V. Fedchenko

St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia

E-mail: jc.spbu@gmail.com

L. Gushchian

Russian Museum of Ethnography, St. Petersburg, Russia

E-mail: medievist@yahoo.com

 

ON THE TOWN-BUILDING RITUAL TEXTS IN THE TRADITIONS OF WESTERN ASIA AND THE BALKANS 

Abstract. The article analyzes the Armenian and Greek narratives as well as poetic texts, the plot of which includes the construction sacrifice story, pointing to the ritualization of construction process. The appearance and popularity of this story line is connected with the development of town-building and the spread of stone architecture. The authors basing on graphic data demonstrate universality of the aforementioned story line from the Balkan Peninsula all the way to Lake Van, where up until the 19th century the Armenians and Greeks were involved in stone masonry. 

Key words: ritual texts, ritualization, town-building, urbanization, ritual sacrifice, Armenians, Greeks 

Acknowledgement. The research is conducted in the frame of the project No. 15-18-00062 and supported by the Russian Science Foundation in St. Petersburg State University.

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Received by the Editorial Board: 22.01.2017

 


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