Case file · Folklore / legend
Marr and Smirnov find the 'dragon stones' of Armenia
In 1909 the scholars Nicholas Marr and Yakov Smirnov studied the vishapakar, tall carved stones in the Geghama mountains of Armenia, shaped like fish or bull-hides, which villagers called 'vishaps' (dragons).
1909 CE · 40.25, 44.85 · status: official
The account
About 150 such stones are now known, set near springs high in the mountains and dated to the 2nd millennium BC or earlier. In Armenian myth vishaps are water dragons fought by the thunder god Vahagn. Marr and Smirnov's study 'Vishapy' was published in 1931. The coordinates are approximate.