Karo Ghafadaryan (; April 20, 1907December 21, 1976) was a Soviet Armenian

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

epigraphist Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

. He was the director of the

History Museum of Armenia The History Museum of Armenia () is a museum in Armenia with departments of Archaeology, Numismatics, Ethnography, Modern History and Restoration. It has a national collection of 400,000 objects and was founded in 1920. Of the main collection, 35% ...

(1940–1965). "Under his guidance, the Museum became an advanced research and cultural-educational centre" in Armenia. Born in

Akhaltsikhe Akhaltsikhe ( ka, ახალციხე ), formerly known as Lomsia ( ka, ლომსია ), is a small city in Georgia's southwestern region () of Samtskhe–Javakheti. It is the administrative center of the Akhaltsikhe Municipality and ...

, he graduated from the

Yerevan State University Yerevan State University (YSU; , , ), also simply University of Yerevan, is the oldest continuously operating public university in Armenia. Founded in 1919, it is the largest university in the country. It is thus informally known as Armenia's ...

in 1931. Since 1932 he worked at the Institute of Culture History and took part in the excavations of Shengavit,

Vagharshapat Vagharshapat ( ) is the List of cities and towns in Armenia, 5th-largest city in Armenia and the most populous municipal community of Armavir Province, located about west of the capital Yerevan, and north of the closed Turkish-Armenian border ...

and other ancient locations. He supervised the excavations of the ruins of the medieval Armenian capital of Dvin for around three decades. Since 1959 until his death he headed the department of medieval archaeology of the Armenian Academy of Sciences.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghafadrayan, Karo 1907 births 1976 deaths 20th-century Armenian historians Yerevan State University alumni People from Akhaltsikhe People from Tiflis Governorate Georgian people of Armenian descent Soviet Armenians Soviet historians