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Introduction. The article deals with the issue of Christian communities of different denominations to have resided in the city of Majar, the latter localized around Majar hillfort on the Kuma riverside. Christian cult objects have been discovered in the commercial and crafts quarter of the hillfort. Archaeological and written sources make it possible to identify certain groups of Christians — Orthodox, Catholic, and Gregorian (Armenian) ones — within the city’s population. Goals. The study aims to summarize data on Christians in Majar. Nowadays, there is archaeological evidence confirming Majar had been also inhabited by ethnic Russians and Armenians. Materials and methods. The work analyzes the First Sophia Chronicle, sources on Latin missionary activity in the Golden Horde published by Ph. Bruun, A. Malyshev, and R. Hautala, a 1774 map of the Caucasus compiled by Georg Treitel, and archaeological materials. The study employs a number of research methods, such as the historical/systemic, historical/comparative, and cartographic ones. Results. The year 1245 had witnessed earliest contacts between the papacy and the Mongol Empire. In 1260, relations between the Golden Horde and the Byzantine Empire were set up. And in 1267, Metropolitan Kirill II of Kiev received a jarlig from Khan Mengu-Timur. Rulers of the Golden Horde were seeking to achieve various domestic and foreign policy goals through the agenda of religious tolerance. Franciscan missions, parishes of the Alan Metropolitanate, Diocese of Sarai, and the Armenian Church were functioning across the early 14th-century North Caucasus. Some 16th–18th century written sources attest to the presence of a Christian temple within the hillfort of Majar. Materials published by Ph. Bruun, A. Malyshev, and R. Hautala provide evidence Majar and its neighborhood used to host several Franciscan missions throughout the 14th century. Christian cult objects (encolpion cross, copper icon) discovered in the territory of Majar’s trade and crafts quarter testify to that Orthodox Christians had also lived there and had a temple of their own. The Armenian cross-stone (khachkar) which had been part of a church and found at the ancient site suggests there may have been an Armenian community and an Armenian temple too. Conclusions. The available evidence of the presence of different Christian denominations in Majar insufficiently reveals their role in the city’s life. And it gets urgent to localize the Christian quarter at the ancient site of Majar. So, the search for archival materials and archaeological explorations of the site should be continued.

The article is devoted to the analysis of university space. The empirical material of the article is the interior and exterior of the Faculty of Theology of Yerevan State University (YSU). As a part of cultural and semiotic discourse of university space, the research contains the analysis of Yerevan city text. The methodological prerequisite for writing the article was semiotic metalanguage. The purpose of this study is a detailed description of cultural and religious artifacts of the interior and exterior of YSU. The article substantiates the following thesis: cultural and religious artifacts of the university space are signs of visualizations of Christian values, the history of founding the Mother See Etchmiadzin Cathedral, didactization and animation of the Church and cultural heritage, implicit preaching of the Church doctrine. The article briefly touches the history of the faculty foundation, analyzes symbolic features of the two cross-stones (khachkars), one bas-relief and a blossomed cross-staff, as well as “accompanying” texts. A special place is given to the main national and transnational elements of visual texts like seed, sun, circle, cross, blossoming petals on the cross, eagles, ears of wheat, symbols of the evangelists, Noah’s ark, golden hammer, grapes, pomegranates, etc. А certain attention is also given to the symbols, functions of the blossomed cross-staff. By the comparative study of Tatev Monastery and Etchmiadzin staff the author shows that the foundation of staff-cross on the territory of YSU is the revitalization of the Armenian medieval university tradition. The analysis of empirical material shows that the exterior and interior of the Faculty of Theology becomes cultural and semiotic space, thanks to various artifacts such as cross-stone, bas-relief, flowered staff-cross, etc. The cross-stones indicate the history of the creation of the Faculty of Theology and record the name of the Faculty founder in a memory of future generations. The “local” history of the Faculty and medieval university tradition are presented in the context of the tragedy of the Armenian people (the Genocide of 1915). The teaching of the Armenian Apostolic Church (sacraments, cross-stone language, etc.) is presented in the Faculty and historical memory by various visual objects. The bloomed cross-staff becomes a symbol of continuation of the medieval Armenian university tradition, functioning due to its ternary structure as the World Tree, the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life, and from a pragmatic point of view – turns into a didactic “textbook” on introducing the Church sacraments and an implicit visual object of preaching. Статья посвящена анализу университетского пространства. В качестве эмпирического материала автор рассматривает интерьер и экстерьер теологического факультета Ереванского государственного университета (ЕГУ). Исследование представляет собой вариант культурно-семиотического дискурса университетского пространства, то есть является частью анализа Ереванского городского текста. Цель данного исследования заключается в детальном описании культурных и религиозных артефактов интерьерного и экстерьерного пространства ЕГУ. Методологической основой статьи послужил семиотический метаязык. В статье обосновывается следующий тезис: культурные и религиозные артефакты университетского пространства являются средством визуализации основных христианских ценностей, истории основания первопрестольного собора св. Эчмиадзина, дидактизации и мультипликации церковного и культурного наследия, а также имплицитной проповедью церковного учения. В статье коротко описывается история основания факультета, анализируются символические особенности двух хачкаров, одного барельефа и скульптурного изображения расцветшего посоха-креста, а также «сопровождающие» их тексты. Особое место уделяется основным национальным и транснациональным элементам визуальных текстов, таким как семя, солнце, круг, крест, расцветшие лепестки на кресте, орлы, колосья пшеницы, символы евангелистов, Ноев ковчег, золотой молот, виноградные гроздья, гранаты и т. д. В статье особое место уделяется символике и функциям расцветшего посоха-креста. На сравнительном материале татевского и эчмиадзинского посохов показывается, что установление посоха-креста на территории ЕГУ является ревитализацией армянской средневековой университетской традиции. Анализ эмпирического материала показал, что экстерьер и интерьер теологического факультета становится культурно-семиотическим пространством благодаря таким артефактам как хачкар, барельеф, расцветший посох-крест и т. д. Хачкары указывают на историю создания факультета, фиксируют в памяти грядущих поколений имя основателя факультета. «Локальная» история факультета и «общая» средневековая университетская традиция представляются в контексте трагедии армянского народа – геноцида 1915 года. Через разные визуальные объекты на факультетскую историческую память налагается учение Армянской апостольской церкви (таинства, язык хачкара т. д.). Расцветший посох-крест становится знаком продолжения средневековой армянской университетской традиции, функционирующей благодаря своей тернарной структуре – как Мировое Древо, Древо Познания и Древо Жизни, а с прагматической точки зрения – превращается в дидактический «учебник» по ознакомлению с церковными таинствами и имплицитный визуальный объект проповеди.

The authors describe the main ideas and specific features of the Armenian and Russian Orthodoxy based on the analysis of Orthodox religious rituals and religious objects used in them. The authors reveal deep cognitive functions that these religious objects enable, first of all, the creation of a sacred milieu, unification of the Orthodox believer with God, and the formation of Orthodox memory. At the same time, it is noted that the Armenian khachkars are closer to pagan cultures in comparison with wayside crosses of the Eastern Slavs; the fact that can be conditioned by the cultural history of these peoples.

This paper is a study on the so-called 'spread wings'-a particular element of the Sasanian art that is attested also in other regions of the Persian Empire in Late Antiquity, including the western coast of the Persian Gulf and the Caucasus. The spread wings can be observed on Sasanian coins above the royal crowns, which are considered specific for every Sasanian sovereign, supporting astronomical elements, like the crescent, star, and, possibly, the sun. The Arabs and the peoples of the Caucasus who adopted Christianity used the spread wings element as a pedestal for the cross. In Armenian literature, there are some connections between those spread wings and glory, so that a kind of pedestal could be considered a device to exalt or glorify the element above it. The floating ribbons attached to Sasanian crowns had possibly the same meaning and were adopted also outside of proper Persia. In the same way, it could be considered correct to identify those luminaries on Sasanian crowns as divine elements connected with the religion of pre-Islamic Persia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]