ANİ KAZISI
Authors: ARSLAN Muhammet 
Published: November 2023

Ani, located in the Northeast Anatolian Region, 45 km east of Kars, right on the edge of Arpa Stream; it is one of the rarest ruins in our country with an area of approximately 100 hectares and walls of almost 5 km. The city, where we can trace the traces of life since the late Chalcolithic age, is a strategic stop that the powerful states around it desire and try to possess, with its rich historical past of 5000 years. The city’s first appetizing feature is undoubtedly its strategic geographical location. Being at the crossing point from Central Asia to Front Asia and serving as a gateway to Anatolia from the Caucasus; it caused Ani to be constantly invaded and invaded. The rivers surrounding the city from three directions formed a natural defense system, and even Byzantium resorted to a trap when they could not get the city by fighting. It is a historical fact that Sultan Alparslan was the only commander who could conquer Ani by fighting. The first prosperity period of Ani coincides with the Bagratuni Dynasty, which ruled in the city, depending on the Islamic caliphs and sometimes the Byzantium. This period resulted becoming both a political and religious center of Ani. Ani started to form its first core in terms of urbanism with the many churches and chapels built in this period. The second prosperity period of Ani belongs to the Seljuk period between 1064-1199. Sultan Alparslan, who went on a campaign with his son Melikşah and his Vizier Nizamülmülk in 1064 under the name of “Greek Gaza”, landed in Anatolia and besieged Ani. As a result of the war that lasted for almost a month with very intense clashes, Ani was heralded with the conquest of the Turks on 16 August 1064. With this conquest, which had great repercussions all over the world, Sultan Alparslan was awarded the title of Father of Conquests by the Abbasid Caliph of the period. Ani thus gained the title of the first city of the Great Seljuk Empire in Anatolia. The Great Seljuk rule, which ended in 1199, left its place to the Georgian Kingdom. Thus began the period of collapse of Ani. Because Georgians have never been able to find peace here; this unrest reached its peak with the Mongol raid in 1239. The beginning of the Ottoman presence in Ani is in 1534. However, the fact that the Ottomans gave importance to Kars rather than Ani caused the trade in Ani to shift to Kars and naturally the population migrated to Kars. After the great earthquake in 1664, Ani could no longer return to its former glory. The history of research, excavation and conservation works in Ani goes back to the last periods of the Ottoman Empire. The first studies in this sense started with Sultan Abdülmecid. The first excavations in the city started with the Russian occupation in 1878. The excavations carried out by Nikolai Yakovlevich Marr, a linguist and orientalist working at the Russian Academy of Sciences, took 14 years in total. The first scientific studies carried out by Turkish scientists in Ani started in 1944. On this date, a survey and some soundings were carried out in and around the city by Archaeologist İsmail Kılıç Kökten. Afterwards, scientific studies in Ani, which was deprived of research for a while, were resumed in 1964-1967 by Sumerologist Kemal Balkan. The first systematic excavations conducted by Art Historians in Ani were initiated by Beyhan Karamağaralı in 1989. After these long-term studies between 1989 and 2005, the excavations in 2006-2010 were carried out by Yaşar Çoruhlu. The excavations in Ani were carried out between 2011 and 2018 under the responsibility of Fahriye Bayram. Excavation and conservation works have been carried out since 2019 under the direction of Art Historian Muhammet Arslan. For more detailed information, please refer to the Extended Abstract at the end of the text