Intact Cist Unearthed in Armenia

WARSAW, POLAND—An intact cist holding the remains of two people and beads and gold and carnelian pendants from an estimated three necklaces has been discovered in a necropolis in Metsamor, which is located in Armenia’s Araks Valley, according to a Science in Poland report. The stone-lined grave, which also held traces of a wooden bed, has been dated to the Late Bronze Age, between 1300 and 1200 B.C. Krzysztof Jakubiak of the University of Warsaw said that the occupants of the tomb are thought to have been a man and a woman between the ages of 30 and 40 at the time of death. They are also thought to have been buried at the same time, since no evidence has been detected that the grave had been reopened. Ceramic vessels and a faience flask imported from the Syrian-Mesopotamian borderland were also recovered. The people buried in the necropolis likely lived in a large fortified settlement nearby, Jakubiak concluded. For more on archaeology in Armenia, go to "Point-and-Shoot Obsidian Analysis."