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The Armenian eternity sign (Armenian: հավերժության նշան, haverzhut’yan nshan) is an ancient Armenian national symbol and a symbol of the national identity of the Armenian people. It is one of the most common symbols in Armenian architecture, carved on khachkars and on walls of churches.
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Evolution and use
In medieval Armenian culture, the eternity sign symbolized the concept of everlasting, celestial life. Since the 5th century, it appeared on Armenian steles, later it becomes part of khachkar symbolism. Around the 8th century the use of the Armenian symbol of eternity had become a long established national iconographical practice, and it keeps its meaning until the modern times. Besides being one of the main components of khachkars, it can be found on church walls, tomb stones and other architectural monuments. Notable churches with the eternity sign include the Mashtots Hayrapet Church of Garni, Horomayr Monastery, Nor Varagavank, Tsitsernavank Monastery. It can also be found on Armenian manuscripts.
The eternity sign is used on the logos of government agencies and on commemorative coins, as well as Armenian government agencies and non-government organizations and institutions in Armenia and the Armenian diaspora.
The symbol is also used by Armenian neopagan organizations and their followers. It is called by them "Arevakhach" (Արևախաչ, "sun cross").
ArmSCII and UNICODE
In ArmSCII, Armenian Standard Code for Information Interchange, an Armenian eternity sign has been encoded in 7-bit and 8-bit standard and ad-hoc encodings since at least 1987. In 2010 the Armenian National Institute of Standards suggested encoding an Armenian Eternity sign in the Unicode character set, and both right-facing and left-facing Armenian eternity signs were included in Unicode version 7.0 when it was released in June 2014.