Hnaberd fortress (plate IIc) is located 1.4km southeast (bearing 150°) of Hnaberd village, overlooking a large modern reservoir to the east. The fortress is 1.65km southwest of Gekhadzor fortress (bearing 227°) and is the most westerly fortress in the Tsaghkahovit Plain (map quad B3i).
The fortress of Hnaberd sits atop a high, prow-shaped outcrop that rises 90 m above the surrounding terminal slope of the mountain (map 28, 47). The terrain surrounding the fortification walls is extremely steep on all sides except the south. A single terrace has been carved from the hill on both the east and west flanks. The site is approximately 33.2 ha in extent while the citadel enclosed by the fortification wall covers 1.56 ha.
The outline of the fortification wall is visible for almost the entire circuit around the citadel with significant exposures of the exterior façade on the southern end. A gateway flanked by towers or buttresses on the east side of the fortress is still the easiest way into the citadel. The walls of the fortifications are of medium to large stone masonry with shaped facing stones surrounding a rubble core. The most distinctive feature of the fortifications at Hnaberd is the construction of the southern wall, where the gentle topography provides little defense.
While much of the fortification wall at Hnaberd appears to be relatively straightforward in its construction, the southern wall shows considerable evidence of rebuilding and redesign over the course of at least three building phases (fig. VI.11). In the first, the central line of wall was constructed, with a series of small saw-tooth corners. In a subsequent building episode, the interior wall face was added to, altering the small saw-tooth into a large corner several meters to the east. In yet another building episode, variably sized and spaced rectilinear buttresses were built against the exterior façade. It seems clear from our inspection of the joins that these buttresses were not integrated elements of the original construction. Moreover, the buttresses were constructed using a distinctive masonry which employed long flat stones rather than the irregularly shaped blocks used in building the curtine.
Immediately outside of the southern fortification wall we found evidence of a small settlement, including visible rectilinear room blocks (Hnaberd lower town; plate Vb). Only the tops of the walls within the lower town are visible and so we were not able to describe the masonry. However, the rooms make an interesting contrast to those from the larger lower town at Tsaghkahovit. In general, the rooms here are considerably smaller and nowhere do we see evidence for the sort of rectilinear, well-carpentered buildings that make the west settlement at Tsaghkahovit so conspicuous. However, small pathways between rooms suggests there may have been regular pathways within the settlement.
Surface densities at Hnaberd were quite high on our original visit in 1998, but considerably reduced at subsequent re-visits in 2000 and 2006 (figs. VI.9-10, 33). Examination of the entire corpus of surface materials from Hnaberd (n=602) suggests two primary eras of occupation, the LB/I1 (Group A) and the mid-1st millennium BC (Group J). Several sherds that resembled Medieval ceramics were initially
recorded, but as this assignment could not be confirmed in consultation with Medieval specialists, these sherds were reassigned to the indeterminate group. Our initial impression of the LB/I1 corpus of surface ceramics suggested that Hnaberd's late second millennium BC occupation tended more towards the I1 period (Avetisyan et al 2000). However, further inspection suggests that this is not the case. The initial construction of Hnaberd fortress now appears to be closely synchronized with the LB occupations at Tsaghkahovit and Gegharot. Note should also be made of the small, yet significant corpus of materials dating to the I2 period. While the total collection is small and inconclusive, it does warrant further examination given the general dearth of settlement in the Tsaghkahovit plain during the Urartian era.
Hnaberd surface materials were collected in 2000 in 8 distinct loci. The Group A ceramics were distributed relatively evenly across all loci but were, not surprisingly, particularly dense within the confines of the citadel wall. Group J ceramics were most strongly represented within the citadel walls and on the eastern terrace.
The history of research at Hnaberd is similar to that of Tsaghkahovit fortress as the site has been recorded by the same cast--Marr, Toramanyan, Adzhan et al. and Kafadaryan. A limited set of artifactual materials was collected from Hnaberd in 1927 by M. Gukasyan (Khachatryan 1974: 111). However these materials are of limited utility in dating the site as the collection consists primarily of obsidian fragments, basalt grinding stones and nondescript ceramic fragments. See: Avetisyan et al. 2000, Badalyan et al. 2003, and Smith et al. 2004.
The history of research at Hnaberd is similar to that of Tsaghkahovit fortress as the site has been recorded by the same cast--Marr, Toramanyan, Adzhan et al. and Kafadaryan. A limited set of artifactual materials was collected from Hnaberd in 1927 by M. Gukasyan (Khachatryan 1974: 111). However these materials are of limited utility in dating the site as the collection consists primarily of obsidian fragments, basalt grinding stones and nondescript ceramic fragments. See also Avetisyan et al. 2000, Badalyan et al. 2003, and Smith et al. 2004.
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