Modern research on vishaps is organized as an international field program active since 2012
Claim about Dragon Stones (Vishapakar) of the Geghama Mountains · Stance: observational
Multiple institutional sources describe an international team (including NAS Armenia’s Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Freie Universität Berlin, and Ca' Foscari University) conducting systematic surveys and excavations since 2012. This matters because many older finds were undocumented or removed.
Site
- Dragon Stones (Vishapakar) of the Geghama Mountains Gegharkunik and Kotayk provinces, Armenia
Evidence for and against
- Institutional UNESCO dossier describes systematic surveys/excavations starting in 2012 by an Armenian–Italian–German team
Other claims about Dragon Stones (Vishapakar) of the Geghama Mountains
- “Dragon Stones” are vishapakar: carved prehistoric stelae in Armenia’s high mountains
- Most vishap stones share a standardized iconography: fish, ‘draped hide’, or hybrid motifs
- Vishap stones are large monoliths (often meters tall) typically carved from basalt
- Vishap stones preferentially occur at high altitudes, with clustering rather than random elevation spread
- Findspots are frequently near water-rich features such as springs, streams, and crater lakes
- Interpretation: vishap stones most likely served a religious/cult function related to water
- Alternative interpretation: some vishaps may have marked watering points, routes, or irrigation systems within pastoral landscapes