Archaeological studies in Armenia revealed considerable material for urban municipal services among which construction of bath facilities occupies a special place. During the last year’s excavations of Artashat, a public bath was excavated. The construction equipment and archaeological materials enable us to date it to the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 3rd cc. AD. The study showed that the bath has two construction periods, the art of building structures is characterized by the Roman baths constructions. Foundations of buildings were made of semi-finished small local stones, and the upper parts of the walls were made of white limestone and tuff blocks alternated with baked bricks; as a binding material the lime concrete was used.

The original construction structure is represented by four alternating premises located on the same axis. Elongated bath structure has a clear East – West orientation, which coincides with the orientation of Roman ancient baths, the main facade faces South. Later the bath building was expanded on the North side, five premises were attached to it, including a steam room, a large lounge, a pool, cloakroom and boiler room. The boiler room simultaneously heated the lounge, steam room and bathing rooms. It provided bathing room Caldarium with hot water, bathing room Tepidarium with warm water. The bathing room with cool water, Frigidarium, and the pool were heated separately by boiler rooms adjacent to their outer walls.

The bath heating was realized by hypocaust system. All bathing rooms, as well as a lobby and cloakroom were covered with a two-layered waterproof color plaster. The walls of some bath rooms were decorated with niches in which, apparently, there were statues, fragments of which were found during excavations.

The floors were covered with mosaic. The mosaic of floors of warm and hot bathing rooms had a richer color coloring. Ceiling construction of bath complex has not survived, however the study of details found during excavations enable us to consider that it was vaulted like the ceiling construction of similar baths presented in scientific publications. Construction of vault is typical for the building art of ancient Armenia on the territory of which we have numerous examples of the construction of vaulted ceilings. The steam bath by its planning concept (western wall semicircular) possibly had a domed cover.

When choosing a location for the baths construction, the specificities of the terrain connected with the possibility of water supply and drainage were taken into consideration. Fragments of water supply pipeline made of baked brick and different segments of drainage covered ditches were found during the excavation.

Investigation of characteristic features of the bath construction such as planning concepts, space-planning decision, and bilding technique resemble those of Roman small baths. These characteristics were adopted in Armenian architecture and adapted to the local traditions.

It is noteworthy that the baths of ancient Armenia traditionally continue to exist in the Middle Ages.