Hamlet Petrosyan, Symbols of Armenian Identity. the Khachkar Or
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2.5. The Khachkar or Cross-Stone Hamlet Petrosyan The khachkar, or cross-stone, is a memorial beliefs for new and strange ones. Needless to say, stone unique to Armenia. It is a free-standing, these measures met resistance, and it became upright, rectangular stone slab that is elaborately clear that new strategies and new forms of com- carved in a deep bas-relief on the side facing munication would have to be found for Chris- west. A cross is carved in the center of the stone tianity to succeed. (This was true throughout against a background of vegetal and interlaced the Hellenized world, wherever Christianity was geometri'c motifs. Examples of this monument beginning to take root among the largely illiter- range in size from 5 to 10 feet (1.5-3 m) in ate populations.) height, from 20 to 40 inches (0.5-1 m) in width, As early as the -5th century, the Armenian and from 4 to 12 inches (0.1-0J m) in thick- Church began portraying its message in a novel ｮ･ｳｾＮ＠ They are found in various sizes and designs way, through pictorial images engraved on stone throughout the Highland: in ancient settle- stelae-the familiar four-sided stone monu- ments and cemeteries (see Plate 2.5.1), at cross- ments that had been used by earlier civilizations _ roads" .on mountain ledges, by springs and to extol the feats of war, the deeds of rulers, and ｢ｾｩ､ｧ･ｳＬ＠ and near monasteries. They are also various legends. The early Christian stele topped found in: other countries of the region, by the by a cross, which sometimes reached nearly 34 roads Armenians have traveled, and in the feet (10m) in height, was used to illustrate Bible place;s they sought sanctuary in the Middle Ages stories and figures and other tales (see Figure during tiI?es of trouble: Georgia, Aghvank or 2.5.1), such as-the dramatic myth of the Arme- Caucasian Albania (now northern Azerbaijan), nian adoption of Christianity (in which the the Northern Caucasus, Crimea, Moldova, and king temporarily becomes a boar) or legends of the Carpathian Mountains. princes and feudal families who had come to the Cross-stones first appeared in the 9th cen- faith. These visual images played the same role tury AD and were continuously produced until for illiterate people as books did for the literate. late in the 18th century, having reached their The question still remained of how to com- aesthetic peak as a form of stone carving in the prehensibly present to followers the idea of sal- 12th and 13th centuries, when all Armenian vation through the Lord's Crucifixion. Under- cultural life was flourishing. Following a hiatus standing the psychology of their people, the during the last two hundred years, they have priests realized that new believers would not be begun to reappear late in the 20th century. This inspired by the image of a god being tortured on monument represents the final phase in the evo- a cross and, wisely, did not depict the Crucifixion lution of the stone stele in the Highland that on stelae, or anywhere else, until many centuries had had its beginning in the megaliths of the later. In fact, the image of Christ on the cross 2nd millennium Be. seems to have appeared for the first time in Ar- The cultural origins of the khachkar lie in menian art in 11 th-century miniature paintings events of the 4th through 7th centuries, when and 13th-century cross-stone carvings (Hovsep- Christianity was struggling to take hold in Ar- ian 1987: 52; Azarian 1975: 72-73). In the early menia. Early in the 4th century, following his Christian period in Armenia, Syria, and Byzan- . • baptism into the Christian faith, King Trdat tium, instead of the Crucifixion, the scene of (Tiridates) had ordered his troops to destroy all Abraham sacrificing the lamb appeared most pagan sanctuaries in the kingdom and to raise commonly on the stelae. crosses over their ruins as signs of the new faith, The simple, unadorned cross, made of vari- forcing the populace to abandon its cherished ous materials, had arrived in the region early in 60 PLATE 2.5.1 The medieval ce metery in N oratlls (Gegharkunik). It is sa id that invading troops fl ed when legendary King Gegham dressed these khachkars as warriors. Photo by Sam Sweezy. 61 The Kha chkar or Cross-Stone the spread of the new faith as the fundamental symbol of Christianity, and it continued to be used. However, it was too abstract to convey the "salvation" meaning of His death and resurrec- tion to a people new to the faith. Neophyte Christians were indifferent to the cross at first, as can be gathered from their reaction when Nune (a companion of St. Hripsime) erected one in Georgia: "When people climbed the hill and saw that the cross was made of hewn wood by unskillful hands, many of them disdained it, say- ing that their forests are full of such wood, and went away" (Khorenatsi 1913: 233 ). Slowly, the Church found a way to draw people to the cross; that way, quite simply, in- volved incorporating familiar sy mbols of Arme- nian culture into the new worldview (see 'The World as a Garden" in this chapter) . Priests began to speak of the cross as an all-bearing tree sheltering the whole earth or as a winepress on which divine grapes were pressed. C raftsmen carved those images in stone, and illuminators painted them to illustrate books. Similar to the old legends in which relics had performed heroic deeds and then found refu ge inside a rock, tales were now told in which the cross acted hero- ically before merging into the stone stele-a story theme that may provide clues to the origin of the cross-stone (Sahakian 1994: 214-237). Motifs from the concept of a "world as a ga rden," which had long been embedded in the Armenian consciousness, now became associ- ated with the cross, and artisans of the early bination of the old and new sy mbols appeared Christian period created a pictori al arsenal of enticingly alive and inviting.l vegetal and geometric motifs with which to sur- Ideas and stories of Christianity were thus round the cross that have remained part of Ar- brought to the Armenian people by writers, arti- menian iconography ever since. The cross itself, sans, and preachers during the 5th through 7th originally a square shape with four equally long centuries in ways that encouraged them to ac- anns, began to lengthen and was transformed cept the new religion, an encouragement that into a fruit-bearing tree rising from and covering was constantly reinforced by threats from both the whole earth, with pomegranates and clusters Church and State of severe punishment fo r any of grapes decorating its upper region. The com- evidence of pagan worship. While the cross re- Pe trosyan 62 mained only one of many decorative details Khachkars were raised for a variety of reasons, carved on the stele monuments or church walls some of which were inscribed on the stones and lintels for several centuries, the composi- themselves as a spiritual echo of a significant tion surrounding it had been fully elaborated by event: the construction of a church, a bridge, or the 7th century. The final step in its evolution- a canal; a military victory or the support of a requiring a conceptual leap-was for the cross in charity; sometimes a personal achievement, a the stone to become a separate entity. This step, misfortune, or a death (A. Shahinian 1984: 51- however, was interrupted by the Arab invasion 66). While a stone was thus commemorative, of the 7th century and the subsequent religious the words inscribed on behalf of its sponsor indi- intolerance with which they ruled over the next cated that the stone was perceived to be a "Book . two centuries. of Life" for its patron, to be read on Judgment Day, and that nothing less than the ete,rnal sal- When the khachkar came into existence as a vation of the soul was anticipated in exchange separate stone, it abandoned the circular orien- for i).aving raised it. Indeed, the flat rectangular tation of the earlier stele monument-with its stone resembled a book, and its inscriptions were engravings op all sides-to establish, instead, a similar to those of the colophon of the medieval vector-like character toward the powerful im- manuscripts.2 FIGURE 2.5.1 Early medieval four-sid ed stele from Talin ages carved on only one flat surface of the stone. Many khachkar inscriptions expressed the (Aragatzotn),5th-6th The details, now visible at eye level, made pos- general religious yearnings of the people. One centuries, 60 inches (150 sible a more direct,' ｰ･ｾｳｯｮ｡ｬ＠ communic9-tion be- indicated that the person erecting a cross-stone em) by 16 inches (40 em) by tween the ｢･ｬｩｾｶ･ｲ＠ and God. The popular term hoped that others of the community or passers- 16 inches (40 em). The "cross-stone" captured the essence of the new by would revere his monument; on another it lower relief shows Daniel in monument. was written, "Worship the holy sign and also the lion's den. Courtesy of The earliest evidence presently known of remember me in your prayers"; and in an illumi- the State Museum of the the use o(the term khachkar is on a cross-stone nated manuscript, a scribe asked that his book History of Armenia. Photo by inscription of AD 1182 at Dadivank monastery be kept open constantly so others could read it.