A marble slab that hasn’t survived is known as an example of Armenian early Hellenistic art , but fortunately, we have a photograph of it. It is not a counterfeit. The cult and ideological basis of its images stems from the understanding of Zeus-Aramazd as the supreme god of ancient Armenia and patron of the ruling family. The central image on the marble slab, bull’s head, symbolizes Zeus-Aramazd as both the god of thunder and the sun. The images on the slab have their own axis of symmetry, to the left of it is a mother queen with her daughters, and to the right is the long-bearded father (probably the high priest) with his sons. Those on the left have raised their left hands, and those on the right, their right hands. The queen depicted on the left offers a five-part bundle to the god (5 is the mystical number of the god of Thunder), and the man depicted on the right offers a three-part bundle (3 is the mystical number of the god of the Sun). There are three daughters depicted on the left with the mother, and likewise three sons depicted on the right with the father. They correspond to the number of children of the god Hayk who became stars of the constellation Hayk (Orion). The daughters are stars of the first magnitude in the Hayk constellation, and sons are stars of the second magnitude.
In our opinion, the marble slab is also a historical document and reflects events that took place in Greater Armenia in the middle of the 3rd century BC. A princess from the Yervandid dynasty married the High Priest of Armenia and gave birth (according to Movses Khorenatsi, in an “illegitimate relationship”) to twin brothers – Yervand and Yervaz. The eldest of the brothers depicted together with their father was to become the future king (the eldest son became the heir to the throne), i.e. Yervand the Last (c. 222-201 BC), and the youngest of the brothers (the one with long hair) will be a future priest, i.e. the High Priest of Armenia, Yervaz. The marble slab confirms Movses Khorenatsi’s assertion that Yervand the Last did not belong to the original royal dynasty of Yervandids (according to Khorenatsi-the Arshakids). He is a Yervandid on his mother’s side.
An Anonymous historian (Sebeos) in his list of Armenian kings, names Yervand the Last’s father as Arshak. But in reality, this Arshak was not his father, but his maternal grandfather-from the Yervandid dynasty. The fact is that in ancient times, it was not accepted to include the mother in the genealogy; she had to be replaced by a man from the mother’s lineage. So Artashes I (189-160 BC) belongs to the original royal dynasty of Yervandids and not Ervand the Last. It is also confirmed by the Aramaic lineage name of Artashes I (189-160 BC) Yervandakan. Moreover, his grandson, Tigran II the Great (95-55 BC), was also known by the Armenian variant of the same lineage name -Yeruandean. These lineage names and the royal name Yervand/Yeruand lies in the proto-form of Indo European origin *peruṇt- (< I.-E. *per- “to beat,” “to strike”).