Thursday, May 14, 2009

Armenia

Michael Stone's fascinating work on the medieval Jewish cemetery in Armenia has finally been reported in slightly more mainstream media. Stone has been writing about it since 2002. In brief:

The oldest date carved out on the tombstones is 1266 and the latest 1336/7, making this perhaps the most impressive Jewish cemetery of the East from the period, and certainly one of the oldest oriental Jewish cemeteries, archaeologists say, and indicating that the cemetery was in use for nearly a century.

Some 64 complete tombstones and fragments of a number of others were uncovered at Eghegis, bearing nearly twenty inscriptions, all in Hebrew except for two which were in Aramaic, bearing traditional Jewish names like Elia, Baba, Michael, Esther and Tsvi.
More info here and here.

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