#330ce

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Meroë

Meroe was a wealthy metropolis of the ancient kingdom of Kush in what is today the Republic of Sudan. It was the later capital of the Kingdom of Kush (c. 1069 BCE to c. 350 CE) after the earlier capital of Napata was sacked c. 590 BCE. Prior to that date, Meroe had been an important administrative centre.

The city was located at the crossroads of major trade routes and flourished from c. 750 BCE to 350 CE. Meroe is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. As no one yet has been able to decipher the Meroitic script, very little can be said for certain on how Meroe grew to become the wondrous city written about by Herodotus circa 430 BCE, but it is known that the city was so famous for its wealth in ancient times that Cambyses II of the Persian Achaemenid Empire mounted an expedition to capture it. The expedition faltered long before reaching the city owing to the difficult and inhospitable terrain of the desert (and, according to some claims, may never have been mounted at all). Still, the persistence of the story of Cambyses' expedition suggests the great fame of Meroe as a wealthy metropolis.

The city was also known as the Island of Meroe as the waters flowing around it made it appear so. It is referenced in the biblical Book of Genesis (10:6) as Aethiopia, a name applied to the region south of Egypt in antiquity meaning "place of the burnt-faces". Although there is evidence of overgrazing and overuse of the land, which caused considerable problems, Meroe thrived until it was sacked by an Aksumite king c. 330 CE and declined steadily afterwards.

Egyptian Influence & King Ergamenes

While there was a settlement at Meroe as early as 890 BCE (the oldest tomb discovered there, that of 'Lord A', dates from that year), the city flourished at its height between c. 750 BCE and 350 CE. The Kingdom of Kush, founded with its capital at Napata, was ruled by Kushites (called "Nubians" by the Egyptians) who, early on, continued Egyptian practices and customs and, though they were depicted in art as distinctly Kushite, called themselves by Egyptian titles. The historian Marc Van De Mieroop writes:

Meroitic culture shows much Egyptian influence, always mixed with local ideas. Many temples housed cults to Egyptian gods like Amun (called Amani) and Isis, but indigenous deities received royal patronage as well. A very prominent Nubian god was the lion-deity Apedemak, a god of war whose popularity increased substantially in this period. Local gods were often associated with Egyptian ones: in Lower Nubia, Mandulis, for example, was considered to be Horus's son. Hybridity is also visible in the arts and in royal ideology. For example, kings of Meroe were represented in monumental images on temples in Egyptian fashion but with local elements, such as garments, crowns, and weapons. (338).

In time, however, these practices gave way to indigenous customs and the Egyptian hieroglyphs were replaced by a new system of writing known as Meroitic. The break from Egyptian culture is explained by the ancient historian Diodorus Siculus who writes that in the time before the reign of King Ergamenes (295-275 BCE), it had been the custom for the high priests of the Egyptian god Amun at Napata to decide who became king and to set the duration of the king's reign.

As the health of the king was tied to the fertility of the land, the priests had the power to determine if the sitting king was no longer fit to rule. If they deemed him unfit, they would send a message to the king, understood to be from the god Amun himself, advising him that the time of his rule on earth was completed and that he must die. The kings had always obeyed the divine orders and had taken their own lives for the supposed good of the people. However, Diodorus continues:

who had received instruction in Greek philosophy, was the first to disdain this command. With the determination worthy of a king he came with an armed force to the forbidden place where the golden temple of the Aithiopians was situated and slaughtered all the priests, abolished this tradition, and instituted practices at his own discretion.

The archaeologist George A. Reisner, who excavated the cities of Meroe and Napata, has famously questioned Diodorus' account calling it "very dubious" and claiming that the Ergamenes story was a national myth which Diodorus accepted as historical truth. Since there is no ancient evidence contradicting Diodorus, however, and since there was clearly a significant cultural break between Meroe and Egypt with Ergamenes' reign, most scholars today accept the account of Diodorus as either certain or something close to actual events.

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Etchmiadzin Cathedral

The Etchmiadzin Cathedral (also spelled "Echmiatsin,” “Echmiadzin,” and “Edjmiadsin”) is located in the city of Etchmiadzin (also referred to as Vagharshapat), Armavir Province in what is now present-day Armenia. It is geographically situated near the fertile valley of the Aras River, and it is not too far away from Mount Ararat, Armenia's capital, Yerevan, and Khor Virap Monastery. It is the spiritual center of the Armenian people, and the administrative center of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Called the “Mother Cathedral of Etchmiadzin” by Armenians, the cathedral is among the most ancient examples of Christian architecture anywhere in the world. Many scholars contend Etchmiadzin Cathedral is the oldest cathedral in Armenia, and it is widely believed that it is thus the oldest Christian cathedral in the world. The cathedral was designated as a part of a UNESCO World Heritage zone in 2000 CE — the zone also encompasses St. Gayane Church, St. Hripsime Church, and the archaeological ruins of Zvartnots Cathedral — due to its importance in Armenian religious and cultural history.

Armenia's Sacred Cathedral

The area surrounding Etchmiadzin Cathedral has been inhabited by various peoples since prehistoric times. Stone, Bronze, and Iron Age archaeological sites are located in or close around the city and cathedral. The area was well-known by the ancient people of Urartu; Etchmiadzin is referred to as "Kuarlini" in a Urartian cuneiform inscription, and the oldest documented information concerning Etchmiadzin's environs date from the reign of King Rusa II (r. 685-645 BCE). The city of Vagharshapat — today more commonly referred to as “Etchmiadzin” — was founded during the reign of the Arsacid king Vagharsh I (r. 117-140 CE). Although it was the capital city of Armenia for a time, the city's fortunes ebbed as it was attacked and destroyed during the Sasanid invasions of 368-369 CE. Soon thereafter, Vagharshapat was replaced as the political capital by Dvin in the 4th century CE. The city, however, remained prosperous due to its ideal position in the trade routes between the Roman Empire and Sasanid Persia. During the reign of Tiridates the Great (r. c. 298 - 330 CE), Christianity was adopted as Armenia's state religion, and Tiridates himself converted in 301 CE in the royal palace at Vagharshapat according to legends and Armenian historians.

The subsequent construction of Etchmiadzin Cathedral at Vagharshapat can be attributed to the life and work of Saint Gregory the Illuminator (also known as Grigor Lusavorich, c. 239 - c. 330 CE). If Armenian legends and historians are to be believed, Jesus Christ appeared to Saint Gregory the Illuminator in a vision, requesting that a cathedral be built within the ancient city. In the vision, Jesus Christ showed the exact spot where the proposed structure should lie, striking the ground with a golden hammer in his hands. Construction of Etchmiadzin Cathedral began around c. 303 CE. The cathedral was dedicated in turn to the Virgin Mary, and aptly named “Etchmiadzin” or “the descent (echnel) of the only begotten (miatsin).”

From the 5th to the mid-7th centuries CE, the city of Etchmiadzin grew quickly, developing into a major center of culture and pilgrimage. Successive bishops, over these two centuries, guaranteed the construction of further ecclesiastical buildings in close proximity to Etchmiadzin Cathedral, stimulating an epoch of Armenian cultural fluorescence. In the 7th century CE, under the guidance of the bishop Komitas of Aghdzk (r. 615-628 CE), Etchmiadzin began to pull in even more pilgrims following the construction of the Church of Saint Hripsime, which was named after the virgin who had been martyred by Tiridates the Great prior to his conversion to Christianity. The church of Saint Gayane was added around 616 CE and, in the 650s CE, the completion of the splendid Zvartnots Cathedral only added to the attractions, ensuring the city of Etchmiadzin became one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Armenia. The cathedral's wealth and reputation grew in importance in tandem with that of the city, attracting pilgrims from across the Christian Near East.

In 640 CE, following the invasion and occupation of Armenia by the Arabs under the Rashidun Caliphate (632–661 CE), the position of Etchmiadzin Cathedral and the city as a major religious center became precarious. Dvin and then Ani became Armenia's political and religious capitals, and the city of Etchmiadzin and its cathedral slowly fell into a period of decline. A major earthquake struck the region in the 10th century CE which caused the collapse of the Cathedral of Zvartnots, amongst other buildings, and the Seljuk Turks raided the area in the mid-11th century CE. By the late 13th century CE, after the onslaught of the Mongols in Armenia and Georgia, the environs surrounding the cathedral were so dilapidated that the celebrated Armenian poet Stepanos Orbelian (d. 1304 CE) felt compelled to compose his Lamentations on the Holy Cathedral of Vagharshapat.

The Cathedral of Etchmiadzin's fortunes revived, however, when the Armenian Apostolic Church decided to restore the catholicosate to the site in the mid-15th century CE. The country and its Christian population endured hardship and intermittent warfare with Safavid Iran under Ottoman Turkish rule, but the cathedral was given certain economic privileges, which enabled it to function until better days arrived. Construction and restoration projects occured in the 18th and 19th centuries CE, returning some lustre to the old cathedral. Imperial Russian rule (1827-1917 CE) gave the cathedral nearly a century of stability. While suppression returned in the early days of the USSR (1918-1949 CE), Etchmiadzin Cathedral endured and remains the “Holy Mother See of all Armenians.”

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