This cluster is located 0.93km west (bearing 275°) of Sahakaberd Fortress and just 0.75km southeast of Gekhadzor village's southern limit (map quad B3j).
The burials of this extensive cluster spread across two low rises and the intervening depression near the intersection of Mt. Aragats and the flatland of the Tsaghkahovit Plain. A cleared area or pathway appears to bisect the cluster at the bottom of the depression, but this is undoubtedly the result of modern activity in the area. Overall, the area does not appear to have been unduly disturbed, particularly the ridge tops, despite some evidence for cultivation at some time in the past. It is possible that the nearby presence of the modern artillery range may have saved the area from more extensive "amelioration".
Sk BC 13 is a sprawling, densely packed cluster of mounded, standard, and paved cromlechs. At its maximum extent, burials were recorded in an area 400m north-south by 190m east-west. Within this area, numerous burials appear to be highly submerged, making an accurate count quite difficult. However, a conservative estimate would suggest between 125 and 150 individual burials. The cluster includes at least one large ribbon style agglomeration of paved cromlechs, 2-3m in diameter and packed tightly into an irregular line which meanders for approximately 45m. Overall, the more discrete burials in the northern section of the cluster range from 1.5 to 5m in diameter, with only a few exceptional constructions reaching diameters of 7-9m (see feature 1). The burials are generally built of medium to large, unworked or shaped basalt blocks. Tuff is occasionally seen, but largely as a cobble rather than a construction block.
In the south, the burials appear to get larger and mounded cromlechs with cyclopean central capstones predominate (see feature 2). Near the southern limit of the cluster is a stone wall which extends 140m north-south (see feature 3) and includes Sk Stela 1.
No surface materials.
Feature 1: is a large mounded cromlech on the northern edge of the cluster. It is 8m in diameter, circumscribed by a single ring of medium, shaped basalt blocks that encircle a mound of small tuff and basalt cobbles. The mound rises only 0.3m above the ground surface. The lack of displaced cobbles visible in the area suggests that this construction was indeed a mounded cromlech rather than a disturbed kurgan.
Feature 2: is also a mounded cromlech but differently constructed. This feature, and its numerous peers in the southern precincts of Sk BC 13, consists of a single circumferential ring, 6.5m in diameter, built of medium to large, shaped basalt blocks surrounding an interior of packed basalt and tuff cobbles. This cobble mound rises 0.20m above the surrounding ground surface. At the center of the cromlech a large unworked basalt boulder, 2m long by 2m wide and 1m in exposed height, rises out of the surface.
Feature 3: is a 140m long north-south oriented architectural feature recorded in the southern precincts of the cluster. It appears from the surface to be a wall constructed in a well-carpentered line. However, it is built of small cobbles rather than stone blocks giving it a rather amorphous appearance. Its association with the adjacent burials is unclear. Sk Stela 1 was found erected in a socket dug into the cobbles on the northern end of the wall.
None.
No Entities