Originally published in 1970, this book is the result of many years of study and research in the field. It begins with a geographic and ethnic survey of the land and Armenian people and traces the land’s prehistory back to the Old Stone Age. The origins of the wine-making and bronze-working industries are discussed, in which Armenia played a pioneering role. The outstanding Armenian contribution to Church art and architecture is also explored as is the contribution of Armenia to painting, philosophy, and science. The final section is devoted to an account of Soviet Armenia.
1. Land and People 2. Earliest Man in Armenia 3. Early Farming, Community Life and Technology in Armenia 4. Urartu – Armenia’s First Nation State 5. The Forging of the Armenian Nation 6. Triumph and Decline – Tigranes the Great and After 7. Early Christian Armenia 8. Armenia, Byzantium and the Arabs 9. Cilician Armenia and the Crusades 10. Christian Architecture and the Arts 11. Literature and Learning 12. Death and Resurrection.
Biography
David Marshall Lang was appointed Acting British Vice-Consul in Tabriz in 1945. In 1946 he became a fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge and lecturing in Georgian at SOAS London from 1949-52. From 1952-1953 he was senior fellow at the Russian Institute of Columbia University in New York. In 1958 he was appointed Reader in Caucasian Studies at SOAS. Visiting Professor of Caucasian Studies at UCLA from 1964-5, in 1965 he became Professor of Caucasian Studies at London University. He was Honorary Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society from 1962-64 and held an Honorary Doctorate from Tbilisi University.
‘It is no overstatement to say that the work… is one of the most informative monographs on the ancient land of Armenia that has been published…. David Marshall Lang is a caucasiologist of the first rank’ Gustav Glaesser, East and West, Vol 23, 1/2, 1973.
