopean fortress, settlements, and burial grounds with numerous barrows, cromlechs, flat-grave burials, and stone cists.

For many centuries these remains, except the fortress, were submerged in Lake Sevan. Beginning in 1956, an expedition led by the Armenian archaeologist A. O. Mnatsakanian investigated a number of objects on the now-exposed shore of the lake. The cyclopean fortress was in existence from the beginning of the third millennium B.Cl to the seventh century B.Cl and from the ninth through the 13th century. The settlements contained cultural layers from the third millennium B.Cl to the Middle Ages. Among the unearthed burials there were some dating from the third millennium B.Cl Some complexes from the middle Bronze Age have also been discovered. Most of Lchashen’s monuments belong to the late Bronze Age (the second half of the second millennium B.Cl). Four- and two-wheeled wooden carts and war chariots were found in the barrows. The bronze implements that have been found include horse bits, bird and animal figurines (lion, deer, bull, goat), swords with scabbards, battle axes, mirrors, a copper kettle, and models of chariots. The mounds also yielded gold ornaments, a gold figurine of a frog, silver goblets, and wooden spoons, bowls, and small tables.

The finds attest to the high level of development of the settled farming and stock-raising tribes of the Sevan basin even in preUrartic times.