Dragons under Microscope: Determination and Identification of the Geological Sources of Vishap Stone Stelae

This article reports the results of the first-of-its-kind archaeo-geological survey of the vishaps located in the area of the Tirinkatar and Karmir Sar volcanoes on the southern slope of mount Aragats, Armenia. The survey identified the petrographic and petrochemical features of the rocks from which the vishaps were carved. The results indicates that the vishaps were produced from rocks found nearby, consistently favoring the softer tuff lava (rocks intermediate in structure and formation between lavas and volcanic tuffs) and tuff over the harder-to-work basaltic andesites.