Daskasan received the status of a city օn March 16, 1948․ The mountains of Dashkasan were used as pastures for a long time. The most beautiful pastures of the South Caucasus are located here and in Khoshbulag. Khoshbulag was inhabited by the primitive people in the Stone Age whose main engagement was hunting. In the 3rd century B.C. people engaged in animal breeding rose to Khoshbulag pastures. The tradition is followed up today. Dashkasan summer pastures are 2000 m high from sea level. Different animal-breeding tribes settled here and built Cyclops-like small towers to protect themselves from attacks. Since that period Dashkasan turned to the place of settlement. Tumuli type burying monuments found in the archaeological digs carried out in 1959–1960 in the places of ancient settlement in Dashkasan show that people used this area as summer pastures and there was only one way to those pastures in summer- north-east, the valley of the river Kur. The Middle Ages in Dashkasan are characterized with the development of cultural work. After World War II Dashkasan was turned to an industrial town due to mining of iron ore deposits. It began to form on the basis of a temporary settlement of builders and a small mining settlement that arose during the period of preparation for the development of the richest iron ore deposits of industrial importance. In 1948 it received city status. The monuments of material culture preserved in its territory prove that it has existed since at least the Middle Ages, although the earliest sources mentioning it date from the 17th century, when it became a scriptorium. There are 6 manuscripts that have reached us or are known. According to a record from 1691, a certain Hakob was Head of Karhat village.
Economy The name of Karhat indicates what the local business was: it is composed of the word ‘kar,’ (
Armenian for ‘stone,’) and the root ‘hat’ of the verb ‘hatel,’ i.e. (Armenian for ‘to quarry.’) By the second half of the 19th century, the number of the Karhat
Armenians engaged in husbandry was reduced because of the appropriation of most of the village lands by the
Siemens German Company. Gandzak inhabitant Mrs. Yeghisabet N. Hambardzumian Malkhassiants sponsored the construction of that school in memory of her late husband Stepanos Malkhassiants. St. Stepanossian Unisex School opened in 1908. That year, the school had 54 pupils. In 1909, the school had a single teacher and 70 schoolchildren, including 4 girls. In 1911, the school had 82 pupils of which 6 were girls and 2 teachers. In 1913, the school closed since it had no teachers.
Culture According to some manuscripts, Karhat had two churches: St. Hakob church, mentioned in 1656, and Sourb Astvatsatsin church (demolished in 1927), mentioned in 1656 and 1659. 1852, 1861, 1872, 1878) attest that the village had a church with a wooden roof called St. Stepanos. From 1882 (1882, 1885), the same sanctuary is known as a stone monument dedicated to the Holy Virgin. In the centre of the village, there are inscribed cross-stones dating from the 9th to 11th centuries. Later the inhabitants of Karhat moved that valuable cross-stone to the centre of the village, where it stood until the deportation of Armenians in 1989.
Culture The church of Verin Karhat was built on the eastern edge of the village at the left mouth of Artinajr river. The building of the chւռցհ was consecrated with the name of Holy Translator. In 1914, the spiritual authorities satisfied the request of the village residents to repair the roof of the church. The church was destroyed in the 1920s. ==See also==