Armenian Graffiti from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem

Cercetări Arheologice 31.2, 2024, 637-652
https://doi.org/10.46535/ca.31.2.18



Armenian Graffiti from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem

Authors: Khachik Harutyunyan

Keywords:

Holy Land, Jerusalem, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, pilgrims, Armenian inscriptions, Armenian graffiti

Abstract:

The Holy Land’s shrines are abundant with multilingual inscriptions that pilgrims have left over the centuries. Such inscriptions and graffiti are numerous inside and outside of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, one of the major Christian holy sites, and mainly contain pilgrims’ names, prayers, and sometimes short texts about them. Due to limited available surfaces for writing, new graffiti often overlaid earlier ones, creating a palimpsest effect.

A significant part of these graffiti are in Armenian, a fact that previous scholars have mostly overlooked even though our research reveals significant examples dating back to the 12th and 13th centuries. In this article, I present fifteen of that newly discovered graffiti, leaving the publication of the whole to the near future.

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How to cite: Khachik Harutyunyan, Armenian Graffiti from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Cercetări Arheologice, Vol. 31.2, pag. 637-652, 2024, doi: https://doi.org/10.46535/ca.31.2.18

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