The Stonehenge, which has a history of more than 7500 years has interested the British students who have visited Armenia for a scientific work on the old observatory. The group is led by Armenian Mihran Vardanyan, who is studying at the Oxford university since 2006.
– Why did you leave for Oxford? Isn’t there any opportunity for scientific development in Armenia?
– The best scientists in the filled of Astrophysics are in Oxford, thus it was logical to continue my studies there. I received an invitation to develop advanced statistical algorithms in order to understand the information from the space correctly, i.e. analyzing the distribution of galaxies and cosmic microwave background to reconstruct and understand the shape of the universe and dark energy. Of course it is very expensive to study in the United Kingdom but they have good financial support for scientific studies. Students get scholarships there, which are usually enough to cover all the expenses. For example, I receive several scholarships, one of which is the famous scholarship after Raffy Manoukian at the University of Oxford, and the other one is the scholarship after Philip Wetton for astrophysicists at Christ Church college.
– Does this mean that students can live on scholarship?
– Of course, they can easily live on that money.
– How much is the minimum?
– There are no taxes on scholarships in England. The minimum money Ph.D. students receive is about 13.000 pounds per year. Besides they can also work at the university. You can get paid for every lesson you teach. Besides the support offered, they are very friendly and attentive to everyone. The team is working on a project, and even if one of the team members has some complications, we can easily
discuss it together. The office environment does not work there so much. You can meet with your scientific adviser or professor at a cafe and discuss problems concerning cosmology or other things. From this prospective Oxford is very interesting. It is based on college system and it is nothing like in our country where there is a big building of a university; the entire city is a big university. It enables the
students to socialize with other students of other professions and look at the things from different perspectives. It helps to generate new ideas and science becomes more integral.
– What is the charm of the Oxford university which keeps it being the best university of the world for over 9 centuries?
– Oxford is a university of traditions. They keep all the traditions. The city is small, quiet and very peaceful. It is not so active as London. They follow all the formalities. They follow even the smallest traditions. Of course one of the attractive things is the fact that world famous people studied there. Einstein taught there for several months and received a title of professor. Later he gave up on that title because the salary was high. He said that it would be better to invite several other professors with that salary and left for America. Until now the science museum of Oxford is keeping the blackboard on which Einstein wrote. There is a huge difference between the education system of Yerevan State University and Oxford. The first thing is that in Oxford the approach to students is individual. The system is developed in a
manner to enable the students interact and socialize with their professors and work on their assignments by themselves. Undergraduates have lectures and tutorials, it is very important to
understand the subject instead of learning it by heart. You can order a book and read it in any reading room in the city. Even now we have brought books with us to Armenia for our scientific works. We are on
vacation till October. There are many vacations in Oxford but the lessons are very intensive. There professors and students are in friendly relations. They respect students very much. They help students with any issues.
– What about it here in Armenia?
– I think the situation was better before. Now there are a lot of changes. The worst thing is that they are importing some European systems and trying to apply them here. It won’t work because first of
all you have to examine the shortcomings of the education system in your own country and try to work them out instead of importing and applying some European systems here.
– What systems do you mean?
– In Armenia they are using the credit system, but we know that many young men are getting enrolled just to avoid the compulsory two-year military service . In case of the credit system they have to attend the lessons, which they don’t care about. It was not like that before and they didn’t attend the lessons if they were not interested in them. Now they have to attend the lessons and these students are hindering the work of the other students who are really interested in working. Armenia may follow the example of Singapore (many people may not agree with this though). In Singapore the education sector
developed rapidly as they invited a lot of scientists from different countries, so it developed in a very short period of time. If the same thing happens to Armenia I believe science will develop here too.
– Why did you decide to examine the Stonehenge?
– Everything started this way. Nicholas, who is from Oxford and specializes in geography, and is interested in labyrinths. He organized an expedition for examining a hidden labyrinth in Greece. At that time an idea was originated to examine the Armenian monuments and stones, and the best example of that was the "Armenia Stonehenge". As I knew about the works of Heruni, I had talked to Armenian scientists, we decided to repeat the technical work of Heruni with modern methods – Hide quoted text –
and make the Armenian Stonehenge more famous.
– Aren’t there places like that in Europe?
– There are more than 100 places like that in Europe but the Armenian Stonehenge is very well preserved. We are going to use modern technologies to study it. It is also important to make a laser
scanning, at some point, to have the 3D model of the area so that we have the electronic version of the existing monument in case if something changes as a result of earthquake in the future. Laser
scanning is expensive. Only the equipment costs 200.000 dollars. I think Armenia needs such equipment to scan the other monuments as well. One year ago I visited Zorats Karer (Qarahunge); it is really a very interesting place.
– Do you know that animals are ”interested” in that beautiful place too?
– Maybe it was like that before, but now they have established a special preservation zone there. A lot of work is being done to protect the monument now. In Armenia there is also the ”Club of the friends of Stonehenge” amounting more than 400 people and they help us with everything. Next year it will be more attractive as they will install lights there, as far as i’m aware. By examining this Stonehenge we could possibly understand the model of all the places like this in Europe. There is a theory that these places have been interconnected and there are some scientific evidence that ancient tribes traveled across Europe. We have these proofs in a famous book we have brought with us. They made a carbon-analysis of agriculture layers, which shows how people moved 7000 years ago.
– Is your goal to make this Armenian Stonehenge as famous as the British one?
– The main goal is to make the Armenian Stonehenge be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.