Khachkar :: ARMENIAN HISTORICAL MONUMENTS

Khachkar 1154 y․

Azerbaijan / Northern Artsakh / Dashkesan / Hartshangist

Inscription, Armenian, Engraved, Commemoration 1154 y․

8 lines in the Armenian original carved on the lower part of a finely-decorated cross-stone:
In the year 1154. By the name of God, I, daughter of Ukhtik Margaret, erected this Holy Sign for the salvation of the souls of Vardember and Vardavor, Mkhitar and Kanan. May you pray for them and may you remember Atom, who sculpted this cross.
The Armenian original published in: “Nor-Dar,” 1886, No. 120, p. 1; Barkhutariants, M. Artsakh. Baku, 1895, p. 292; Lalayan, Yer. Gandzak District. In: “Azgagrakan Handes,” vol. 5, Tiflis, 1899, No. 1, pp. 309-310; Corpus Inscriptionum Armenicarum, part 5. Compiled by Barkhudarian, S. Yerevan, 1982, pp. 264-265.
Note: It was one of the correspondents of the “Nor-Dar” periodical who found the cross-stone and first published its inscription. Several years later, Barkhutariants saw the same khachkar in St. Hovhannes Church of Hartshangist Village and wrote the following, “The sanctuary retains a small, white, ancient cross-stone brought from Meleznaberd. It fascinates visitors with its delicate motifs.” Yer. Lalayan included Barkhutariants’ decipherment in his work without any changes. Later the khachkar disappeared from the church so that S. Barkhudarian did not find it in the same place during his visit to the monument in the early 1960s. A meritorious specialist in lapidary inscriptions, he deciphered the lines carved on the cross-stone from its photo kept in the History Museum of the Republic of Armenia.

Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 161.

Type Photo
View Exterior
Author Garegin Hovsepian

A cross-stone (1154) found in Matznaberd (History Museum of Armenia)