Since the worldwide pandemic forced everyone into lockdown, I’ve decided to pick up one of my favorite hobbies; drawing. I’ve made a few illustrations that I would like to share with you today. The Return The return is my first digital painting. It depicts Hayk (the founding father of the Armenian nation), overlooking the...
Dreams of Armenia [Video]
I haven’t made a video in a long while. Browsing through my files I came across an old one that I never finished. So I decided to finally finish it and show it the light of day. Here it is. Enjoy my dreams of Armenia.
Rare gem with Tigranes the Great
A rare intaglio gemstone with the engraved bust of Tigranes the Great of Armenia is displayed on the website of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The gemstone is made of red Jasper and dates to the early–mid 1st century B.C. It’s 14 mm. (9/16 in.) in length. According to the description of...
Jeweled gun of Sultan Mahmud I by Hovhannes Agha Düz (1732-1733)
Armenian jewelers, just as in the Russian and Persian empires, were renown in the Ottoman empire. English archaeologist V. Gordon Childe in his work ‘New Light on the Most Ancient East’ describes that the ancestors of the Armenians were among the first tribes in the world to start working metal; they had invented iron...
Old Depictions of Armenian Life
Here is another series of beautiful old illustrations and paintings of Armenians and Armenian life, that I have collected over time. There are many similar posts on this blog and I’ll continue to share them with you as I keep finding more. These images are quite large as I try to collect and share...
Prints of Armenians from the Dutch national museum
The Dutch national museum has recently digitized and published much of their collection to online audiences. So I decided to look for old prints of Armenian life and discovered some very interesting images from the Dutch colonial era. We can see Armenian merchants in Holland, but also Armenian life in the Ottoman empire. Some...
Old Armenian Bible Covers
Armenia holds some of the worlds oldest illuminated manuscripts. I’ve came across quite a few online and what struck me perhaps the most is that the covers of these manuscripts are absolutely stunning as well as their contents. In this post I would like to share some of the stunning old Bible covers that...
Iron age Armenian antiques found by Hungarian police in a truck
Hungarian police released footage of ancient artifacts smuggled last year by a Turkish truck driver under way to Lithuania. The trove included ancient Sumerian, Persian, Assyrian and most of all Armenian antiquities of the Urartian era (Kingdom of Van). The artifacts dated to as early as 900 BC., included a helmet, small bells and horse tack, were...
Reconstructing the Artaxiad Flag
Background The Artaxiad (pronounced Artashes in Armenian) was a royal dynasty of ancient Armenia. They are believed to have been related to the older dynasty the Orontids (Yervanduni in Armenian), and ruled the Kingdom of Armenia from 189 BC until their overthrow by the Romans in AD 12. Under king Tigranes II the Great of...
Sevak Hanagyan Wins The X Factor in Ukraine
The very talented Armenian Singer-songwriter Sevak Hanagyan just won The X Factor in Ukraine. I’ve been a huge fan of his music ever since I first heard his audition performed at the Ukrainian X Factor which has already garnered over 4 million views on YouTube. Throughout the show his honorable and polite character, with...
