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The Saint/Mary (Surp Asdvadzadzin) Monastery in Kiğı (Bingöl, Türkiye): New Evidence from an Archaeological Survey

This study presents the first systematic archaeological survey of the previously understudied Surp Asdvadzadzin Monastery in Kiğı, Türkiye, documenting its surviving structural remains and spatial organization to advance understanding of medieval rural monastic traditions and religious landscapes in Eastern Anatolia.

Original authors: Nebi BUTASIM

Published 2026-07-09

📖 5 min read🧠 Deep dive

CC BY 4.0

Original authors: Nebi BUTASIM

Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). ✨ This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer

Imagine Eastern Anatolia as a vast, rugged library where most of the books (historical sites) have been torn apart or buried under dust. For a long time, researchers knew this library had a special section dedicated to medieval monasteries, but they couldn't find the specific books because the shelves were empty or the titles were lost.

This paper is like a detective story where the author, Nebi Butasım, goes into the mountains of Bingöl, Turkey, to find one specific, missing book: the Surp Asdvadzadzin (Virgin Mary) Monastery.

Here is the breakdown of the findings in simple terms:

1. The Mystery of the "Vank"

For years, locals in the region used the word "vank" to describe old ruins. Many people thought "vank" just meant "church." But the author discovered that "vank" actually means monastery in Armenian. It's like realizing that when people pointed to an old barn and called it a "house," they were actually describing a whole farm complex that included living quarters, storage, and a chapel. This linguistic clue helped the author realize that many ruins in the area weren't just single churches, but entire monastic communities that had been overlooked.

2. The Discovery: A Hidden Mountain Fortress

The author found the Surp Asdvadzadzin Monastery tucked away on the side of Köşmür Mountain.

The Setting: Imagine a house built on a steep hillside. To make the floors level, the builders had to pile up the west side of the building much higher than the east side. It's like building a treehouse where the back wall is three stories tall, but the front wall is only one story tall, just to keep the floor flat.
The Layout: The whole complex is a rectangular block (about the size of a small soccer field) made of different rooms stuck together. There is no outer fence; the buildings themselves form the walls.

3. The Main Hall (The Church)

The heart of the monastery is the church, which looks like a classic basilica (a long hall with aisles on the side).

The Pillars: Instead of a flat roof, the ceiling is a long, curved tunnel (a barrel vault). This heavy roof is held up by four giant columns in the center, like a four-poster bed frame holding up a canopy.
The Details: The doorways are fancy. They have carved moldings that look like steps and triangles. There are crosses carved into the stone, but some look like they were started and then stopped, or maybe the design was changed halfway through. It's like finding a sculpture where the artist sketched the outline but never finished the final polish.
The Windows: The windows are small and square on the outside (like loopholes for defense) but round on the inside.

4. The Supporting Rooms

The Narthex (The Foyer): This is the entrance hall before the main church. It's lower than the church, like a porch attached to a two-story house. It has a door leading into the church and a few niches (little shelves) in the walls.
The Sacristy (The Prep Room): This is a room on the south side where the priests would get dressed and prepare holy items. It's mostly ruined, but you can still see where the walls used to be.
The Western Wing (The Living Quarters): On the west side, there are several small rooms. These were likely where the monks lived, ate, and slept. The walls here are made of very hard black stone (basalt), which the author thinks was added later during a repair job, like a modern extension added to an old cottage.

5. The "Quarry" Connection

The author didn't just look at the building; they looked at the ground around it. They found a quarry (a stone pit) about 500 meters away. It's like finding the kitchen right next to the restaurant. The stones used to build the monastery were dug out of this very spot. Some of the stones still have fresh marks from chisels, suggesting the quarry might have been used more recently than the original building, perhaps for repairs.

6. What We Know (and What We Don't)

The Date: No one knows exactly when it was built. Some old books say 1433, but there is no stone plaque or inscription to prove it. It might have been built earlier and just fixed up in 1433.
The Comparison: The author compares this monastery to other churches in nearby provinces (like Erzurum and Van). They all look like cousins in the same architectural family, using similar pillars and roof styles.
The Limitation: This study is like taking a detailed photograph of a crime scene without ever digging up the ground. The author measured, photographed, and compared the ruins, but they didn't dig a hole to find old coins or pottery that could tell them the exact age.

The Bottom Line

This paper is a "first look" report. It confirms that the Surp Asdvadzadzin Monastery is the best-preserved example of a rural Armenian monastery in the Bingöl province. It gives us a clear picture of how these religious communities were organized and built. However, to truly understand its full history and timeline, future archaeologists will need to do some digging to uncover the secrets buried under the soil.