Urartu
Encyclopedia
Urartu corresponding to Ararat
or Kingdom of Van (Urartian
: ;) was an Iron Age
kingdom centered around Lake Van
in the Armenian Highland
.
Strictly speaking, Urartu is the Assyrian term for a geographical region, while "kingdom of Urartu" or "Biainili lands" are terms used in modern historiography for the Iron Age state that arose in that region.
That a distinction should be made between the geographical and the political entity was already pointed out by König (1955).
The landscape corresponds to the mountainous plateau
between Asia Minor
, Mesopotamia
, and the Caucasus mountains
, later known as the Armenian Highland
s. The kingdom rose to power in the mid 9th century BC and was conquered by Media
in the early 6th century BC.
sources: the Assyrian king Shalmaneser I
(1263–1234 BC) recorded a campaign in which he subdued the entire territory of "Uruatri". The Shalmaneser text uses the name Urartu to refer to a geographical region, not a kingdom, and names eight "lands" contained within Urartu (which at the time of the campaign were still disunited). The kingdom's native name was Biainili, also spelt Biaineli, (from which is derived the Armenian
toponym Վան "Van"), but prior to the 8th century BC, they also called their now united kingdom "Nairi". Scholars believe that Urartu is an Akkadian variation of Ararat of the Old Testament. Indeed, Mount Ararat
is located in ancient Urartian territory, approximately 120 km north of its former capital. In addition to referring to the famous Biblical mountain, Ararat also appears as the name of a kingdom in Jeremiah
51:27, mentioned together with Minni
and Ashkenaz
.
Scholars such as Carl Friedrich Lehmann-Haupt (1910) believed that the people of Urartu called themselves Khaldini after their god Khaldi
. The Nairi
, an Iron Age people of the Van area, are sometimes considered related or identical.
In the early 6th century BC, the Urartian Kingdom was replaced by the Armenian Orontid dynasty
. In the trilingual Behistun inscription
, carved in 521/0 BC by the order of Darius the Great of Persia, the country referred to as Urartu in Assyrian
is called Arminiya in Old Persian and Harminuia in Elamite.
Shubria was part of the Urartu confederation. Later, there is reference to a district in the area called Arme or Urme, which some scholars have linked to the name Armenia
.
Urartu comprised an area of approximately 200000 square miles (517,997.6 km²), reaching from the river Kura in the north, to the northern foothills of the Taurus Mountains
in the south; and from the Euphrates
in the west to the Caspian sea
in the east.
At its apogee, Urartu stretched from the borders of northern Mesopotamia
to the southern Caucasus
, including present-day Armenia
and southern Georgia
as far as the river Kura. Archaeological sites within its boundaries include Altintepe
, Toprakkale
, Patnos
and Cavustepe. Urartu fortresses included Erebuni
(present day Yerevan
city), Van Fortress
, Argishtihinili
, Anzaf, Cavustepe and Başkale
, as well as Teishebaini
(Karmir Blur, Red Mound) and others.
(who had described Urartian works in Van and attributed them to the legendary queen Semiramis
), the French scholar Jean Saint-Martin suggested that his government send Friedrich Eduard Schulz
, a German professor, to the Van area in 1827 on behalf of the French Oriental Society. Schulz discovered and copied numerous cuneiform
inscriptions, partly in Assyrian and partly in a hitherto unknown language. Schulz also re-discovered the Kelishin stele, bearing an Assyrian-Urartian bilingual inscription, located on the Kelishin pass on the current Iraqi-Iranian border. A summary account of his initial discoveries was published in 1828. Schulz and four of his servants were murdered by Kurd
s in 1829 near Başkale
. His notes were later recovered and published in Paris in 1840. In 1828, the British Assyriologist Henry Creswicke Rawlinson had attempted to copy the inscription on the Kelishin stele, but failed because of the ice on the stele's front side. The German scholar R. Rosch made a similar attempt a few years later, but he and his party were attacked and killed.
In the late 1840s Sir Austen Henry Layard
examined and described the Urartian rock-cut tombs of Van Castle, including the Argishti
chamber. From the 1870s, local residents began to plunder the Toprakkale
ruins, selling its artefacts to European collections. In the 1880s this site underwent a poorly-executed excavation organised by Hormuzd Rassam on behalf of the British Museum
. Almost nothing was properly documented.
The first systematic collection of Urartian inscriptions, and thus the beginning of Urartology as a specialized field dates to the 1870s, with the campaign of Sir Archibald Henry Sayce. The German engineer Karl Sester, discoverer of Mount Nemrut
, collected more inscriptions in 1890/1.
Waldemar Belck visited the area in 1891, discovering the Rusa stele. A further expedition planned for 1893 was prevented by Turkish-Armenian hostilities. Belck together with Lehmann-Haupt visited the area again in 1898/9, excavating Toprakkale. On this expedition, Belck reached the Kelishin stele, but he was attacked by Kurds and barely escaped with his life. Belck and Lehmann-Haupt reached the stele again in a second attempt, but were again prevented from copying the inscription by weather conditions. After another assault on Belck provoked the diplomatic intervention of Wilhelm II, Sultan Abdul Hamid II
, agreed to pay Belck a sum of 80,000 gold marks in reparation. During World War I
, the Lake Van region briefly fell under Russian control. In 1916, the Russian scholars Nikolay Yakovlevich Marr
and Iosif Abgarovich Orbeli, excavating at the Van fortress, uncovered a four-faced stele carrying the annals of Sarduri II
. In 1939 Boris Borisovich Piotrovsky excavated Karmir-Blur, discovering Teišebai, the city of the god of war, Teišeba
. In 1938–40, excavations by the American scholars Kirsopp
and Silva Lake were cut short by World War II
, and most of their finds and field records were lost when a German submarine torpedoed their ship, the SS Athenia
. Their surviving documents were published by Manfred Korfmann
in 1977.
A new phase of excavations began after the war. Excavations were at first restricted to Soviet Armenia. The fortress of Karmir Blur, dating from the reign of Rusa II
, was excavated by a team headed by Boris Piotrovsky
, and for the first time the excavators of a Urartian site published their findings systematically. Beginning in 1956 Charles Burney identified and sketch-surveyed many Urartian sites in the Lake Van area and, from 1959, a Turkish expedition under Tahsin Özgüç
excavated Altintepe
and Arif Erzen.
In the late-1960s, Urartian sites in northwest Iran were excavated. In 1976, an Italian team led by Mirjo Salvini finally reached the Kelishin stele, accompanied by a heavy military escort. The Gulf War
then closed these sites to archaeological research. Oktay Belli resumed excavation of Urartian sites on Turkish territory: in 1989 Ayanis, a 7th c. BC fortress built by Rusas II of Urartu, was discovered 35 km north of Van. In spite of excavations, only a third to a half of the 300 known Urartian sites in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Armenia have been examined by archaeologists (Wartke 1993). Without protection, many sites have been plundered by local residents searching for treasure and other saleable antiquities.
Assyrian inscriptions of Shalmaneser I
(ca. 1274 BC) first mention Uruartri as one of the states of Nairi
– a loose confederation of small kingdoms and tribal states in Armenian Highland
in the 13th – 11th centuries BC which he conquered. Uruartri itself was in the region around Lake Van
. The Nairi states were repeatedly subjected to further attacks and invasions by the Assyrians, especially under Tukulti-Ninurta I
(ca. 1240 BC), Tiglath-Pileser I
(ca. 1100 BC), Ashur-bel-kala
(ca. 1070 BC), Adad-nirari II
(ca. 900), Tukulti-Ninurta II
(ca. 890), and Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC).
Urartu re-emerged in Assyria
n inscriptions in the 9th c. BC as a powerful northern rival of Assyria. The Nairi states and tribes became a unified kingdom under king Aramu
(ca. 860–843 BC), whose capital at Arzashkun
was captured by the Assyrians under Shalmaneser III
. Roughly contemporaries of the Uruartri, living just to the west along the southern shore of the Black Sea
, were the Kaskas
known from Hittite sources.
Sarduri I
(ca. 832–820 BC), son of Lutipri, successfully resisted the Assyria
n attacks from the south, led by Shalmaneser III
, consolidated the military power of the state and moved the capital to Tushpa
(modern Van, on the shore of Lake Van
). His son, Ispuini (ca. 820–800 BC) annexed the neighbouring state of Musasir and made his son Sarduri II
viceroy; Ispuini was in turn attacked by Shamshi-Adad V
. His successor Menua
(ca. 800–785 BC) also enlarged the kingdom greatly and left inscriptions over a wide area. Urartu reached highest point of its military might under Menua's son Argishti I (ca. 785–760 BC), becoming one of the most powerful kingdoms of ancient Near East. Argishti I added more territories along the Araxes river and Lake Sevan, and frustrated Shalmaneser IV
's campaigns against him. Argishti also founded several new cities, most notably Erebuni in 782 BC, which grew to be the modern Armenian capital of Yerevan.
At its height, the Urartu kingdom may have stretched North beyond the Aras River (Greek
Araxes) and Lake Sevan
, encompassing present-day Armenia
and even the southern part of Georgia
(e.g. Qulha
) almost to the shores of the Black Sea
; west to the sources of the Euphrates
; east to present-day Tabriz
, Lake Urmia
, and beyond; and south to the sources of the Tigris.
Tiglath Pileser III of Assyria conquered Urartu in the first year of his reign (745 BC). There the Assyrians found horsemen and horses, tamed as colts for riding, that were unequalled in the south, where they were harnessed to Assyrian war-chariots.
Rusa's son Argishti II (714 – 685 BC) restored Urartu's position against the Cimmerians
, however it was no longer a threat to Assyria and peace was made with the new king of Assyria Sennacherib
in 705 BC. This in turn helped Urartu enter a long period of development and prosperity, which continued through the reign of Argishti's son Rusa II
(685–645 BC).
After Rusa II, however, the Urartu grew weaker under constant attacks from Cimmerian and Scythian invaders. As a result it became dependent on Assyria, as evidenced by Rusa II's son Sardur III (645–635 BC) referring to the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal
as his "father."
. In 612 BC, the Median king Cyaxares
together with Nabopolassar
of Babylon
and the Scythians conquered Assyria after it had been badly weakened by civil war. Many Urartian ruins of the period show evidence of destruction by fire. This would indicate two scenarios—either Media subsequently conquered Urartu, bringing about its subsequent demise, or Urartu maintained its independence and power, going through a mere dynastic change, as a local Armenian dynasty (later to be called the Orontids) overthrew the ruling family with the help of the Median army. Ancient sources support the latter version: Xenophon
, for example, states that Armenia, ruled by an Orontid king, was not conquered until the reign of Median king Astyages
(585– 550 BC) – long after Median invasion of the late 7th century BC. Similarly, Strabo (1st c. BC – 1st c AD) wrote that "[i]n ancient times Greater Armenia ruled the whole of Asia, after it broke up the empire of the Syrians, but later, in the time of Astyages, it was deprived of that great authority ..."
Medieval Armenian chronicles corroborate the Greek and Hebrew sources. In particular, Movses Khorenatsi writes that Armenian prince Paruyr Skayordi helped the Median king Cyaxares and his allies conquer Assyria, for which Cyaxares recognized him as the king of Armenia, while Media conquered Armenia only much later—under Astyages. It is possible that the last Urartian king, Rusa IV, had connections to the future incoming Armenian Orontids dynasty.
Urartu was destroyed in either 590 BC or 585 BC. By the late sixth century, Urartu had certainly been replaced by Armenia.
, who had already settled in the western parts of the region prior to the establishment of Urartu, had become the ruling elite under the Medes, followed by the Achaemenid Persians
. These Armeno-Phrygians, referred to as Armenians as of now, would have mingled with the disparate peoples of Urartu, resulting in a fusion of languages and cultures. The Armenians multiplied in numbers and spread their language throughout the territory of Urartu. The Urartians, during its dominance, had amalgamated disparate tribes, each of which had its own culture and traditions. Thus, when the political structure was destroyed, little remained that could be identified as one unified Urartian culture. The region formerly known as Urartu became an Achaemenid
satrapy called Armina
, which later became an independent kingdom called Armenia. The Urartians who were in the satrapy were then assimilated, becoming part of the Armenian ethnogenesis. However, other Urartians might have kept their former identity. According to Herodotus, the Alarodians (Alarodioi)—believed to be Urartian remnants—were part of the 18th Satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire
and formed a special contingent in the grand army
of Xerxes I. Some Urartian traditions, such as architecture and dam constructions, were absorbed in the following Persianate
s, and most probably persisted in the Satrapy of Armina. Urartu did not give birth to a direct successor, however, the Satrapy of Armina, as an entity which emerged immediately after its fall, inherited its cultural, traditionl, geographical and some linguistic aspects. Darius I the Great, in his famous Behistun Inscription
, calls the region Armina/Armenia in Old Persian and Urashtu/Urartu in Babylonian, clearly equating the two, suggesting that both are somewhat part of a same continuous entity. As the Armenian identity developed in the region, the memory of Urartu faded and finally disappeared.
The language spoken in Urartu is now extinct. Little is known of what was spoken in the geopolitical region from the time of Urartu's fall in the 6th century BC, to the creation of the Armenian alphabet in the 4th century AD. In ancient Persian inscriptions, references to Armina (Armenia) indicate that Urartian was still spoken, or was in a transitional period into being replaced with the Armenian language. In fact, the ethnonym "Armina" itself and all other names attested with reference to the rebellions against Darius in Armina (the proper names Araxa, Haldita, and Dādṛšiš, the toponyms Zūzahya, Tigra, and Uyamā, and the district name Autiyāra) are not connected with Armenian linguistic and onomastic material attested later in native Armenian sources. They are also not Iranian, but seem related to Urartean.
The name of the province of Ayrarat
in the Kingdom of Armenia is believed to be a continuum of the Urartu toponym (or Biblical Ararat).
The modern name of Mount Ararat
is derived from the Biblical Mountains of Ararat
(or Mountains of Urartu), and the Ararat Province of modern Armenia
is in turn named after the mountain.
. The state was heavily dependent on agriculture
, which required a centralized effort to irrigation
. These works managed by kings, in their implementation participated the free inhabitants, and perhaps the prisoners as slaves. Royal governors, influential people and, perhaps, free peoples have their own allotments. Individual territories within the state had to pay taxes the central government grain, horses, bulls, etc. In peacetime, Urartu probably led an active trade with Assyria
, providing there cattle, horses, iron and wine
.
|+ Agriculture in Urartu
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|align="center" width="20%"|
|align="center"|
|-
|colspan=4 align="center"|Part of iron pitchfork, found near Lake Van
and Iron plowshare, found during excavations in Rusahinili (Toprakkale).
Urartian grain bruiser
n on the selection of cultures and ways of processing. From cuneiform sources is known that in Urartu grew wheat
, barley
, sesame
, millet
and emmer
, and cultivated gardens and vineyards. Many regions of the Urartu state required artificial irrigation, which has successfully been organized by the rulers of Urartu in the heyday of the state. In several regions remain ancient irrigation canals, constructed by Urartu, mainly during the Argishti I and Menua period, some of them are still used for irrigation.
region, many of those peoples' gods remain excluded. This was most likely the case because Urartians considered the people in the North to be barbaric, and disliked their deities as much as they did them. Good examples of incorporated deities however are the goddesses Bagvarti
(Bagmashtu) and Selardi
. On Mheri-Dur, or Meher-Tur (the "Gate of Mehr"), overlooking modern Van, an inscription lists a total of 79 deities, and what type of sacrificial offerings should be made to each; goats, sheep, cattle, and other animals served as the sacrificial offerings. Urartians did not practice human sacrifice.
The pantheon was headed by a triad made up of Khaldi (the supreme god), Theispas (Teisheba) god of thunder and storms, as well as sometimes war, and Shivini a solar god. Their king was also the chief-priest or envoy of Khaldi. Some temples to Khaldi were part of the royal palace complex while others were independent structures.
Some of the main gods and goddesses include:
-agglutinative language
, which belongs to neither the Semitic
nor the Indo-European
families but to the Hurro-Urartian
family. It survives in many inscriptions found in the area of the Urartu kingdom, written in the Assyria
n cuneiform script. There are also claims of autochthonous Urartian hieroglyphs, but this remains uncertain.
The Urartians originally used the locally-developed hieroglyphs (not yet deciphered) but later adapted the Assyria
n cuneiform script for most purposes. After the 8th century BC, the hieroglyphic script was restricted to religious and accounting purposes. Examples of Urartian written language have survived in many inscriptions found throughout the area of the Urartu kingdom.
Urartian cuneiform inscriptions are divided into two groups. A minority is written in Akkadian
(the official language of Assyria
). However, the bulk of the cuneiforms are written in an agglutinative language, conventionally called Urartian
, Khaldian, or neo-Hurrian, which was related to Hurrian
in the Hurro-Urartian family
, and was neither Semitic
nor Indo-European
. It had close linguistic similarities to Northeast Caucasian languages. Igor Diakonov
even places it in the Alarodian family
, based on linguistic similarities with Northeast Caucasian languages. A more distant connection among Urartian and the modern Georgian language
and Circassian
have been postulated as well.
Currently, the number of known Urartian cuneiform inscriptions is more than 1000 . They contain around 350–400 words, most of which are Urartian, while some are loan words from other languages. The greatest number of foreign loan words in Urartian language is from Armenian
—around 70 word-roots. The greatest number of common words with Urartean is in Northeast Caucasian language family. (169 word-roots)
Unlike the cuneiform inscriptions, Urartuan hieroglyphic texts have not been successfully deciphered. As a result, scholars disagree as to what language is used in the texts. In mid-1990s, Armenian scientist Artak Movsisyan published a partial attempted deciphering of Urartian hieroglyphs, suggesting that they were written in an early form of Armenian.
, and the Urartian language spoken by the ruling class is the successor of the Hurrian language (see Hurro-Urartian).
The Urartian state was in turn succeeded in the area in the 6th century BC by the Orontid Armenian kingdom
,. The presence of a Proto-Armenian population in the area already during Urartian rule is subject to speculation:
It is generally assumed that Proto-Armenian speakers entered Anatolia
from around 1200 BC, ultimately deriving from a Paleo-Balkans
context, and over the following centuries spread east to the Armenian Highland
. A competing theory suggested by Thomas Gamkrelidze and Vyacheslav V. Ivanov
in 1984 places the Proto-Indo-European
homeland in the Armenian Highland
, see Armenian hypothesis
, which would entail the presence of Proto-Armenians in the area during the entire lifetime of the Urartian state.
After the disappearance of Urartu as a political entity, the Armenians dominated the highlands, absorbing portions of the previous Urartian culture in the process. The Armenians became, thus, the direct successors of the kingdom of Urartu and inherited their domain. Urartu is to Armenians what ancient Britons are to the English, and Gauls are to the French.
While the Urartian language was spoken by the royal elite, the population they ruled may have been multi-ethnic, and in late Urartian times largely (pre-Proto-)Armenian-speaking. Under this theory, the Armenian-speaking population were the descendants of the proto-Armenians who migrated to the Armenian Highland in ca. the 7th century BC, mixing with the local Hurrian-speaking population (i.e. the "Phrygian theory," first suggested by Herodotus
).
A minority belief, advocated primarily by the official historiography of Armenia, but also supported by experts in Assyrian and Urartian studies such as Igor Diakonov
, Giorgi Melikishvili
, Mikhail Nikolsky Ivan Mestchaninov, suggests that Urartian was solely the formal written language of the state, while its inhabitants, including the royal family, spoke Armenian.
The theory primarily hinges on the language the Urartian cuneiform inscriptions being very repetitive and scant in vocabulary (having as little as 350–400 roots). Furthermore, over 250 years of usage, it shows no development, which is taken to indicate that the language had ceased to be spoken before the time of the inscriptions or was used only for official purposes. This belief is compatible with the "Armenian hypothesis
" suggested by Vyacheslav Ivanov
and Tamaz Gamkrelidze
(1984), postulating the Armenian language as an in situ development of a 3rd millennium BC Proto-Indo-European language
.
According to the Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture
:
Urartu has come to play a role in 19th to 20th century Armenian nationalism
.
Ararat
Ararat may refer to:*Ararat , a common first name for Armenian males *Ararat / Araratian, a common family name for Armenians -Armenian Highland:*Mount Ararat, a snow-capped, dormant volcanic cone in Turkey...
or Kingdom of Van (Urartian
Urartian language
Urartian, Vannic, and Chaldean are conventional names for the language spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Urartu that was located in the region of Lake Van, with its capital near the site of the modern town of Van, in the Armenian Highland, modern-day Eastern Anatolia region of...
: ;) was an Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
kingdom centered around Lake Van
Lake Van
Lake Van is the largest lake in Turkey, located in the far east of the country in Van district. It is a saline and soda lake, receiving water from numerous small streams that descend from the surrounding mountains. Lake Van is one of the world's largest endorheic lakes . The original outlet from...
in the Armenian Highland
Armenian Highland
The Armenian Highland is the central-most and highest of three land-locked plateaus that together form the northern sector of the Middle East...
.
Strictly speaking, Urartu is the Assyrian term for a geographical region, while "kingdom of Urartu" or "Biainili lands" are terms used in modern historiography for the Iron Age state that arose in that region.
That a distinction should be made between the geographical and the political entity was already pointed out by König (1955).
The landscape corresponds to the mountainous plateau
Plateau
In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...
between Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
, Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
, and the Caucasus mountains
Caucasus Mountains
The Caucasus Mountains is a mountain system in Eurasia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the Caucasus region .The Caucasus Mountains includes:* the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range and* the Lesser Caucasus Mountains....
, later known as the Armenian Highland
Armenian Highland
The Armenian Highland is the central-most and highest of three land-locked plateaus that together form the northern sector of the Middle East...
s. The kingdom rose to power in the mid 9th century BC and was conquered by Media
Medes
The MedesThe Medes...
in the early 6th century BC.
Name
The name Urartu comes from AssyrianAkkadian language
Akkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
sources: the Assyrian king Shalmaneser I
Shalmaneser I
Shalmaneser I was a king of Assyria.Son of Adad-nirari I, he succeeded his father as king in 1265 BC....
(1263–1234 BC) recorded a campaign in which he subdued the entire territory of "Uruatri". The Shalmaneser text uses the name Urartu to refer to a geographical region, not a kingdom, and names eight "lands" contained within Urartu (which at the time of the campaign were still disunited). The kingdom's native name was Biainili, also spelt Biaineli, (from which is derived the Armenian
Armenian language
The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora...
toponym Վան "Van"), but prior to the 8th century BC, they also called their now united kingdom "Nairi". Scholars believe that Urartu is an Akkadian variation of Ararat of the Old Testament. Indeed, Mount Ararat
Mount Ararat
Mount Ararat is a snow-capped, dormant volcanic cone in Turkey. It has two peaks: Greater Ararat and Lesser Ararat .The Ararat massif is about in diameter...
is located in ancient Urartian territory, approximately 120 km north of its former capital. In addition to referring to the famous Biblical mountain, Ararat also appears as the name of a kingdom in Jeremiah
Jeremiah
Jeremiah Hebrew：יִרְמְיָה , Modern Hebrew:Yirməyāhū, IPA: jirməˈjaːhu, Tiberian:Yirmĭyahu, Greek:Ἰερεμίας), meaning "Yahweh exalts", or called the "Weeping prophet" was one of the main prophets of the Hebrew Bible...
51:27, mentioned together with Minni
Minni
Minni may be:*an ethnonym attested in the Hebrew Bible, possibly the Mannaeans*the Old Norse for "remembrance", see minnisveig...
and Ashkenaz
Ashkenaz
In the Bible, Ashkenaz is Gomer's first son, brother of Riphath and Togarmah , thereby a Japhetic descendant of Noah. A kingdom of Ashkenaz is called together with Ararat and Minni against Babylon In the Bible, Ashkenaz (Heb. אַשְׁכֲּנָז) is Gomer's first son, brother of Riphath and Togarmah (Gen....
.
Scholars such as Carl Friedrich Lehmann-Haupt (1910) believed that the people of Urartu called themselves Khaldini after their god Khaldi
Khaldi (god)
Ḫaldi was one of the three chief deities of Ararat . His shrine was at Ardini.The other two chief deities were Theispas of Kumenu, and Shivini of Tushpa....
. The Nairi
Nairi
Nairi is an Armenian given name, it may also refer to:*Nairi, Armenian tribe.*Nairi , an informal synonym for Armenia, which in turn gave rise to a number of modern usages:*The town of Hatsik, Armavir was called Nairi from 1963 till 1991...
, an Iron Age people of the Van area, are sometimes considered related or identical.
In the early 6th century BC, the Urartian Kingdom was replaced by the Armenian Orontid dynasty
Orontid Dynasty
The Orontid Dynasty The Orontid Dynasty The Orontid Dynasty (also known by their native name, Yervanduni was a hereditary Armenian dynasty and the rulers of the successor state to the Iron Age kingdom of Ararat...
. In the trilingual Behistun inscription
Behistun Inscription
The Behistun Inscription The Behistun Inscription The Behistun Inscription (also Bistun or Bisutun, Modern Persian: بیستون The Behistun Inscription (also Bistun or Bisutun, Modern Persian: بیستون...
, carved in 521/0 BC by the order of Darius the Great of Persia, the country referred to as Urartu in Assyrian
Akkadian language
Akkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
is called Arminiya in Old Persian and Harminuia in Elamite.
Shubria was part of the Urartu confederation. Later, there is reference to a district in the area called Arme or Urme, which some scholars have linked to the name Armenia
Armenia (name)
The name Armenia enters English via Latin, from Ancient Greek .The Armenian endonym for the Armenian people and country is hayer and hayk’, respectively...
.
Geography
Taurus Mountains
Taurus Mountains are a mountain complex in southern Turkey, dividing the Mediterranean coastal region of southern Turkey from the central Anatolian Plateau. The system extends along a curve from Lake Eğirdir in the west to the upper reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the east...
in the south; and from the Euphrates
Euphrates
The Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia...
in the west to the Caspian sea
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
in the east.
At its apogee, Urartu stretched from the borders of northern Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
to the southern Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
, including present-day Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
and southern Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
as far as the river Kura. Archaeological sites within its boundaries include Altintepe
Altintepe
Altıntepe is an ancient Urartian site located in Üzümlü district of Erzincan Province in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey.Altıntepe is located at the 12th kilometre on the Erzincan to Erzurum highway. The remains are sited on a 60 metre high volcanic hill. During diggings between 1959-1968, by...
, Toprakkale
Toprakkale
Rusahinili ", modern Toprakkale, Turkey) is an ancient Urartian fortress built by Rusa I, located near the modern city of Van in southeastern Turkey....
, Patnos
Patnos
Patnos is a district of Ağrı Province of Turkey on a plain surrounded by high mountains including Süphan, watered by tributaries of the Murat River. 82 km south of the city of Ağrı on the road to Van...
and Cavustepe. Urartu fortresses included Erebuni
Erebuni Fortress
Erebuni Fortress also known as Arin Berd is a fortified city from the ancient kingdom of Urartu, located in what is present-day Yerevan, Armenia. It was one of several fortresses built along the northern Urartian border and was one of the most important political, economic and cultural centers of...
(present day Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
city), Van Fortress
Van Fortress
The Fortress of Van is a massive stone fortification built by the ancient kingdom of Urartu during the 9th to 7th centuries BC, and is the largest example of its kind. It overlooks the ruins of Tushpa the ancient Urartian capital during the 9th c. which was centered upon the steep-sided bluff...
, Argishtihinili
Armavir, Armenia
Armavir is a city located in western Armenia. The 1989 census reported that the city had a total population of 46,900, but this has declined considerably: the 2001 census counted 32,034; estimate for 2008 is 26,387. It is the capital of the Armavir province . The city of Armavir in Russia, founded...
, Anzaf, Cavustepe and Başkale
Baskale
Başkale is a town and district located in south-eastern Turkey in Van Province. There is one municipality in the Başkale district, the town centre, which was established 1937...
, as well as Teishebaini
Teishebaini
Teishebaini was the capital of the Urartian Transcaucasian provinces. It is presently located near the modern city of Yerevan in Armenia...
(Karmir Blur, Red Mound) and others.
Discovery
Inspired by the writings of the medieval Armenian historian Movses KhorenatsiMovses Khorenatsi
Moses of Chorene, also Moses of Khoren, Moses Chorenensis, or Movses Khorenatsi , or a 7th to 9th century date) was an Armenian historian, and author of the History of Armenia....
(who had described Urartian works in Van and attributed them to the legendary queen Semiramis
Semiramis
The real and historical Shammuramat , was the Assyrian queen of Shamshi-Adad V , King of Assyria and ruler of the Neo Assyrian Empire, and its regent for four years until her son Adad-nirari III came of age....
), the French scholar Jean Saint-Martin suggested that his government send Friedrich Eduard Schulz
Friedrich Eduard Schulz
Friedrich Eduard Schulz was a German philosopher and orientalist, who was one of the first to uncover evidence of the Kingdom of Urartu.- Research on Urartu :...
, a German professor, to the Van area in 1827 on behalf of the French Oriental Society. Schulz discovered and copied numerous cuneiform
Cuneiform script
Cuneiform script )) is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. Emerging in Sumer around the 30th century BC, with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium , cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs...
inscriptions, partly in Assyrian and partly in a hitherto unknown language. Schulz also re-discovered the Kelishin stele, bearing an Assyrian-Urartian bilingual inscription, located on the Kelishin pass on the current Iraqi-Iranian border. A summary account of his initial discoveries was published in 1828. Schulz and four of his servants were murdered by Kurd
Kurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
s in 1829 near Başkale
Baskale
Başkale is a town and district located in south-eastern Turkey in Van Province. There is one municipality in the Başkale district, the town centre, which was established 1937...
. His notes were later recovered and published in Paris in 1840. In 1828, the British Assyriologist Henry Creswicke Rawlinson had attempted to copy the inscription on the Kelishin stele, but failed because of the ice on the stele's front side. The German scholar R. Rosch made a similar attempt a few years later, but he and his party were attacked and killed.
In the late 1840s Sir Austen Henry Layard
Austen Henry Layard
Sir Austen Henry Layard GCB, PC was a British traveller, archaeologist, cuneiformist, art historian, draughtsman, collector, author, politician and diplomat, best known as the excavator of Nimrud.-Family:...
examined and described the Urartian rock-cut tombs of Van Castle, including the Argishti
Argishti
Argishti may refer to:*Argishtis I of Urartu - 785 - 763 BCE*Argishti II of Urartu - 714 - 685 BCE*Argishti, Yerevan, a village...
chamber. From the 1870s, local residents began to plunder the Toprakkale
Toprakkale
Rusahinili ", modern Toprakkale, Turkey) is an ancient Urartian fortress built by Rusa I, located near the modern city of Van in southeastern Turkey....
ruins, selling its artefacts to European collections. In the 1880s this site underwent a poorly-executed excavation organised by Hormuzd Rassam on behalf of the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
. Almost nothing was properly documented.
The first systematic collection of Urartian inscriptions, and thus the beginning of Urartology as a specialized field dates to the 1870s, with the campaign of Sir Archibald Henry Sayce. The German engineer Karl Sester, discoverer of Mount Nemrut
Mount Nemrut
Nemrut or Nemrud is a high mountain in southeastern Turkey, notable for the summit where a number of large statues is erected around what is assumed to be a royal tomb from the 1st century BCE.-Location and description:...
, collected more inscriptions in 1890/1.
Abdul Hamid II
His Imperial Majesty, The Sultan Abdülhamid II, Emperor of the Ottomans, Caliph of the Faithful was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire...
, agreed to pay Belck a sum of 80,000 gold marks in reparation. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the Lake Van region briefly fell under Russian control. In 1916, the Russian scholars Nikolay Yakovlevich Marr
Nikolay Yakovlevich Marr
Nicholas Jakovlevich Marr was a Georgia-born historian and linguist who gained a reputation as a scholar of the Caucasus during the 1910s before developing his linguistic "Japhetic theory" on the origin of language and related speculative linguistic hypotheses.Marr's hypotheses were used as a...
and Iosif Abgarovich Orbeli, excavating at the Van fortress, uncovered a four-faced stele carrying the annals of Sarduri II
Sarduri II
Sarduri II was the King of Urartu . The Urartian Kingdom was at its peak during his reign. He succeeded his father Argishti I to the throne....
. In 1939 Boris Borisovich Piotrovsky excavated Karmir-Blur, discovering Teišebai, the city of the god of war, Teišeba
Theispas
Theispas of Kumenu was the Araratian weather-god, notably the god of storms and thunder. He was also sometimes the god of war. He formed part of a triad along with Khaldi and Shivini. The ancient Araratian cities of Teyseba and Teishebaini were named after Theispas...
. In 1938–40, excavations by the American scholars Kirsopp
Kirsopp Lake
Kirsopp Lake was a New Testament scholar and Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard Divinity School. He had an uncommon breadth of interests, publishing definitive monographs in New Testament textual criticism, Greek palaeography, theology, and archaeology...
and Silva Lake were cut short by World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and most of their finds and field records were lost when a German submarine torpedoed their ship, the SS Athenia
SS Athenia
The S.S. Athenia was the first British ship to be sunk by Nazi Germany in World War II.-Description:Athenia was built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Ltd., and was launched at Govan, Scotland in 1923. She was built for Anchor-Donaldson Ltd.'s route between Britain and Canada...
. Their surviving documents were published by Manfred Korfmann
Manfred Korfmann
Manfred Osman Korfmann was a German archaeologist.- Biography :...
in 1977.
A new phase of excavations began after the war. Excavations were at first restricted to Soviet Armenia. The fortress of Karmir Blur, dating from the reign of Rusa II
Rusa II
Rusa II was king of Urartu between around 680 BC and 639 BC. It was during his reign that the massive fortress complex, Karmir-Blur, was constructed....
, was excavated by a team headed by Boris Piotrovsky
Boris Piotrovsky
Boris Borisovich Piotrovsky was a Soviet Russian academician, historian-orientalist and archaeologist who studied the ancient civilizations of Urartu, Scythia, and Nubia. He is best known as a key figure in the study of the Urartian civilization of the southern Caucasus...
, and for the first time the excavators of a Urartian site published their findings systematically. Beginning in 1956 Charles Burney identified and sketch-surveyed many Urartian sites in the Lake Van area and, from 1959, a Turkish expedition under Tahsin Özgüç
Tahsin Özgüç
Tahsin Özgüç, was an eminent Turkish field archaeologist. His long career, began after the World War II and lasted up to the present, made him doyen of Anatolian archaeology....
excavated Altintepe
Altintepe
Altıntepe is an ancient Urartian site located in Üzümlü district of Erzincan Province in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey.Altıntepe is located at the 12th kilometre on the Erzincan to Erzurum highway. The remains are sited on a 60 metre high volcanic hill. During diggings between 1959-1968, by...
and Arif Erzen.
In the late-1960s, Urartian sites in northwest Iran were excavated. In 1976, an Italian team led by Mirjo Salvini finally reached the Kelishin stele, accompanied by a heavy military escort. The Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
then closed these sites to archaeological research. Oktay Belli resumed excavation of Urartian sites on Turkish territory: in 1989 Ayanis, a 7th c. BC fortress built by Rusas II of Urartu, was discovered 35 km north of Van. In spite of excavations, only a third to a half of the 300 known Urartian sites in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Armenia have been examined by archaeologists (Wartke 1993). Without protection, many sites have been plundered by local residents searching for treasure and other saleable antiquities.
Origins
Shalmaneser I
Shalmaneser I was a king of Assyria.Son of Adad-nirari I, he succeeded his father as king in 1265 BC....
(ca. 1274 BC) first mention Uruartri as one of the states of Nairi
Nairi (people)
Nairi was the Assyrian name for an Armenian tribe in the Armenian Highlands, roughly corresponding to the modern Van and Hakkâri provinces of modern Turkey...
– a loose confederation of small kingdoms and tribal states in Armenian Highland
Armenian Highland
The Armenian Highland is the central-most and highest of three land-locked plateaus that together form the northern sector of the Middle East...
in the 13th – 11th centuries BC which he conquered. Uruartri itself was in the region around Lake Van
Lake Van
Lake Van is the largest lake in Turkey, located in the far east of the country in Van district. It is a saline and soda lake, receiving water from numerous small streams that descend from the surrounding mountains. Lake Van is one of the world's largest endorheic lakes . The original outlet from...
. The Nairi states were repeatedly subjected to further attacks and invasions by the Assyrians, especially under Tukulti-Ninurta I
Tukulti-Ninurta I
Tukulti-Ninurta I was a king of Assyria.He succeeded Shalmaneser I, his father, as king and won a major victory against the Hittites at the Battle of Nihriya in the first half of his reign...
(ca. 1240 BC), Tiglath-Pileser I
Tiglath-Pileser I
Tiglath-Pileser I was a king of Assyria during the Middle Assyrian period . According to Georges Roux, Tiglath-Pileser was "one of the two or three great Assyrian monarchs since the days of Shamshi-Adad I"...
(ca. 1100 BC), Ashur-bel-kala
Ashur-bel-kala
Ashur-bel-kala was King of Assyria from 1074 to 1056 BC. He was the son of Tiglath-Pileser I and succeeded after the brief reign of his brother, Asharid-apal-Ekur. After a 18 years reign, he prematurely died and was buried in the city of Ashur.He was succeeded by his son, Eriba-Adad...
(ca. 1070 BC), Adad-nirari II
Adad-nirari II
Adad-nirari II is generally considered to be the first King of Assyria in the Neo-Assyrian period. He firmly subjugated the areas previously under only nominal Assyrian vassalage, conquering and deporting troublesome Aramean, Neo-Hittite and Hurrian populations in the north to far-off places...
(ca. 900), Tukulti-Ninurta II
Tukulti-Ninurta II
Tukulti-Ninurta II was King of Assyria from 891 BC to 884 BC. He was the second king of the Neo Assyrian Empire.-Family:His father was Adad-nirari II, the second king of the Neo-Assyrian period. His son succeeded him and was named Ashurnasirpal II...
(ca. 890), and Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC).
Urartu re-emerged in Assyria
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
n inscriptions in the 9th c. BC as a powerful northern rival of Assyria. The Nairi states and tribes became a unified kingdom under king Aramu
Aramu
Aramu or Arame was the first known king of Urartu.Living at the time of Shalmaneser III , Aram united the Nairi tribe against the threat of the Assyrian Empire...
(ca. 860–843 BC), whose capital at Arzashkun
Arzashkun
Arzashkun was the capital of the early kingdom of Urartu in the 9th century BC, before Sarduri I moved it to Tushpa in 832 BC.Arzashkun had double walls and towers , but was captured by Shalmaneser III in the 840s BC.- Name :...
was captured by the Assyrians under Shalmaneser III
Shalmaneser III
Shalmaneser III was king of Assyria , and son of the previous ruler, Ashurnasirpal II....
. Roughly contemporaries of the Uruartri, living just to the west along the southern shore of the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
, were the Kaskas
Kaskas
The Kaska were a loosely-affiliated Bronze Age non-Indo-European tribal people of mountainous Pontic Anatolia, known from Hittite sources...
known from Hittite sources.
Growth
Sarduri I
Sarduri I , also known as Sarduris, was king of Urartu in Asia Minor. He was the son of Lutipri, the second monarch of Urartu. Sarduri I is most known for moving the capital of the Urartu kingdom to Tushpa . This proved to be significant as Tushpa became the focal point of politics in the Near East...
(ca. 832–820 BC), son of Lutipri, successfully resisted the Assyria
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
n attacks from the south, led by Shalmaneser III
Shalmaneser III
Shalmaneser III was king of Assyria , and son of the previous ruler, Ashurnasirpal II....
, consolidated the military power of the state and moved the capital to Tushpa
Tushpa
Tushpa was the 9th century BC capital of Urartu, later becoming known as Van which is derived from Biaina the native name of Urartu...
(modern Van, on the shore of Lake Van
Lake Van
Lake Van is the largest lake in Turkey, located in the far east of the country in Van district. It is a saline and soda lake, receiving water from numerous small streams that descend from the surrounding mountains. Lake Van is one of the world's largest endorheic lakes . The original outlet from...
). His son, Ispuini (ca. 820–800 BC) annexed the neighbouring state of Musasir and made his son Sarduri II
Sarduri II
Sarduri II was the King of Urartu . The Urartian Kingdom was at its peak during his reign. He succeeded his father Argishti I to the throne....
viceroy; Ispuini was in turn attacked by Shamshi-Adad V
Shamshi-Adad V
Shamshi-Adad V was the King of Assyria from 824 to 811 BC.-Biography:He was the son and successor of Shalmaneser III, the husband of Shammuramat , and the father of Adad-nirari III, who succeeded him as king....
. His successor Menua
Menuas of Urartu
Menua was the fifth known king of Urartu, an ancient country in the Eastern Anatolia, from circa 810 BC to approximately 786 BC.A younger son of the preceding Urartuan King, Ishpuini, Menua was adopted as co-ruler by his father in the last years of his reign...
(ca. 800–785 BC) also enlarged the kingdom greatly and left inscriptions over a wide area. Urartu reached highest point of its military might under Menua's son Argishti I (ca. 785–760 BC), becoming one of the most powerful kingdoms of ancient Near East. Argishti I added more territories along the Araxes river and Lake Sevan, and frustrated Shalmaneser IV
Shalmaneser IV
Shalmaneser IV was king of Assyria . He succeeded his father Adad-nirari III, and was succeeded by his brother Ashur-dan III. Very little information about his reign has survived....
's campaigns against him. Argishti also founded several new cities, most notably Erebuni in 782 BC, which grew to be the modern Armenian capital of Yerevan.
At its height, the Urartu kingdom may have stretched North beyond the Aras River (Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
Araxes) and Lake Sevan
Lake Sevan
Lake Sevan is the largest lake in Armenia and the Caucasus region. It is one of the largest high-altitude lakes in the world.Lake Sevan is situated in the central part of the Republic of Armenia, inside the Gegharkunik Province, at the altitude of 1,900m above sea level...
, encompassing present-day Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
and even the southern part of Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
(e.g. Qulha
Colchis
In ancient geography, Colchis or Kolkhis was an ancient Georgian state kingdom and region in Western Georgia, which played an important role in the ethnic and cultural formation of the Georgian nation.The Kingdom of Colchis contributed significantly to the development of medieval Georgian...
) almost to the shores of the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
; west to the sources of the Euphrates
Euphrates
The Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia...
; east to present-day Tabriz
Tabriz
Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...
, Lake Urmia
Lake Urmia
Lake Urmia , ancient name: Lake Matiene) is a salt lake in northwestern Iran, near Iran's border with Turkey. The lake is between the Iranian provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan, west of the southern portion of the similarly shaped Caspian Sea...
, and beyond; and south to the sources of the Tigris.
Tiglath Pileser III of Assyria conquered Urartu in the first year of his reign (745 BC). There the Assyrians found horsemen and horses, tamed as colts for riding, that were unequalled in the south, where they were harnessed to Assyrian war-chariots.
Decline and recuperation
In 714 BC, the Urartu kingdom suffered heavily from Cimmerian raids and the campaigns of Sargon II. The main temple at Mushashir was sacked, and the Urartian king Rusa I was crushingly defeated by Sargon II at Lake Urmia. He subsequently committed suicide in shame.Rusa's son Argishti II (714 – 685 BC) restored Urartu's position against the Cimmerians
Cimmerians
The Cimmerians or Kimmerians were ancient equestrian nomads of Indo-European origin.According to the Greek historian Herodotus, of the 5th century BC, the Cimmerians inhabited the region north of the Caucasus and the Black Sea during the 8th and 7th centuries BC, in what is now Ukraine and Russia...
, however it was no longer a threat to Assyria and peace was made with the new king of Assyria Sennacherib
Sennacherib
Sennacherib |Sîn]] has replaced brothers for me"; Aramaic: ) was the son of Sargon II, whom he succeeded on the throne of Assyria .-Rise to power:...
in 705 BC. This in turn helped Urartu enter a long period of development and prosperity, which continued through the reign of Argishti's son Rusa II
Rusa II
Rusa II was king of Urartu between around 680 BC and 639 BC. It was during his reign that the massive fortress complex, Karmir-Blur, was constructed....
(685–645 BC).
After Rusa II, however, the Urartu grew weaker under constant attacks from Cimmerian and Scythian invaders. As a result it became dependent on Assyria, as evidenced by Rusa II's son Sardur III (645–635 BC) referring to the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal
Ashurbanipal
Ashurbanipal |Ashur]] is creator of an heir"; 685 BC – c. 627 BC), also spelled Assurbanipal or Ashshurbanipal, was an Assyrian king, the son of Esarhaddon and the last great king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire...
as his "father."
Fall
According to Urartian epigraphy, Sarduri III was followed by three kings—Erimena (635–620 BC), his son Rusa III (620–609 BC), and the latter's son Rusa IV (609–590 or 585 BC). Late during the 600s BC (during or after Sardur III's reign), Urartu was invaded by Scythians and their allies—the MedesMedes
The MedesThe Medes...
. In 612 BC, the Median king Cyaxares
Cyaxares
Cyaxares, Cyaxares the Great or Hvakhshathra , the son of King Phraortes, was the first king of Media. According to Herodotus, Cyaxares, grandson of Deioces, had a far greater military reputation than his father or grandfather, therefore he is often being described as the first official Median...
together with Nabopolassar
Nabopolassar
Nabopolassar was the king of the Babylonia and played a key role in the demise of the Assyrian Empire following the death of the last powerful Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal...
of Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
and the Scythians conquered Assyria after it had been badly weakened by civil war. Many Urartian ruins of the period show evidence of destruction by fire. This would indicate two scenarios—either Media subsequently conquered Urartu, bringing about its subsequent demise, or Urartu maintained its independence and power, going through a mere dynastic change, as a local Armenian dynasty (later to be called the Orontids) overthrew the ruling family with the help of the Median army. Ancient sources support the latter version: Xenophon
Xenophon
Xenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, philosopher and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates...
, for example, states that Armenia, ruled by an Orontid king, was not conquered until the reign of Median king Astyages
Astyages
Astyages Astyages Astyages (spelled by Herodotus as Ἀστυάγης - Astyages; by Ctesias as Astyigas; by Diodorus as Aspadas; Akkadian: Ištumegu, was the last king of the Median Empire, r...
(585– 550 BC) – long after Median invasion of the late 7th century BC. Similarly, Strabo (1st c. BC – 1st c AD) wrote that "[i]n ancient times Greater Armenia ruled the whole of Asia, after it broke up the empire of the Syrians, but later, in the time of Astyages, it was deprived of that great authority ..."
Medieval Armenian chronicles corroborate the Greek and Hebrew sources. In particular, Movses Khorenatsi writes that Armenian prince Paruyr Skayordi helped the Median king Cyaxares and his allies conquer Assyria, for which Cyaxares recognized him as the king of Armenia, while Media conquered Armenia only much later—under Astyages. It is possible that the last Urartian king, Rusa IV, had connections to the future incoming Armenian Orontids dynasty.
Urartu was destroyed in either 590 BC or 585 BC. By the late sixth century, Urartu had certainly been replaced by Armenia.
Legacy
Little is known of what happened to the region of Urartu under the foreign rule following its fall. The most widely accepted theory is that settlers related to Phrygians, or more specifically tribes speaking a proto-Armenian language conventionally named Armeno-PhrygianArmeno-Phrygian
Armeno-Phrygian is a term for a hypothetical people who are thought to have migrated from the Balkans to Anatolia as a group and then have separated to form the Phrygians, the Mushki of Cappadocia, and the Armenians. It is also used for the language they are assumed to have spoken...
, who had already settled in the western parts of the region prior to the establishment of Urartu, had become the ruling elite under the Medes, followed by the Achaemenid Persians
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire , sometimes known as First Persian Empire and/or Persian Empire, was founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation...
. These Armeno-Phrygians, referred to as Armenians as of now, would have mingled with the disparate peoples of Urartu, resulting in a fusion of languages and cultures. The Armenians multiplied in numbers and spread their language throughout the territory of Urartu. The Urartians, during its dominance, had amalgamated disparate tribes, each of which had its own culture and traditions. Thus, when the political structure was destroyed, little remained that could be identified as one unified Urartian culture. The region formerly known as Urartu became an Achaemenid
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire , sometimes known as First Persian Empire and/or Persian Empire, was founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation...
satrapy called Armina
Satrapy of Armenia
The Satrapy of Armenia , also known as Orontid Armenia after the ruling Orontid Dynasty, was one of the satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC, which later became an independent kingdom...
, which later became an independent kingdom called Armenia. The Urartians who were in the satrapy were then assimilated, becoming part of the Armenian ethnogenesis. However, other Urartians might have kept their former identity. According to Herodotus, the Alarodians (Alarodioi)—believed to be Urartian remnants—were part of the 18th Satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire
Districts of the Achaemenid Empire
Herodotus divided the Achaemenid Empire into 20 districts. The following is a description of the ethnic makeup of the districts and the amount they paid in taxes, translated from Herodotus' Histories.-The Districts:-References:*...
and formed a special contingent in the grand army
Second Persian invasion of Greece
The second Persian invasion of Greece occurred during the Greco-Persian Wars, as King Xerxes I of Persia sought to conquer all of Greece. The invasion was a direct, if delayed, response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece at the Battle of Marathon which ended Darius I's attempts...
of Xerxes I. Some Urartian traditions, such as architecture and dam constructions, were absorbed in the following Persianate
Persianate
A Persianate/Persified society is a society that is either based on, or strongly influenced by the Persian language, culture, literature, art, and/or identity....
s, and most probably persisted in the Satrapy of Armina. Urartu did not give birth to a direct successor, however, the Satrapy of Armina, as an entity which emerged immediately after its fall, inherited its cultural, traditionl, geographical and some linguistic aspects. Darius I the Great, in his famous Behistun Inscription
Behistun Inscription
The Behistun Inscription The Behistun Inscription The Behistun Inscription (also Bistun or Bisutun, Modern Persian: بیستون The Behistun Inscription (also Bistun or Bisutun, Modern Persian: بیستون...
, calls the region Armina/Armenia in Old Persian and Urashtu/Urartu in Babylonian, clearly equating the two, suggesting that both are somewhat part of a same continuous entity. As the Armenian identity developed in the region, the memory of Urartu faded and finally disappeared.
The language spoken in Urartu is now extinct. Little is known of what was spoken in the geopolitical region from the time of Urartu's fall in the 6th century BC, to the creation of the Armenian alphabet in the 4th century AD. In ancient Persian inscriptions, references to Armina (Armenia) indicate that Urartian was still spoken, or was in a transitional period into being replaced with the Armenian language. In fact, the ethnonym "Armina" itself and all other names attested with reference to the rebellions against Darius in Armina (the proper names Araxa, Haldita, and Dādṛšiš, the toponyms Zūzahya, Tigra, and Uyamā, and the district name Autiyāra) are not connected with Armenian linguistic and onomastic material attested later in native Armenian sources. They are also not Iranian, but seem related to Urartean.
The name of the province of Ayrarat
Ayrarat
Ayrarat was a province of old Armenia . The main city was Oshakan. It is believed that the name Ayrarat is the Armenian equivalent of the toponym Urartu ....
in the Kingdom of Armenia is believed to be a continuum of the Urartu toponym (or Biblical Ararat).
The modern name of Mount Ararat
Mount Ararat
Mount Ararat is a snow-capped, dormant volcanic cone in Turkey. It has two peaks: Greater Ararat and Lesser Ararat .The Ararat massif is about in diameter...
is derived from the Biblical Mountains of Ararat
Mountains of Ararat
The Mountains of Ararat is the place named in the Book of Genesis where Noah's Ark came to rest after the great flood ....
(or Mountains of Urartu), and the Ararat Province of modern Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
is in turn named after the mountain.
Economy and politics
The economic structure of Urartu was similar to other states of the Ancient World, especially to AssyriaAssyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
. The state was heavily dependent on agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
, which required a centralized effort to irrigation
Irrigation
Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
. These works managed by kings, in their implementation participated the free inhabitants, and perhaps the prisoners as slaves. Royal governors, influential people and, perhaps, free peoples have their own allotments. Individual territories within the state had to pay taxes the central government grain, horses, bulls, etc. In peacetime, Urartu probably led an active trade with Assyria
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
, providing there cattle, horses, iron and wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
.
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|colspan=4 align="center"|Part of iron pitchfork, found near Lake Van
Lake Van
Lake Van is the largest lake in Turkey, located in the far east of the country in Van district. It is a saline and soda lake, receiving water from numerous small streams that descend from the surrounding mountains. Lake Van is one of the world's largest endorheic lakes . The original outlet from...
and Iron plowshare, found during excavations in Rusahinili (Toprakkale).
Agriculture and horticulture
According to archaeological data farming on the territory of Urartu began to develop since the Neolithic period, even in the III millennium BC. In Urartian age agriculture was well developed and closely related to the AssyriaAssyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
n on the selection of cultures and ways of processing. From cuneiform sources is known that in Urartu grew wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
, barley
Barley
Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
, sesame
Sesame
Sesame is a flowering plant in the genus Sesamum. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for its edible seeds, which grow in pods....
, millet
Millet
The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They do not form a taxonomic group, but rather a functional or agronomic one. Their essential similarities are that they are small-seeded grasses grown in difficult...
and emmer
Emmer
Emmer wheat , also known as farro especially in Italy, is a low yielding, awned wheat. It was one of the first crops domesticated in the Near East...
, and cultivated gardens and vineyards. Many regions of the Urartu state required artificial irrigation, which has successfully been organized by the rulers of Urartu in the heyday of the state. In several regions remain ancient irrigation canals, constructed by Urartu, mainly during the Argishti I and Menua period, some of them are still used for irrigation.
Religion
With the expansion of Urartian territory, many of the gods worshiped by conquered peoples were incorporated into the Urartian pantheon, as a mean to confirm the annexation of territories and promote political stability. However, although the Urartians incorporated many deities into their pantheon, they appeared to be selective in their choices. Although many different Urartian kings made conquests in the North, such as the SevanSevan (city)
Sevan is a city and a popular resort in Armenia, in the Gegharkunik Province, lies on the northern shores of Lake Sevan. The town is founded on a height of over 1900 meters above sea level, 66 kilometers north-east of the capital Yerevan, and 40 kilometers north of Gavar, the administrative...
region, many of those peoples' gods remain excluded. This was most likely the case because Urartians considered the people in the North to be barbaric, and disliked their deities as much as they did them. Good examples of incorporated deities however are the goddesses Bagvarti
Bagvarti
Bagmashtu is an Araratian goddess, and the consort or wife of the chief Urartian god Haldi. Although throughout most of Urartu Arubani is known as Khaldi's wife, at the excavation of Musasir references to "Khaldi and his wife, Bagmashtu" were found inscribed on some of the items...
(Bagmashtu) and Selardi
Selardi
Selardi is a lunar goddess of Urartu. She is counterpart to the Babylonian moon god, Sin. Nicholas Adontz theorizes that "Sielardi" name is derived from "Siela," meaning "woman" or "Sister," and "Ardi" which means sun. He states that in the ancient east, the moon had been considered the sister of...
. On Mheri-Dur, or Meher-Tur (the "Gate of Mehr"), overlooking modern Van, an inscription lists a total of 79 deities, and what type of sacrificial offerings should be made to each; goats, sheep, cattle, and other animals served as the sacrificial offerings. Urartians did not practice human sacrifice.
The pantheon was headed by a triad made up of Khaldi (the supreme god), Theispas (Teisheba) god of thunder and storms, as well as sometimes war, and Shivini a solar god. Their king was also the chief-priest or envoy of Khaldi. Some temples to Khaldi were part of the royal palace complex while others were independent structures.
Some of the main gods and goddesses include:
- KhaldiKhaldi (god)Ḫaldi was one of the three chief deities of Ararat . His shrine was at Ardini.The other two chief deities were Theispas of Kumenu, and Shivini of Tushpa....
- Teisheba
- ShiviniShiviniShivini or Artinis was a solar god in the mythology of the Urartu. He is the third god in a triad with Khaldi and Theispas. The Assyrian god Shamash is a counterpart to Shivini. He was depicted as a man on his knees, holding up a solar disc...
- ArubaniArubaniArubani is the Urartian's goddess of fertility and art. She was also the wife of their supreme god, Khaldi.-Sources:# Piotrovsky, Boris B. The Ancient Civilization of Urartu: An Archaeological Adventure. Cowles Book Co. ISBN 0214667936 # http://www.tacentral.com/erebuni/art.asp...
- TushpueaTushpueaTushpuea is an Araratian goddess from which the city of Tushpa derived its name. She may have been the wife of the solar god Shivini as both are listed as third, in the list of male and female deities on the Mheri-Dur inscription. It is hypothesized that the winged female figures on Urartian...
- BagvartiBagvartiBagmashtu is an Araratian goddess, and the consort or wife of the chief Urartian god Haldi. Although throughout most of Urartu Arubani is known as Khaldi's wife, at the excavation of Musasir references to "Khaldi and his wife, Bagmashtu" were found inscribed on some of the items...
- SelardiSelardiSelardi is a lunar goddess of Urartu. She is counterpart to the Babylonian moon god, Sin. Nicholas Adontz theorizes that "Sielardi" name is derived from "Siela," meaning "woman" or "Sister," and "Ardi" which means sun. He states that in the ancient east, the moon had been considered the sister of...
Language
Urartian, the language used in the cuneiform inscriptions of Urartu, was an ergativeErgative-absolutive language
An ergative–absolutive language is a language that treats the argument of an intransitive verb like the object of a transitive verb, but differently from the agent of a transitive verb.-Ergative vs...
-agglutinative language
Agglutinative language
An agglutinative language is a language that uses agglutination extensively: most words are formed by joining morphemes together. This term was introduced by Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1836 to classify languages from a morphological point of view...
, which belongs to neither the Semitic
Semitic languages
The Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
nor the Indo-European
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
families but to the Hurro-Urartian
Hurro-Urartian languages
The Hurro-Urartian languages are an extinct language family of the Ancient Near East, comprising only two known languages: Hurrian and Urartian, both of which were spoken in the Taurus mountains area.-Classification:...
family. It survives in many inscriptions found in the area of the Urartu kingdom, written in the Assyria
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
n cuneiform script. There are also claims of autochthonous Urartian hieroglyphs, but this remains uncertain.
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
n cuneiform script for most purposes. After the 8th century BC, the hieroglyphic script was restricted to religious and accounting purposes. Examples of Urartian written language have survived in many inscriptions found throughout the area of the Urartu kingdom.
Urartian cuneiform inscriptions are divided into two groups. A minority is written in Akkadian
Akkadian language
Akkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
(the official language of Assyria
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
). However, the bulk of the cuneiforms are written in an agglutinative language, conventionally called Urartian
Urartian language
Urartian, Vannic, and Chaldean are conventional names for the language spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Urartu that was located in the region of Lake Van, with its capital near the site of the modern town of Van, in the Armenian Highland, modern-day Eastern Anatolia region of...
, Khaldian, or neo-Hurrian, which was related to Hurrian
Hurrian language
Hurrian is a conventional name for the language of the Hurrians , a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly vanished by 1000 BC. Hurrian was the language of the Mitanni kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, and was likely spoken at least initially in Hurrian settlements in...
in the Hurro-Urartian family
Hurro-Urartian languages
The Hurro-Urartian languages are an extinct language family of the Ancient Near East, comprising only two known languages: Hurrian and Urartian, both of which were spoken in the Taurus mountains area.-Classification:...
, and was neither Semitic
Semitic languages
The Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
nor Indo-European
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
. It had close linguistic similarities to Northeast Caucasian languages. Igor Diakonov
Igor Diakonov
Igor Mikhailovich Diakonov was a Russian historian, linguist, and translator and a renowned expert in the Ancient Near East and its languages....
even places it in the Alarodian family
Alarodian languages
The Alarodian languages are a proposed language family that encompasses the Northeast Caucasian languages and the extinct Hurro-Urartian languages.- History of the concept :...
, based on linguistic similarities with Northeast Caucasian languages. A more distant connection among Urartian and the modern Georgian language
Georgian language
Georgian is the native language of the Georgians and the official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus.Georgian is the primary language of about 4 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad...
and Circassian
Northwest Caucasian languages
The Northwest Caucasian languages, also called Abkhazo-Adyghean, or sometimes Pontic as opposed to Caspian for the Northeast Caucasian languages, are a group of languages spoken in the Caucasus region, chiefly in Russia , the disputed territory of Abkhazia, and Turkey, with smaller communities...
have been postulated as well.
Currently, the number of known Urartian cuneiform inscriptions is more than 1000 . They contain around 350–400 words, most of which are Urartian, while some are loan words from other languages. The greatest number of foreign loan words in Urartian language is from Armenian
Armenian language
The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora...
—around 70 word-roots. The greatest number of common words with Urartean is in Northeast Caucasian language family. (169 word-roots)
Unlike the cuneiform inscriptions, Urartuan hieroglyphic texts have not been successfully deciphered. As a result, scholars disagree as to what language is used in the texts. In mid-1990s, Armenian scientist Artak Movsisyan published a partial attempted deciphering of Urartian hieroglyphs, suggesting that they were written in an early form of Armenian.
Armenian ethnogenesis
The Iron Age Urartian state was the successor of the Late Bronze Age Hurrian state of MitanniMitanni
Mitanni or Hanigalbat was a loosely organized Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria and south-east Anatolia from ca. 1500 BC–1300 BC...
, and the Urartian language spoken by the ruling class is the successor of the Hurrian language (see Hurro-Urartian).
The Urartian state was in turn succeeded in the area in the 6th century BC by the Orontid Armenian kingdom
Orontid Dynasty
The Orontid Dynasty The Orontid Dynasty The Orontid Dynasty (also known by their native name, Yervanduni was a hereditary Armenian dynasty and the rulers of the successor state to the Iron Age kingdom of Ararat...
,. The presence of a Proto-Armenian population in the area already during Urartian rule is subject to speculation:
It is generally assumed that Proto-Armenian speakers entered Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
from around 1200 BC, ultimately deriving from a Paleo-Balkans
Paleo-Balkan languages
Paleo-Balkan is a geolinguistic term referring to the Indo-European languages that were spoken in the Balkans in ancient times. Except for Greek and the language that gave rise to Albanian , they are all extinct, due to Hellenization, Romanization, and Slavicisation.- Classification :The following...
context, and over the following centuries spread east to the Armenian Highland
Armenian Highland
The Armenian Highland is the central-most and highest of three land-locked plateaus that together form the northern sector of the Middle East...
. A competing theory suggested by Thomas Gamkrelidze and Vyacheslav V. Ivanov
Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov
Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov is a prominent Soviet/Russian philologist and Indo-Europeanist probably best known for his glottalic theory of Indo-European consonantism and for placing the Indo-European urheimat in the area of the Armenian Highlands and Lake Urmia.-Early life:Vyacheslav Ivanov's...
in 1984 places the Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-Europeans
The Proto-Indo-Europeans were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language , a reconstructed prehistoric language of Eurasia.Knowledge of them comes chiefly from the linguistic reconstruction, along with material evidence from archaeology and archaeogenetics...
homeland in the Armenian Highland
Armenian Highland
The Armenian Highland is the central-most and highest of three land-locked plateaus that together form the northern sector of the Middle East...
, see Armenian hypothesis
Armenian hypothesis
The Armenian hypothesis of the Proto-Indo-European Urheimat, based on the Glottalic theory suggests that the Proto-Indo-European language was spoken during the 4th millennium BC in the Armenian Highland or Aryan Highland. It is an Indo-Hittite model and does not include the Anatolian languages in...
, which would entail the presence of Proto-Armenians in the area during the entire lifetime of the Urartian state.
After the disappearance of Urartu as a political entity, the Armenians dominated the highlands, absorbing portions of the previous Urartian culture in the process. The Armenians became, thus, the direct successors of the kingdom of Urartu and inherited their domain. Urartu is to Armenians what ancient Britons are to the English, and Gauls are to the French.
While the Urartian language was spoken by the royal elite, the population they ruled may have been multi-ethnic, and in late Urartian times largely (pre-Proto-)Armenian-speaking. Under this theory, the Armenian-speaking population were the descendants of the proto-Armenians who migrated to the Armenian Highland in ca. the 7th century BC, mixing with the local Hurrian-speaking population (i.e. the "Phrygian theory," first suggested by Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
).
A minority belief, advocated primarily by the official historiography of Armenia, but also supported by experts in Assyrian and Urartian studies such as Igor Diakonov
Igor Diakonov
Igor Mikhailovich Diakonov was a Russian historian, linguist, and translator and a renowned expert in the Ancient Near East and its languages....
, Giorgi Melikishvili
Giorgi Melikishvili
Giorgi Melikishvili was a Georgian historian known for his fundamental works in the history of Georgia, Caucasia and the Middle East. He earned an international recognition for his research of Urartu....
, Mikhail Nikolsky Ivan Mestchaninov, suggests that Urartian was solely the formal written language of the state, while its inhabitants, including the royal family, spoke Armenian.
The theory primarily hinges on the language the Urartian cuneiform inscriptions being very repetitive and scant in vocabulary (having as little as 350–400 roots). Furthermore, over 250 years of usage, it shows no development, which is taken to indicate that the language had ceased to be spoken before the time of the inscriptions or was used only for official purposes. This belief is compatible with the "Armenian hypothesis
Armenian hypothesis
The Armenian hypothesis of the Proto-Indo-European Urheimat, based on the Glottalic theory suggests that the Proto-Indo-European language was spoken during the 4th millennium BC in the Armenian Highland or Aryan Highland. It is an Indo-Hittite model and does not include the Anatolian languages in...
" suggested by Vyacheslav Ivanov
Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov
Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov is a prominent Soviet/Russian philologist and Indo-Europeanist probably best known for his glottalic theory of Indo-European consonantism and for placing the Indo-European urheimat in the area of the Armenian Highlands and Lake Urmia.-Early life:Vyacheslav Ivanov's...
and Tamaz Gamkrelidze
Tamaz Gamkrelidze
Tamaz Valeryanovich Gamkrelidze is a distinguished Georgian linguist, orientalist public benefactor and Hittitologist, Academician and President of the Georgian Academy of Sciences , Doctor of Sciences , Professor .Gamkrelidze was born in Kutaisi, Georgian SSR...
(1984), postulating the Armenian language as an in situ development of a 3rd millennium BC Proto-Indo-European language
Proto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
.
According to the Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture
Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture
The Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture is an encyclopedia of Indo-European studies and the Proto-Indo-Europeans. The encyclopedia was edited by J. P. Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams and published in 1997 by Fitzroy Dearborn...
:
Urartu has come to play a role in 19th to 20th century Armenian nationalism
Armenian nationalism
Armenian nationalism in the modern period has its roots in the romantic nationalism of Mikayel Chamchian and generally defined as the creation of a free, independent and united Armenia formulated as the Armenian Cause . Armenian national awakening developed in the 1880s in the context of the...
.
See also
- ArmeniaArmeniaArmenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
- ChaldiaChaldiaChaldia was a historical region located in the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor . Its name was derived from a people called the Chaldoi that inhabited the region in Antiquity. Chaldia was used throughout the Byzantine period and was established as a formal theme, known as the Theme of Chaldia , in...
- Hurro-Urartian languagesHurro-Urartian languagesThe Hurro-Urartian languages are an extinct language family of the Ancient Near East, comprising only two known languages: Hurrian and Urartian, both of which were spoken in the Taurus mountains area.-Classification:...
- List of kings of Urartu
- Mount AraratMount AraratMount Ararat is a snow-capped, dormant volcanic cone in Turkey. It has two peaks: Greater Ararat and Lesser Ararat .The Ararat massif is about in diameter...
- Nakh–Daghestanian languagesNortheast Caucasian languagesThe Northeast Caucasian languages constitute a language family spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, northern Azerbaijan, and in northeastern Georgia, as well as in diaspora populations in Russia, Turkey, and the Middle East...
- Proto-Armenian languageProto-Armenian languageThe earliest testimony of the Armenian language dates to the 5th century AD . The earlier history of the language is unclear and the subject of much speculation....
- TurkeyTurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
Literature
- Ashkharbek KalantarAshkharbek KalantarAshkharbek Kalantar was an Armenian archaeologist, historian. He had important role in founding of archaeology in Armenia. Born in Armenian noble family of Loris-Meliks, he graduated St.Petersburg University in 1911 under Nicholas Marr...
, Materials on Armenian and Urartian History (with a contribution by Mirjo Salvini), Civilisations du Proche-Orient: Series 4 – Hors Série, Neuchâtel, Paris, 2004;ISBN 978-2-940032-14-3 - Boris B. Piotrovsky, The Ancient Civilization of Urartu (translated from Russian by James Hogarth), New York:Cowles Book Company, 1969.
- M. Salvini, Geschichte und Kultur der Urartäer, Darmstadt 1995.
- R. B. Wartke, Urartu — Das Reich am Ararat In: Kulturgeschichte der Antiken Welt, Bd. 59, Mainz 1993.
- P. E. Zimansky, Ecology and Empire: The Structure of the Urartian State, [Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization], Chicago: Oriental Institute, 1985.
- P. E. Zimansky, Ancient Ararat. A Handbook of Urartian Studies, New York 1998.
External links
- Livius History of Urartu/Armenia
- Historical Maps of Urartu at WikiMedia Commons
- An Urartian Ozymandias – article by Paul Zimansky, Biblical Archaeologist
- Urartu Civilization
- Urartu (Greek Ararat)
- Capital and Periphery in the Kingdom of Urartu, Yehuda Dagan, Israel Antiquities Authority
- http://www.altintepekazisi.com/Altintepe excavation in ErzincanErzincan-Trivia:Erzincan has the largest man made of Portrait of Atatürk, located north of the city, 176m×43m. It covers 7,500 square meter. Turkish Army made it 1982, in 29 days by 3,000 soldier, 100 tons of black and white paint was used...
.]