The mysterious “dragon stones” of Armenia may finally be understood as monuments venerated by ancient water cults, according to new research from Yerevan State University, published in Heritage Science.
Officially named “vishaps,” after the Armenian word for dragon, the 3 to 18-foot-tall monoliths were usually inscribed with images of wildlife, including fish, cattle, or a combination of both. The new study, led by researchers Vahe Gurzadyan and Arsen Bobokhyan, analyzed the locations of the monoliths to derive some ritual meaning from them.
Analyzing the Past
This marks the first comprehensive statistical analysis of the vishaps, offering substantial new evidence to support long-suspected theories about their purpose. Found in high-altitude summer pastures, the 115 monoliths included in the study were primarily located near springs, streams, and irrigation systems. The analysis revealed that the stones cluster at two main altitudes: 6,200 feet and 8,800 feet above sea level.
The researchers believe these placements likely corresponded to seasonal migration routes or ritual practices. They suggest the higher-altitude vishaps were deliberately erected near snowmelt sources, symbolizing their importance to the farmlands below. Notably, most of the fish imagery appears on stones from this group.
Ancient Symbols Decoded
Recently, radiocarbon dating estimated that the dragon stones found at the Tirinkatar site on Mount Argats date back to between 4200 and 4000 BCE. This places the stones in the Chalcolithic period, when people began to use smelted copper after the Neolithic period, but before entering the Bronze Age.
Over millennia, the site’s ritual significance grew, eventually accumulating petroglyphs, cairns, and cromlechs. Positioned among these artifacts, the vishaps stand out for their size and symbolic placement, suggesting they held major social and religious importance to the communities that created them.
Dragon Stones
Dating to such a remote period, the stones are largely in disrepair today. The once erect vishaps have mostly collapsed, but their remaining carvings and still existent stone platforms allow archaeologists to envision how they would have looked when in regular use. While their fish and animal inscriptions offer clues, their exact original meaning was lost to time.
A closer look at the stones reveals that their importance carried on to later inhabitants of the region. Between the 9th and 6th centuries BCE, the dragon stones were inscribed for a second time, bearing messages in the Urartian language. Other vishaps bear even more recent markings in the Armenian script, dated to the medieval period.
Their influence also persisted in the design of khachkars—carved cross-stones central to Armenian Christian art—demonstrating the monuments’ lasting cultural impact.
The study highlights the importance of preserving these decaying monuments, which continue to provide insights into the spiritual life of ancient Europeans and their relationship to water. By tracing their evolution from prehistoric ritual objects to influences on Christian art, the vishaps reveal a remarkable continuity of cultural meaning across thousands of years.
The paper, “Vishap Stelae as Cult Dedicated Prehistoric Monuments of Armenian Highlands: Data Analysis and Interpretation,” appeared in Heritage Science on September 1, 2025.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.