Epigraphy in Tenth- and Eleventh-Century Armenia: Inscriptions as Bridges and Boundaries

Abstract

This article brings epigraphy, history, architecture, archaeology and liturgy together in an investigation of royal political ambitions and identity in tenthand eleventh-century Armenia, offering a new dimension to the usual study of inscriptions. It considers royal Armenian responses to monuments in the landscape, both ancient and recently constructed, and how the kings of two different dynasties proclaimed their greatness and their legitimacy as kings in stone, but in different ways.