Published since 07.2002
Published on May 16, 2008
HISTORY KEEPER: MUSEUM IN KAPAN HAS MUCH TO TELL BUT HAS NO PROPER HOSTING PLACE
- Kapan Geological Museum will celebrate May 18, the International Museum Day as a ruined premise with half-built walls and nothing exhibited. The Museum was one of the town’s notable cultural centers, which was a must-go for visitors; for several months now it’s been awaiting reconstruction. It was founded in 1969 and contains Stone Age labor tools, Bronze Age weapon, jewelry, pottery, artifacts of urban life, worship etc. The Museum was given a new premise and employees were encouraged to move and move all the exhibits, but the new building isn’t being renovated and nobody knows when it’ll look like a museum. Construction workers sent by the municipality came once, built some walls at the former kindergarten building, and left without completing the work for indefinite reasons and time. Director of the Museum Grisha Smbatyan (who has been managing the museum since 2000) says that the first step is done after numerous alerts, speeches, pleadings, and appeals, finally late in 2007 a premise was granted to them by a government decree: 565 square meters instead of 360 they had, plus 1200 square meters of land they did not have before. “To me it’s a progress. There are people today thinking that we’ve left the center, (where the museum was located) gone far from the town, but the former building was a basement located right by the street, sewage water was leaking through our ceiling. Dampness, cold, insecure conditions were harming both our work and our exhibits which were on the verge of destruction: bronze, copper, documents, photographs were going bad. Here, the conditions are normal, but the current situation cannot be considered normal if things continue like this,” says Smbatyan. Smbatyan was promised that after moving the new building would be renovated, but the works stopped 2 months ago, and despite the promise to continue, he doesn’t know if they will. By the director’s calculations around 120-130 million drams ($400,000) is necessary to turn the site into a museum. To his mind, it’s not a big amount for a province like Syunik which fills the state budget with its resources: “And Kapan’s Geological Museum is of more value than many other things like shops, hotels, restaurants and cafes which are emphasized today.” The museum’s artifacts have been excavated in the territory of Kapan in the 1970s by a group of archeologists lead by Onik Khnikyan. Part of the finds has been given to the Geological Museum, the rest was taken to Yerevan. Later, during the years that followed people would bring samples and either give or sell to the museum. There hasn’t been excavation here since Khnikyan. “Today there aren’t many construction works, but as much as I know, people get into possession of things that don’t come to us. Of course there isn’t a law in RA legislation; we are guided by the Soviet law according to which artifacts found in the territory have to be given to the local museum. Excavation and renovation works are carried out at Kapan’s Halidzor fortress. I have heard there are finds, but I have no idea what they do with those.” The Museum has become more than a place where things are exhibited, it’s a scientific center. Smbatyan has planned what kind of exhibitions he will be holding and how, after the reconstruction and renovation are done. A considerable place in the new museum is going to be allocated to archeology: ancient culture of Syunik, some room will be devoted to Syunik’s ethnography, and the famous battle of Zangezur. “Ethnography will be exhibited outside: I’m planning to move here and place models of an old watermill, of smithy, tonir (a big jar dug in the earth in which fire is made, used for baking bread) as well as create a ‘stone-library’, so the place will be attracting people,” he says.
- Armine Avagyan
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Today in Armenian history- 1812 The Peace Treaty of Bucharest (Romania) is signed between Russia and Turkey. Bessarabia is attached to Russia.
- 1904 Vahan Manooelian is killed in the fighting at Gomer during the Sassoon Rebellion.
- 1926 Inauguration of Yerevan's first hydro-electric power station. Orjonikidze, Aghamali-Oghli, and Eliava give speeches.
- 1980 Commemoration of the 1500 th anniversary of David Anhaght (the Invincible).
- 1981 Death of William Saroyan (writer) in Fresno (USA). He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1940. He was born in 1908.
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