A study in Heritage Science presents what the authors call “the first comprehensive statistical analysis” of 115 vishapakars, or dragon stones, classifying them by size and find-spot altitude. “Prehistoric communities of the Armenian highlands wanted to invest, expending enormous energy and resources on an apparently non-utilitarian project,” wrote the research team, according to Enikos.
The sample covered sites from 1,000 meters to nearly 3,000 meters above sea level. The team began with a simple premise: “The amount of labor needed to create a dragon stone—from excavation to carving, polishing, and transportation—is proportional to its size.” They expected smaller monuments at higher elevations because, as Enikos reported, “above 2,000 meters, the snow-free period is limited, making any construction project much more difficult.” The data overturned that assumption.
Vishap means dragon in Armenian. Newsam reported that the carved blocks, usually 1.1 m to 5.5 m tall, now often lie overturned. Scholars classify them as fish-shaped stones, vellus stones that resemble stretched bull hides, or hybrids combining both images. Every side except one “tail” was polished, a detail that “clearly indicates that they were originally erected vertically,” the report said.
Vishaps have been recorded across highland pastures of Armenia and neighboring regions at elevations comparable to Alpine passes. Recent excavation focused on Tirinkatar, or Karmir Sar, on the slopes of Mount Ararat, where 12 stones stand near one another. Radiocarbon tests on 46 organic samples from secure layers at Tirinkatar returned dates around 4200–4000 BCE, placing at least two monuments in the late fifth millennium BCE. “It reveals that over 6,000 years ago, the communities of the Armenian highlands wanted to invest” in the labor-intensive undertaking, noted the laboratory report.
“No trend was observed indicating a decrease in the number of large vishaps with an increase in altitude,” the paper stated, noting examples such as Karakap 3, a 4.3-ton block standing beyond 2,800 meters. The authors argued that builders aimed for high ground because “the people’s natural drive to erect the monuments at higher points may be connected to the worship of water as the life-giving force of the valleys,” and that they did so “despite the logistical difficulties, such as providing food and resources for the workers.”
“The vishaps were cult monuments dedicated to water,” stated the statistical report. Their placement near peaks “with snow reserves” was seen as deliberate. Meltwater “gives life to the valleys, especially during the hot and dry summer months,” so stones set near those sources served both symbolic and practical ends. A twin concentration of monuments at roughly 1,900 meters and 2,700 meters was interpreted as evidence of “seasonal migration or ritual pilgrimage routes to the sources of life at these heights.”
Fieldwork that began in 2012 joined the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia with the Free University of Berlin and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Landscape surveys, stratigraphic excavations, and the new statistical package sought to clarify “the function and socio-economic background of the vishap phenomenon.” One of the first scholars to study the stones, Ash-Kharbek Kalantar, suggested in the early 20th century that vishaps might “mark crucial points of prehistoric irrigation systems.” Kalantar also linked the monuments to wider megalithic traditions and left a research agenda that went largely untouched for two decades.
Later communities reused several stones. The Garni 1 vishap bears a wedge-shaped inscription from King Argishti I of Urartu in the 8th century BCE, confirming at least one episode of repurposing. Although researchers acknowledged later reinterpretations, they insisted that the original intent centered on water and fertility rites: the stones were “not only near water but also conceptualized and sanctified the source of water.”
Quarried from local andesite and basalt, the monuments demanded substantial labor. “Larger vishaps required more human labor,” the statistical team reiterated, yet builders ignored easier options. “This was not arbitrary: It is the proof in stone of the deeply rooted belief that mobilized an entire community to reach the highest peaks, disregarding the logic of energy conservation, to establish the eternal symbols of their faith at the points from where life springs,” the paper concluded.
“The driving force behind the vishaps’ construction was worship,” said the researchers, according to Enikos.
Written with the help of a news-analysis system.