Kapan Regional Museum Provides Unique Perspective on Armenian History and Culture

The princes and princes of medieval Syunik were buried at Vahanavank, located around 5 km. west of the town of Kapan. Some of their tombs and skulls were found during archaeological excavations. Copies of busts of these leaders are found in the museum which are based on the reconstruction of their appearances by Prof. Andranik Chagharyan. Chagharyan was a heart surgeon who founded an anthropology laboratory in 1970 and developed a method of reproducing three-dimensional images of human faces based on skull fractures. The original busts are located in the Armenian national museum of ethnograophy at the Sardarabad Memorial Complex.

The museum displays busts of King Grigor I (1051-1072, Kapan), Princess Dinar (the sister of Prince Gurgen, ruler of Somkheti) and Sbarabed (military commander) Hasan (end of the 10^th century to beginning of the 11^th) of the Syunik (Kapan) kingdom.

Medieval pottery and a variety of other artifacts are on exhibit. There are large jars or pitchers (karas) shown, which according to Hayrapetyan, were sometimes used to bury people from Urartian times to the early first millennium of our era. Usually one person’s remains were included, though sometimes it could be more than one, with body parts or bones cut into pieces to fit into the pitcher.

Posters on the walls depict various important medieval historical sites in the Syunik Province and information about the archaeological work and reconstruction that have taken place.

It provides information about the 18^th century Armenian military leader Davit Bek who fought Ottoman troops and local Muslim tribes and briefly ruled over an Armenian principality in Syunik. It showcases a copper bowl found during excavations of Halidzor inscribed with the name Tsatur. Tsatur is the name of Davit Bek’s father (who later converted to Islam and changed his name to Allahverdi, a Turkish translation of Tsatur), and so this is thought to be supporting evidence of Davit Bek’s origins being from the local Syunik village of Pekh and from the Melik Parsadanian family.

Modern Times

The lower or first floor of the museum takes the story of Syunik from the 19^th century to the present. It includes ethnological items as well as information on the Armeno-Tatar battles of 1905-6. Among other items, there is a jug with which a woman named Tazagul Margaryan secretly went twice to the Voghji River at night and brought water to 165 Armenians besieged by Tatars in St. Hakob Church in a village of Kajaran in 1906. Afterwards the woman was given the nickname “the waterbearer.”

There are images and biographies of fighters or leaders during the end of World War I and the first Republic of Armenia like Capt. Gurgen Ter Movsisyan, an important leader at the battle of Gharakilise, Garegin Nzhdeh, who also fought in the 1918 battles and later proclaimed the independence of Syunik and neighboring areas as a leader of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation while fighting the Bolsheviks (buried on Mt. Khustup), and Aram Manukian, a founder of the Republic of Armenia born in Davit Bek village of Kapan. There are medals and pictures of Kapan Armenians who fought in World War II. Philanthropists originating from the Kapan region, including Boghos Nubar Pasha and the Nubar Nubarian family, originally from Shikahogh village, are mentioned. There are names displayed of Kapan Armenians who died during the 44 day war too.

There are photos of notable events in Kapan, such as the first time an airplane landed there in 1924 (a Junkers which came from Tbilisi), the first landing of a YAK-40 airplane in Kapan in August 1970 (the museum holds the personal items of one of its pilots, Sergey Aleksandri Petrosyan, who was born in Kapan in 1937), or the first railroad train arriving in Kapan in October 1932, with a formal opening of the railway line in November of the same year.

The museum has a collection of ethnographic materials pertaining to ordinary life in the Kapan region, including tools, clothing, carpets, furniture and musical instruments. It also has a section with information on mining, which has been such an important part of the local economy.

The museum appears to be gradually modernizing its displays and lighting. It is accessible to foreign visitors, with most items described in both Armenian and English, and some Russian language text is also found.

Director Hayrapetyan is a personable guide who provides detailed tours of the museum with intriguing anecdotes and information. Clearly he is doing something right, as the number of visitors has been increasing in recent years – from 1,237 in 2021 to 4,663 in 2024. Hopefully the museum can obtain greater funding to continue to modernize and replace some of the presentation posters and materials that are outdated. The Kapan Regional Museum is well worth a visit for anybody who has the opportunity to travel to Syunik.