JILIZA

Jiliza is situated at the foot of one of the wooded north-east-facing branches of Mount Lalvar, 48 km north of Vanadzor, the centre of Lori Region of the Republic of Armenia (Tzobopor District of Gugark Province, Armenia Maior), in a straight line, at an average altitude of 1,105 metres above sea level. At present it is a purely Armenian-inhabited village with 40 houses. The history of Jiliza remains obscure as the Armenian and foreign historiographers and even the available archive documents keep sheer silence about it.₁ However, unlike written sources, the monuments of material culture preserved in the village and the adjoining sites provide much information concerning the historical past of the village. Thus, they reveal that until the ‘20s of the 18th century, the territory of present- day Jiliza was occupied by at least five purely Armenian-inhabited villages all of which were devastated and reduced to ruins in the aftermath of Lezghin raids (these mountaineers had been incited by the Ottoman invasions). Around a century and a half later, a small number of Armenian families took up living in two of these sites, present-day Jiliza and Chanakhchi, thus reviving the ancient villages. Chronologically speaking, the monuments of material culture preserved in Jiliza and its neighbourhood may be classified in two groups: the first of them comprises monuments tracing back to the period between the 10th and 13th centuries (Chakhalaberd Bazaberd, Khorakert, Khendzorex and the church of a village site called Church of David Bek₂) and the second represents a cluster of smaller monuments which are larger in number (village sites, churches, cemeteries, etc.) and date from the Late Middle Ages.

_{1 Neither Jiliza nor the adjacent village of Chanakhchi is mentioned even in the archive documents of the 19th and early 20th centuries, which report various statistical data regarding the Armenian-populated villages within the jurisdiction of the deanery of Shulaver.}

_{2 The monastery of Khendzorex, which traces back to the High Middle Ages (1213) and the Church of David Bek are situated in the valley of the river Banush. Due to their geographical position, these monuments as well as several others located in the same valley and dating back to the Late Middle Ages will be presented in another publication.}