Ughtasar North Plateau Caravanserai
Ուղտասար Հյուսիսային քարավանատուն · Ughtasar North Caravanserai Armenia · Selim North Road
Late Bronze to Medieval Silk Road·Urartian, Medieval Armenian (Zakarid), Seljuk·🇦🇲 Syunik Province, north Syunik plateau, Ughtasar to Selim Pass caravan route, Armenia
About
About Ughtasar North Plateau Caravanserai
North-plateau rock-shelter and dry-stone caravanserai footing 3.2 km north of the Ughtasar crater, at 2820 m on the medieval Silk road alternative pass linking Sisian to Noratus–Selim. The 8×4 m overhang and adjacent 6×6 m caravanserai footing preserve 90+ medieval petroglyphs: Armenian khachkar crosses, Seljuk tamgas, Arabic graffiti and caravan pack-animal friezes (12th–14th c.) incised over sparser Bronze ibex at the spring-head. Documents the medieval reuse of the Bronze high-pasture gallery as a caravan waypoint after the 11th-c. Seljuk and Zakarian reactivation of the Syunik pass system, with a stone align road (kalderimi) visible 200 m west.
Why it mattersMedieval caravan reuse of Bronze worship plateau, preserving Armenian–Seljuk palimpsest at Silk road pass.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Dating medieval pack-animal style
- 02Caravanserai attribution Zakarid vs Seljuk
Theories
- 01Silk road alternative pass waypoint
- 02Bronze sacred spring reuse by medieval caravan
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.1000 BCE medieval peak 12th–14th c. (Bronze substratum + medieval)
- Period
- Late Bronze to Medieval Silk Road
- Culture
- Urartian, Medieval Armenian (Zakarid), Seljuk
- Builders
- Syunik pastoralists then medieval caravaneers
- Purpose
- Spring-head shelter and caravanserai stop linking Bronze cult to Silk Road caravan marking
- Abandoned
- c.1400 CE with Timurid disruption
- Rediscovered
- 2021 Armenian-Italian Syunik Silk Road Project
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.1000 BCE
Bronze ibex substrate
c.1250 CE
Medieval pack-animal and cross incision peak
2021
Syunik Silk Road Project record
On the ground
Structures & features
39.7200° N · 46.0500° E · 2820 m · 2 mapped features
North Plateau — Caravan Pack-Animal Frieze (Wall NP-1)
petroglyph panel2.0-m shelter wall with line of 6 Bactrian camels, donkeys and Armenian cross above, medieval
39.7210° N · 46.0510° ENorth Plateau — Caravanserai Tamga Inscription (Stone C-2)
inscriptionFoundation stone with Seljuk tamga and Arabic caravan graffito 1287 CE
39.7190° N · 46.0490° E