Abstract:

The Arhaeological center, defined as Menuahinili is 2,6 km. from Karakoyunlu district of Iğdır southeast of it is on a low lava flow hill. The first researches on this center were starded by Russian scientists at the end of the 19 century, and in the past 150 years, as many local and foreign scientists agree the relevant archaeological center was defined as Menuahinili. It is understood that the ancient cidy which is known with the Taşburun and/or Başbulak-Bulakbaşı inscirptions belonging to the Urartian King Menua was the sceene of intense use in the Late Iron Age after the Urartu Kingdom. In the city where the work was carried out with the scope of the 2021 researches, libations integrated into these fire pits, potsherdes from the Late Iron Age and a figurine head were found. The proximity that the archaeological center to Iran and Armenia located in the area where the Iğdır Plain of the Middle Aras Basin and Mount Ararat intertwine in the east, strengthens the possibility that the center was used in the Late Iron Age. Findings dated to the Late Iron Age in the archaeological center called Menuahinili constitute the core this article.