VISHAP: AT THE ORIGIN OF ARCHITECTURE

Architecture is “Architecture”, its definition lies in its very etymology, whose root can be traced back to the beginnings of civilization, to the origin of construction.
Architecture is the first existential cultural manifestation of a primitive society and a historical civilization, since through it the aspiration to represent the respective cosmogony of reference is expressed: its own idea of ​​the world. Indeed, architecture itself, with its built physical presence and its claim to persistence, in turn constitutes a reference for the formation of a cosmogony within the same human groups. Architecture
is habitable, not so much because it is possible to enter it or in any case it is possible to physically enjoy it, but because it allows us to establish relationships of appropriation and belonging with it. Appropriation is established by taking possession of a place, not only physically but also perceptively, using the tools that allow us to orient ourselves within an anthropic existential space; belonging, on the other hand, is established by being part of the same place, not only by being inside it but above all by recognizing oneself in it: living means identifying with a place that becomes architecture. This identification involves anthropic aspirations, which tend to project our existence into infinity, and is the reason why architecture always assumes the character of persistence and, above all, of inactuality.

The Event
Architecture is that pole, that stele, that cippus, that pile of stones, that sanctuary created to celebrate a favorable manifestation of unknowable nature or to ward off a negative one.
An Event that manifests itself in an area where existence is dragged by the cyclical and ever-equal flow of day and night, of the moons, of the seasons; by the arrival of sleep, hunger and sex to be satisfied. An existence immersed in fluid becoming, absorbed by the satisfaction of the needs for the subsistence and survival of the individual and the family group.
The Event stops the becoming. In a human group that constantly lives under the sky, and has the sky as a reference for its elementary spirituality, the position of the sun, the moon, the planets, the stars, are the things that appear immediately to the impulses of the unconscious, even before experiencing the sensation of heat or cold.
The place is sanctified with a built form, which has nothing to do with the hut or the cave where, eventually, the becoming takes place and where existence progresses for material subsistence.
That form is there to represent an inexplicable event; men gather around it seeking an explanation for that event; society is formed around it.
They begin to count the days that pass until the same sky in which the event was formed materializes, to return to gather around the same place, to sanctify their existence by renewing the auspices, where they expect to find the same built form. They begin to count the skies and the seasons, the years, that separate them from that event, whose sacredness is manifested by the persistence of the same built structure over time.
They refine their cosmogony, they improve in order to improve their existence, they think about the survival of society over time. This is architecture, this is what architecture is for.
The circle of becoming always the same is broken and a condition is created in which the before and the after can be defined, in which the after must be better than the before, thus an idea of ​​progress also develops.
The manifestation of an event always concerns the relationship between the earth and the sky, it is no coincidence that the events that have always impressed human beings the most are earthquakes and floods that interfere with and destroy any built anthropic form.
The Vishap, megaliths between 3 and 5 meters high, with a very detailed zoomorphic iconographic structure erected in the Armenian plateau between Mount Aragats and Mount Ararat, which ritually materialize the event itself, are probably the first anthropic manifestation attributable to the origin of architecture. There are three types of Vishap: Vishap vellus, on which a goat’s fleece is carved in detail; Vishap piscis, which represent freshwater fish pinned to the ground by their tails; Vishap hybrida, where both iconographies are represented, often associated with anthropomorphic images, with snakes and birds. This is not the place to contribute to the studies on iconography, symbolism and scientific aspects directly connected with this anthropic manifestation, which are being carried out by scholars such as Alessandra Gilibert, Arsen Bobokhyan and Pavol Hnila, we are interested in the role that these archetypal elements have for the foundation of architecture.
From this point of view it is important to understand the dating of the phenomenon that for now cannot be specified. Much of the information on this subject can be found at the archaeological site of Karmir Sar, on the southern slope of Mount Aragats, where twelve vishaps were found in situ, at an altitude of 2850 m above sea level. Recently, a fragment of a vishap still in situ was found surrounded by a mound of calcined animal bones dated with C14 with high precision (95.4%) to the period 4240-4040 BC. Naturally, this does not exclude older datings, especially if we take into account the biblical symbolism connected with this particular site and with the end of the last glaciation. In fact, still in the context of this area, in south-eastern Anatolia, in today’s Göbekli Tepe, with the archaeological excavations carried out since 1995, a real architectural structure has been found, a place transformed by man in a period between the 10th millennium BC and the 8th millennium BC: it is currently the oldest architecture found on earth. We do not yet have scientific proof of this, but if we compare the Vishap with the elements found at Göbekli Tepe, there is a deterministic consequentiality between the basic characteristics of the former and the relative structural complexity of the latter.
However, it is important to remember that we are at the beginning of the Mesolithic. Before entering the Neolithic, men, gathered in the elementary society that was constituted there, had to submit to the same sky for two thousand times and probably marked two thousand notches on some stone stele. Agriculture did not yet exist, writing did not exist and a technology such as the wheel did not exist: architecture existed.

The perceivable form
Architecture is the perceivable form with the senses and persistent in the time of the Event, also representing its sacralization. The language that derives from it is in direct relation with communication in time and in this sense comes to characterize the specific place.
At this level there is a passage from a ritual phenomenon to a broader, autonomous and self-sufficient cultural phenomenon. The assumptions on which the architectural phenomenon materializes are the originators of other cultural fields of communication and reflection that subsequently develop in the collective consciousness of men: philosophy, literature, art, logic, which then also become an integral part of the architectural phenomenon, even though they are of subsequent formation and consequent to it.
Therefore Architecture is not a branch of knowledge, it is a form of knowledge that goes beyond the technical fact necessary to build, that is expressed in a visible and communicable form, directly perceptible by the individual, but that derives from existential reasons that go beyond the direct perceptibility of reality. Existential reasons that belong organically to the historical culture that produces, develops and sediments this particular perceivable form, in such a way as to constitute a specific place, to which the architect can contribute but which he cannot ignore.
Regardless of the perceivable form that specific architecture takes, it is difficult for it to have any claim to persistence or even to be accepted temporarily, without taking into consideration in its form those existential reasons of the specific culture, which the place in which it is inserted has produced.
Existential reasons that are at the basis of the cultural expression of a specific context and that give a profound meaning to the orientation system within the built place.
The areas, areal systems, which by aggregating give rise to the built place; the axes, linear systems, which allow its physical and visual enjoyment and define its relational system; finally the emergencies, point-like systems, which become both physical and ideal aggregating reference and polarity. All abstract elements that become real and take on a perceivable form through the characteristics of the existential space found within the specific cultural context.
The perceivable form of the event, whether sacred or profane, is always architecture, which does not only have a formal value but is based on profound, spiritual and material assumptions, defined within the existential space of the specific culture