Edited by Richard Hovannisian

From early antiquity, the Armenian people developed a rich and distinctive culture on the great highland plateau extending from eastern Asia Minor to the Caucasus. On that crossroad, they interacted on many levels with civilizations of the Orient and Occident. The continuity of Armenian life in most of this historic homeland was brought to an abrupt end as the result of war and genocide in the early decades of the 20th century.

The UCLA conference series, Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces, is designed to explore and illuminate the historical, political, cultural, religious, social, and economic legacy of a people rooted for millennia on the Armenian plateau.

Lesser Armenia (Pokr Hayk), with its center at Sebastia (now Sivas), constituted the westernmost region of historic Armenia. Traversed by the Halys (Alis) River, it was inhabited by Armenians since antiquity but was geographically and historically distinct from Greater Armenia (Mets Hayk). Because of its particular location, Lesser Armenia served as a major cultural, religious, and ethnic contact zone and was rarely, if ever, incorporated into the Armenian kingdoms to the east. Its cities, including Marsovan, Amasia, Evdokia (Tokat), Sebastia, Shabin-Karahisar, Gurun, and Divrig, were noted for their progressive roles in the educational cultural, and commercial endeavors of the Armenian people, while its numerous villages preserved the cycles and traditions of the agrarian way of life.

Armenian Sebastia/Sivas and Lesser Armenia is the fifth of the conference proceedings to be published.

Soft cover, ISBN 1568591527