Ashot-Yerkat (plate IIIc) fortress was built atop a high peak 1.6 km north of Gegharot, providing the site with clear views across the Tsaghkahovit plain and the northern reaches of the Aparan basin (map quad E4k).
The fortress occupies a rocky, highly eroded, elliptical citadel, elongated along an east-west axis. The north slope is exceptionally steep and practically inaccessible. The south slope hosts a large cromlech cemetery that extends up to the fortification wall. The walls enclose no more than 0.15 ha.
Ashot-Yerkat is a small "outpost" fortress consisting of only two lines of visible walls (maps 26, 39). The first is curvilinear and droops in a semi-circle around the southern slope. The second wall cuts across the summit of the citadel connecting the ends of the former. The entire construction is shaped in a half-moon. The curvilinear wall segment remains in relatively good condition, with large stone blocks preserved in 3-5 irregular courses. The masonry is generally cyclopean, with incidentally shaped stones piled atop one another without mortar.
No surface materials were recovered during survey in 2000 or a re-visit to the site in 2004. Dating of the site to the LB is based on both the similarity in fortification construction to adjacent sites at Gegharot, Tsilkar, and Poloz-Sar and the position of the site within the LB Pambak fortification system.
See: Badalyan et al. 2003; Smith et al. 2004.
Badalyan et al. 2003; Smith et al. 2004.
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