On the use of tonirs at the Aruch site (Republic of Armenia): archaeological evidence and ethnoarchaeological perspectives

The fortified area of Aruch, in central Armenia, includes a high medieval castle whose interior is designated Area 3. Stratigraphic excavations conducted there between 2022 and 2025 by ISMEO – The International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies – and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia documented more than forty Armenian vertical ovens, or tonirs, distributed across adjoining rooms and successive occupation phases. Most belong to the late medieval and early modern reuse of the castle, although the installations were not all contemporary. Their stratigraphic relationships record repeated processes of construction, maintenance, replacement, infilling, and spatial reorganization. The archaeological study examines the tonirs’ morphology, construction materials, ventilation systems, spatial distribution, internal deposits, and relationships with floors, walls, and other activity features. Associated artefactual, faunal, and archaeobotanical evidence links several installations to food preparation and fuel management, including the use of bovine dung in some early modern examples, while differences in dimensions, deposits, and high-temperature residues caution against assigning an identical function to every tonir. The ethnoarchaeological component is based on direct field observation and documentation of ceramic and cement-built tonirs still installed and used in contemporary Armenian households. Attention was given to construction, spatial setting, ventilation, maintenance, fuel, food preparation, and the incorporation of modern materials. These observations provide comparative evidence for interpreting practices that are only partially preserved archaeologically. By integrating stratigraphic and spatial analysis with direct ethnoarchaeological observation and published ethnographic and folkloric sources, this study presents the first dedicated synthesis of the Aruch tonir assemblage. It shows how tonirs contributed to the repeated reorganization of Area 3 and provides new insights into domestic, shared, and potentially productive practices, as well as the persistence and transformation of tonir-related technical knowledge in Armenia.