Urartu extended from theEuphrates in the west 850 km2 to the region west ofArdabil in Iran, and 500 km2 fromLake Çıldır nearArdahan in Turkey to the region ofRawandiz inIraqi Kurdistan.[7] The kingdom emerged in the mid-9th century BC and dominated the Armenian Highlands in the 8th and 7th centuries BC.[8] Urartu frequently warred withAssyria and became, for a time, the most powerful state in theNear East.[8] Weakened by constant conflict, it was eventually conquered, either by theIranianMedes in the early 6th century BC or byCyrus the Great in the middle of the 6th century BC.[9][10] Archaeologically, it is noted for its large fortresses and sophisticated metalwork.[8]
Various names were given to the geographic region and the polity that emerged in the region.
Urartu/Ararat: The nameUrartu (Armenian:Ուրարտու;Assyrian:māt Urarṭu;[6]Babylonian:Urashtu;Hebrew:אֲרָרָטʾĂrārāṭ) comes from Assyrian sources.Shalmaneser I (1263–1234 BC) recorded a campaign in which he subdued the entire territory of "Uruatri".[12][13] 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 AssyrianUruatri seems to correspond with theAzzi of contemporaneousHittite texts.[14][15]Urartu iscognate with the BiblicalArarat, AkkadianUrashtu, and ArmenianAyrarat.[16][17] In addition to referring to the famous Biblical highlands,Ararat also appears as the name of a kingdom inJeremiah 51:27, mentioned together withMinni andAshkenaz.Mount Ararat is located approximately 120 kilometres (75 mi) north of the kingdom's former capital, though the identification of the biblical "mountains of Ararat" with the Mt. Ararat is a modern identification based on postbiblical tradition.[18]
Biainili/Biaini: The Urartian kings, starting during the co-reign ofIshpuini and his son,Menua, referred to their kingdom asBiainili, or "those of the land of Bia" (sometimes transliterated as Biai or Bias).[19][20] Whoever or whatever "Bia" was remains unclear. It is not to be confused with the nearby land "Biane", which likely became the ArmenianBasean (Greek:Phasiane).
Kingdom of Van (Armenian:Վանի թագավորութիւն,romanized: Vani t′agavorut′yun): A widespread belief is that the UrartiantoponymBiainili (orBiaineli),[21][22] which was possibly pronounced asVanele (orVanili), becameVan (Վան) in Old Armenian.[23] The names "Kingdom of Van" and "Vannic Kingdom" were applied to Urartu as a result of this theory and the fact that the Urartian capital,Tushpa, was located near the city of Van andthe lake of the same name.
Nairi:Boris Piotrovsky wrote that theUrarteans first appear in history in the 13th century BC as a league of tribes or countries which did not yet constitute a unitary state. In the Assyrian annals the termUruatri (Urartu) as a name for this league was superseded during a considerable period of years by the term "land ofNairi".[24] More recent scholarship suggests that Uruatri was a district of Nairi, and perhaps corresponded to theAzzi of contemporaneous Hittite texts.[25][26] Although early rulers of the Kingdom of Urartu referred to their domain as "Nairi" (instead of the later Biainili), some scholars believe that Urartu and Nairi were separate polities. The Assyrians seem to have continued to refer to Nairi as a distinct entity for decades after the establishment of Urartu until Nairi was totally absorbed by Assyria and Urartu in the 8th century BC.[27]
Khaldini:Carl Ferdinand Friedrich Lehmann-Haupt (1910) believed that the people of Urartu called themselvesKhaldini after the godḪaldi.[28] This theory has been overwhelmingly rejected by modern scholars.[29]
Shurili: Linguists John Greppin andIgor M. Diakonoff argued that the Urartians referred to themselves asShurele (sometimes transliterated asShurili orŠurili, possibly pronounced asSurili), a name mentioned within the royal titles of the kings of Urartu (e.g. "the king ofŠuri-lands").[30][31] The wordŠuri has been variously theorized as originally referring to chariots, lances or swords (perhaps related to the Armenian wordsur (սուր) meaning "sword"). Others have connected Shurili to an as yet undetermined geographical region, such asShupria (perhaps an attempt by the ruling dynasty to associate themselves with the Hurrians),Cappadocia,[32] theArarat plain,[33] or the entire world.[31]
Armenia: In the late 6th–early 5th century BC, with the emergence of theSatrapy of Armenia in the region, Urartu (Urashtu inBabylonian) was used as a synonym for Armenia (Old PersianArmina) in the trilingualBehistun Inscription.[34] The nameArarat was translated asArmenia in the 1st century AD inhistoriographical works[35] andvery early Latin translations of theBible,[36] as well as theBooks of Kings[37] andIsaiah in theSeptuagint. Some English language translations, including theKing James Version,[38] follow the Septuagint translation ofArarat asArmenia.[39]Shupria (Akkadian:Armani-Subartu from the 3rd millennium BC) is believed to have originally been a Hurrian or Mitanni state that was subsequently annexed into the Urartian confederation. Shupria is often mentioned in conjunction with a district in the area calledArme orArmani and the nearby districts ofUrme andInner Urumu. It is possible that the nameArmenia originates inArmini, Urartian for "inhabitant of Arme" or "Armean country".[40][16][17] The Arme tribe of Urartian texts may have been theUrumu, who in the 12th century BC attempted to invade Assyria from the north with their allies theMushki and theKaskians. The Urumu apparently settled in the vicinity ofSason, lending their name to the regions ofArme and the nearbyUrme andInner Urumu.[41]
The name form ofArmenia URARTU appears in 2Assyrian inscriptions from the 9th century BC. Urartologists identify with this name form the land names mat U-RU-A Ţ -RI mentioned byShalmaneser I (at the beginning of XIII century) and mat U-RA Ţ -RI mentioned byAdad-nirari II (at the end of X century).
The name forms URARTU and Ararat differ by one vowel (the vowel "a" is missing between the consonants r and t in the URARTU reading). And as the data in the table shows, it is the result of the misunderstanding that the cuneiform scholars who read the name of the country took the readings ar and ar2 of the AR and UB cuneiform signs, respectively, and ignored their readings ara8 and ara2․
On the famousBabylonian map representing the ancient world (in the 8th century BC) (see figure 1), in the inscription of the Assyrian kingNabopolassar (in626-604 BC) and in theBehistun inscription of theAchaemenid Iranian kingDarius I (in 522-486 BC), the name ofArmenia is presented in the form UR-AŠ 2 -TU= URAŠTU. Some authors (S. Yeremyan,B. Piotrovsky,I. Dyakonoff, U. Horovits and others) distinguish URAŠTU from URARTU, but consider them equivalent names. In order for the writing form URAŠTU to be identical with URARTU=Ararat, it is necessary for the AŠ2 cuneiform sign to have the reading ru/ra.[42]
There is no direct evidence in existingcuneiform dictionaries that the AŠ 2 cuneiform sign has such readings. However, there are a number of side data that confirm the existence of these readings of the AŠ 2 cuneiform. The reading aš 2 of the cuneiform sign AŠ 2 was expressed by the cuneiform AŠ in the cuneiform dictionaries (AŠ 2 = AŠ). And the cuneiform AŠ has 3 ru readings.
The reading aš 2 of the cuneiform AŠ 2 was expressed by the cuneiform AŠ in the cuneiform dictionaries (AŠ 2 = AŠ). And the cuneiform AŠ has 3 ru readings: ru-u 2=ru 3 =AŠ (SA 126, Ea II 59 and so on). Therefore, it can be assumed that the cuneiform AŠ 2 should also have ru reading.
The phonetic equivalence r, l = š is frequently noticed in theAkkadian language․ For example išu = irdu = « foundation, establishment», irt ā nu = išt ā nu = «with big breasts», p ā štu = p ā ltu = «axe», išt ā nu = ilt ā nu = « the north» and so on. From the equivalence of Akkadian r=š, it follows that the readings aš 2 and aša 2 of the cuneiform AŠ 2 can also express the phonetic values ar and ara. And from all of this comes the identity of the writing forms URAŠTU and URARTU, especially when we take into account the fact that the names refer to the same area.[42]
Finally, there are examples which simply point out that the cuneiform AŠ 2 has ru reading. So, the cuneiform MAŠ=« goat» has the meaning «son, cub» and is written ma-aš 2 = MAŠ = ma-ru 3 = m ā ru = «son, cub» (A I/6 97), where the syllable ru 3 is the reading of the cuneiform AŠ. Therefore, it follows from the equation ma-aš 2 = ma-ru 3 = "cub, son" that the reading ru can be attributed to the symbol AŠ 2. After these clarifications, if we return to the writing form Ur-aš 2 -tu=Ur-aša 2 -tu, then we can present it in the form Ura-ru x -tu = Urarut, which is identical to the name forms read Ararat in the table above. Now let's move on to our main problem, try to find the Armenian etymology of the name Ararat (=URARTU) and see from which historical times it was written down.[42]
Urartu reemerged in Assyrian language inscriptions in the ninth century BC as a powerful northern rival to the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Nairi states and tribes became unified kingdom under KingArame of Urartu (c. 860–843 BC), whose capitals, first atSugunia and then atArzashkun, were captured by the Assyrians under the Neo-Assyrian emperorShalmaneser III.
Urartologist Paul Zimansky speculated that the Urartians, or at least their ruling family after Arame, may have emigrated northwest into the Lake Van region from their religious capital ofMusasir.[43] According to Zimansky, the Urartian ruling class were few in number and governed over an ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse population. Zimansky went so far as to suggest that the kings of Urartu might have come from various ethnic backgrounds themselves.[44]
Growth
Fragment of a bronzehelmet from Argishti I's era. The "tree of life", popular among the ancient societies, is depicted. The helmet was discovered during the excavations of the fortress Of Teyshebaini on Karmir-Blur (Red Hill).
Assyria fell into a period of temporary stagnation for decades during the first half of the 9th century BC, which had aided Urartu's growth. Within a short time it became one of the largest and most powerful states in theNear East.[44]
Sarduri I (c. 832–820 BC), the son of Lutipri, established a new dynasty and successfully resisted Assyrian attacks from the south led by Shalmaneser III, consolidated the military power of the state, and moved the capital to Tushpa (modern Van, Turkey, on the shore ofLake Van). His son,Ispuini (c. 820–800 BC) annexed the neighbouring state of Musasir, which became an important religious centre of the Urartian Kingdom, and introduced the cult ofḪaldi.[44]
Ispuini was also the first Urartian king to write in the Urartian language (previous kings left records written inAkkadian).[44] He made his sonSarduri II viceroy. After conquering Musasir, Ispuini was in turn attacked byShamshi-Adad V. His co-regent and subsequent successor,Menua (c. 800–785 BC) also enlarged the kingdom greatly and left inscriptions over a wide area. During Ispuini's and Menua's joint rule, they shifted from referring to their territory as Nairi, instead opting forBianili.[44]
Urartu reached the highest point of its military might under Menua's sonArgishti I (c. 785–760 BC), becoming one of the most powerful kingdoms of ancient Near East. Argishti I added more territories along theAras andLake Sevan, and frustratedShalmaneser IV's campaigns against him. Argishti also founded several new cities, most notablyErebuni Fortress in 782 BC. 6600 prisoners of war fromHatti andSupani were settled in the new city.[45][46]
Niche and base for a destroyed Urartian stele, Van citadel, 1973.
At its height, the Urartu kingdom stretched north beyond the Aras and Lake Sevan, encompassing present-day Armenia and even the southern part of present-dayGeorgia almost to the shores of the Black Sea; west to the sources of theEuphrates; east to present-dayTabriz,Lake Urmia, and beyond; and south to the sources of theTigris.[citation needed]
Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria defeatedSarduri II of 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.[47]
Decline and recuperation
In 714 BC, the Urartian kingdom suffered heavily fromCimmerian raids and the campaigns ofSargon II. The main temple at Musasir was sacked, and the Urartian kingRusa I was crushingly defeated by Sargon II at Lake Urmia. He subsequently committed suicide in shame.[48]
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 AssyriaSennacherib in 705 BC. This, in turn, helped Urartu enter a long period of development and prosperity, which continued through the reign of Argishti's sonRusa II (685–645 BC).
After Rusa II, however, Urartu grew weaker under constant attacks from Cimmerian andScythian invaders. As a result, it became dependent on Assyria, as evidenced by Rusa II's sonSarduri III (645–635 BC) referring to the Assyrian kingAshurbanipal as his "father".[49][50]
According to Urartian epigraphy, Sarduri III was followed by two kings—Rusa III (also known as Rusa Erimenahi) (620–609 BC) and his son, Rusa IV (609–590 or 585 BC). There is speculation that Rusa III's father, Erimena, may have been a king as well, possibly ruling from 635 to 620 BC, but little is known about him. It is possible that Rusa III established a new dynasty and that his father, Erimena, had not been king.[51][52]
Late during the 7th century BC (during or after Sarduri III's reign), Urartu was invaded byScythians and their allies—theMedes. In 612 BC, the Median kingCyaxares the Great together withNabopolassar ofBabylon and the Scythians conquered Assyria after it had been irreversibly weakened by civil war. The Medes then took over the Urartian capital of Van in 590 BC, effectively ending the sovereignty of Urartu.[53][54] However, some historians believe that Urartu survived until the middle of the 6th century BC and was eventually destroyed by Cyrus the Great.[10] Many Urartian ruins of the period show evidence of destruction by fire.
The Kingdom of Van was destroyed in 590 BC[55] and by the late 6th century, the Satrapy of Armenia had replaced it.[56] Little is known of what happened to the region between the fall of the Kingdom of Van and the appearance of the Satrapy of Armenia. According to historian Touraj Daryaee, during the Armenian rebellion against thePersian kingDarius I in 521 BC, some of the personal and topographic names attested in connection with Armenia or Armenians were of Urartian origin, suggesting that Urartian elements persisted within Armenia after its fall.[57] In the Behistun Inscription (c. 522 BC) refer toArmenia andArmenians as synonyms ofUrartu andUrartians.[34] The toponymUrartu did not disappear, however, as the name of the province ofAyrarat in the center of the Kingdom of Armenia is believed to be its continuum.[58]
Urartian royal tomb. Van citadel, 1973
As the Armenian identity developed in the region, the memory of Urartu faded and disappeared.[59] Parts of its history passed down as popular stories and were preserved in Armenia, as written byMovses Khorenatsi in the form ofgarbled legends[60][61] in his 5th century bookHistory of Armenia, where he speaks of a first Armenian Kingdom inVan which fought wars against the Assyrians. Khorenatsi's stories of these wars with Assyria would help in the rediscovery of Urartu.[62]
According to Herodotus, theAlarodians (Alarodioi) were part of the18th Satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire and formed a special contingent inthe grand army ofXerxes I.[63] Some scholars have tried to link the Alarodians to Urartians, suggesting thatAlarodian was a variation of the nameUrartian/Araratian. According to this theory, the Urartians of the 18th Satrapy were subsequently absorbed into the Armenian nation.[64] Modern historians, however, have cast doubt on the Alarodian connection to the Urartians.[65]
In a study published in 2017,[66] the completemitochondrial genomes of 4 ancient skeletons from Urartu were analyzed alongside other ancient populations found in modern-dayArmenia andArtsakh spanning 7,800 years. The study shows that modern-day Armenians are the people who have the leastgenetic distance from those ancient skeletons. As well, some scholars asserted that the Urartians are the most easily identifiable ancestors of theArmenians.[67][68][69][70]
Since its re-discovery in the 19th century, Urartu, which is commonly believed to have been at least partiallyArmenian-speaking,[3][71][72][73][74] has played a significant role inArmenian nationalism.[75]
Geography
Urartu 715–713 BC
Urartu comprised an area of approximately 200,000 square miles (520,000 km2), extending from the Euphrates in the West toLake Urmia in the East and from theCaucasus Mountains south towards theZagros Mountains in northern Iraq.[8] More specifically, Urartu was an area directly surrounded by the mountain chains of the easternPontus at the north, theLesser Caucasus at to the northeast, and theTaurus mountains at the south.[76] It was centred around Lake Van, which is located in present-dayeastern Anatolia.[77]
At itsapogee, Urartu stretched from the borders of northernMesopotamia to the southernCaucasus, including present-dayTurkey,Nakhchivan,[78] Armenia and southern Georgia (up to the river Kura). The Taurus mountains also served as a natural barrier against southern threats, particularly from theAssyrians.[76] Archaeological sites within its boundaries includeAltintepe,Toprakkale,Patnos andHaykaberd. Urartu fortresses included Erebuni Fortress (present-day Yerevan),Van Fortress,Argishtihinili, Anzaf, Haykaberd, andBaşkale, as well asTeishebaini (Karmir Blur, Red Mound) and others.
Checkpoints
Kayalıdere Castle is one of the important centers that enabled the Urartian kingdom to control the surrounding regions fromLake Van to the west.[79]
A UrartianBulanık Stele, Bitlis Ahlat Museum.Arinçkus Argishti I Stele belonging to the Urartian KingArgishti I, dated between 785 BC and 756 BC, Bitlis Ahlat MuseumA Urartiancauldron, in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations,AnkaraHead of a Bull, Urartu, 8th century BC. This head was attached to the rim of an enormous cauldron similar to the one shown above.Walters Art Museum collections.Silver bucket from Urartu in theMuseum zu Allerheiligen inSchaffhausen Switzerland, allegedly from the tomb of Prince Inuspua, 810 BC
Urartian inscriptions were found inKepenek Castle, located on a hill near the center of Muş, and in theAlazlı.[80] Inspired by the writings of the medieval Armenian historianMovses Khorenatsi (who had described Urartian works in Van and attributed them to the legendaryAra the Beautiful and QueenSemiramis), the French scholarAntoine-Jean Saint-Martin suggested that his government sendFriedrich Eduard Schulz, a German professor, to the Van area in 1827 on behalf of the French Oriental Society.[81] Schulz discovered and copied numerouscuneiform inscriptions, partly in Assyrian and partly in a hitherto unknown language. Schulz also discovered theKelishin stele, bearing an Assyrian-Urartian bilingual inscription, located on theKelishin 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 byKurds in 1829 nearBaşkale. His notes were later recovered and published in Paris in 1840. In 1828, the British AssyriologistHenry 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 SirAusten Henry Layard examined and described the Urartian rock-cut tombs ofVan Castle, including theArgishti 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 byHormuzd Rassam on behalf of theBritish 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 SirArchibald Henry Sayce. The German engineer Karl Sester, discoverer ofMount 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 ofWilhelm II, SultanAbdul Hamid II agreed to pay Belck a sum of 80,000 gold marks in reparation. DuringWorld War I, the Lake Van region briefly fell under Russian control. In 1916, the Russian scholarsNikolay Yakovlevich Marr andIosif Abgarovich Orbeli, excavating at the Van fortress, uncovered a four-faced stele carrying the annals of Sarduri II. In 1939Boris Piotrovsky excavatedKarmir Blur, discoveringTeišebai, the city of the god of war,Teišeba. Excavations by the American scholarsKirsopp and Silva Lake in 1938-40 were cut short byWorld War II, and most of their finds and field records were lost when a German submarine torpedoed their ship, theSS Athenia. Their surviving documents were published byManfred Korfmann in 1977.
A new phase of excavations began after the war. Excavations were at first restricted toSoviet 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 1956Charles A. Burney identified and sketch-surveyed many Urartian sites in the Lake Van area and, from 1959, a Turkish expedition underTahsin 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. TheGulf War then closed these sites to archaeological research. Oktay Belli resumed excavation of Urartian sites on Turkish territory: in 1989 Ayanis, a 7th-century BC fortress built byRusas 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.
On 12 November 2017, it was announced that archaeologists in Turkey had discovered the ruins of a Urartian castle during underwater excavations around Lake Van. The castle dated to the 8th or 7th centuries BC.[82]
The economic structure of Urartu was similar to other states of the ancient world, especially Assyria. The state was heavily dependent onagriculture, which required centralizedirrigation. These works were managed by kings, but implemented by free inhabitants and possibly slave labour provided by prisoners. Royal governors, influential people and, perhaps, free peoples had 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 cattle, horses, iron andwine.
Agriculture in Urartu
Part of iron pitchfork, found nearLake Van andIron plowshare, found during excavations inRusahinili (Toprakkale).
According to archaeological data, farming on the territory of Urartu developed from theNeolithic, even in the 3rd millennium BC. In the Urartian age, agriculture was well developed and closely related to Assyrian methods on the selection of cultures and methods of processing.[83] From cuneiform sources, it is known that in Urartu grewwheat,barley,sesame,millet, andemmer, 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 which are still used for irrigation.
Bronze figurine of the winged goddessTushpuea, with suspension hook
There is a number of remains of sturdy stone architecture, as well as somemud brick, especially when it has been burnt, which helps survival. Stone remains are mainly fortresses and walls, with temples and mausolea, and manyrock-cut tombs. The style, which developed regional variations, shows a distinct character, partly because of the greater use of stone compared to neighbouring cultures. The typical temple was square, with stone walls as thick as the open internal area but using mud brick for the higher part. These were placed at the highest point of a citadel and from surviving depictions were high, perhaps withgabled roofs; their emphasis on verticality has been claimed as an influence of later ChristianArmenian architecture.[84]
Theart of Urartu is especially notable for finelost-wax bronze objects: weapons, figurines, vessels including grandcauldrons that were used for sacrifices, fittings for furniture, and helmets. There are also remains of ivory and bone carvings,frescos,cylinder seals and of course pottery. In general their style is a somewhat less sophisticated blend of influences from neighbouring cultures. Archaeology has produced relatively few examples of the jewellery in precious metals that the Assyrians boasted of carrying off in great quantities from Musasir in 714 BC.[84]
Religion
A modern depiction of the godḪaldi based on Urartian originals
The Urartian pantheon seems to have comprised a diverse mix of Hurrian, Akkadian, Armenian, and Hittite deities.[85]
Starting with the reign of Ishpuini, the Urartian pantheon was headed by a triad made up ofḪaldi (the supreme god),Theispas (Teisheba, god of thunder and storms, as well as sometimes war), andShivini (a solar god). Their king was also the chief-priest or envoy of Ḫaldi. Some temples to Ḫaldi were part of the royal palace complex, while others were independent structures.
With the expansion of Urartian territory, many of the gods worshipped by conquered peoples were incorporated into the Urartian pantheon as a means of confirming the annexation of territories and promoting political stability. Some main gods and goddesses of the Urartian pantheon include:[86]
Ḫaldi was not a native Urartian god but apparently an obscureAkkadian deity (which explains the location of the main temple of worship for Ḫaldi inMusasir, believed to be near modernRawandiz, Iraq).[87] Ḫaldi was not initially worshiped by the Urartians as their chief god. His cult does not appear to have been introduced until the reign ofIshpuini.[87]
Theispas was a version of the Hurrian god,Teshub.[88]
According to Diakonoff andVyacheslav Ivanov, Shivini (likely pronouncedShiwini orSiwini) was likely borrowed from the Hittites.[89]
On the Gate of Mehr (Mehri-Dur), 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.[90]
A number of the gods mentioned in the Gate of Mehr may be of Armenian origins,[85] includingAra (or Arwaa),[91] and possibly the goddess Selardi (although there is confusion about this deity's gender and name, some believe it is to be read Melardi).[91][92][93]
It has been suggested that the Urartian pantheon could correspond to mountain peaks located within theArmenian Highlands.[94]
Language
The modern name of the written language used by the kingdom's political elite isUrartian; the language is attested in numerous cuneiform inscriptions throughoutArmenia and easternTurkey. It is unknown what other languages were spoken by the peoples of Urartu under the Kingdom of Van, but there is evidence of linguistic contact between theproto-Armenian language and the Urartian language at an early date (sometime between the 3rd—2nd millennium BC), before the formation of the kingdom.[3][95][96][67][97]
Urartians used Assyrian language, script, and form in building inscriptions.[2] This language and script was used until the late ninth century BC when the Urartian language was used.[2]
"Urartian" is the modern name for theextinct language used in the cuneiform inscriptions of the Kingdom of Urartu. Its only known relative isHurrian; together they form the smallHurro-Urartian language family. Other names used to refer to the language are "Khaldian" ("Ḫaldian"), or "neo-Hurrian". The latter term is considered problematic, however, as it is now thought that Urartian and Hurrian share a common ancestor; formerly, it was thought that Urartian was descended from, or a dialect of, Hurrian.[65] In fact, according to Paul Zimansky:
The earliest dialect of Hurrian, seen in the Tiš-atal royal inscription and reconstructed from various early second millennium B.C.E. sources, shows features that disappeared in later Hurrian but are present in Urartian (Wilhelm 1988:63). In short, the more we discover or deduce about the earliest stages of Hurrian, the more it looks like Urartian (Gragg 1995:2170).
Examples of the Urartian language have survived in many inscriptions, written in the Assyrian cuneiform script, found throughout the area of the Kingdom of Urartu. Although, the bulk of the cuneiform inscriptions within Urartu were written in the Urartian language, a minority of them were also written in Akkadian (the official language of Assyria).
There are also claims of autochthonousUrartian hieroglyphs, but this remains uncertain.[98] Unlike the cuneiform inscriptions, Urartian hieroglyphs have not been successfully deciphered. As a result, scholars disagree as to what language is used, or whether they even constitute writing at all. The Urartians originally would have used these locally developed hieroglyphs, but later adapted the Assyrian cuneiform script for most purposes. After the 8th century BC, the hieroglyphic script would have been restricted to religious and accounting purposes.[clarification needed]
The Kingdom of Urartu, during its dominance, had united 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.[99] According to Zimansky:[100]
Far from being grounded on long standing cultural uniformities, [Urartu] was merely a superstructure of authority, below which there was plenty of room for the groups to manifest in the Anatolia of Xenophon to flourish. We need not hypothesize massive influxes of new peoples, ethnic replacement, or any very great mechanisms of cultural change. The Armenians,Carduchoi,Chaldaioi, andTaochoi could easily have been there all along, accommodated and concealed within the structure of command established by the Urartian kings.
Ultimately, little is known of what was truly spoken in the geopolitical region until thecreation of theArmenian alphabet in the 4th century AD. Some scholars believe that the ethnonym "Armina" itself and all other names attested with reference to the rebellions againstDarius in the Satrapy of Armenia (the proper namesAraxa,Haldita, andDādṛšiš, the toponymsZūzahya,Tigra, andUyamā, and the district nameAutiyāra) are not connected with Armenian linguistic and onomastic material attested later in native Armenian sources, nor are theyIranian, but seem related to Urartian.[101] However, others suggest that some of these names have Armenian or Iranian etymologies.[57][102][103]
The presence of a population who spokeProto-Armenian in Urartu prior to its demise is subject to speculation, but theexistence of Urartian words in the Armenian language and Armenian loanwords into Urartian[104] suggestsearly contact between the two languages and long periods ofbilingualism.[71][30] The presence of toponyms, tribal names, and deities of probable Proto-Armenian etymologies which are attested in records left by Urartian kings, such asUelikuni, Uduri-Etiuni, Abiliani, and Arzashkun, the personal names Arame and Diaṣuni, and the deities Arṣibedini and Aniqu, further supports the presence of an Armenian speaking population in at least the northern regions of Urartu.[105][104][106][71][30][107][85] The Urartian confederation united the disparate peoples of the highlands, which began a process of intermingling of the peoples and cultures (probably including Armenian tribes) and languages (probably including Proto-Armenian) within the highlands. This intermixing would ultimately culminate in the emergence of the Armenian language as the dominant language within the region.[67]
A theory, supported by the official historiography of Armenia and experts in Assyrian and Urartian studies such as Igor M. Diakonoff,Giorgi Melikishvili, Mikhail Nikolsky, and Ivan Mestchaninov, suggests that Urartian was solely the formal written language of the state, while its inhabitants, including the royal family, spoke Proto-Armenian. This theory primarily hinges on the fact that the Urartian language used in the cuneiform inscriptions were 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.[citation needed]
A complementary theory, suggested by Tamaz V. Gamkrelidze and Ivanov in 1984, places theProto-Indo-European homeland (the location where Indo-European would have emerged from) in the Armenian Highlands, which would entail the presence of proto-Armenians in the area during the entire lifetime of the Urartian state.[108] Although this theory has less support than the more popularKurgan hypothesis, the Armenian hypothesis would support the theory that the Urartian language was not spoken, but simply written, and postulates that the Armenian language was anin situ development of a 3rd millennium BCProto-Indo-European language.[108]
^Nunn, Astrid (2011-05-15)."« The Median 'Empire', the End of Urartu and Cyrus the Great's Campaign in 547 BC (Nabonidus Chronicle II 16) ». Ancient West & East 7, 2008, p. 51-66".Abstracta Iranica. Revue bibliographique pour le domaine irano-aryen (in French).31.doi:10.4000/abstractairanica.39422.ISSN0240-8910.Après citation des passages pertinents, analyse des toponymes et une nouvelle lecture de la Chronique de Nabonide II 16, dont le nom géographique clef doit être lu « Urartu », il reste : Cyrus le Grand a « marché vers Urartu et vaincu son roi ». Urartu n'a donc pas été détruit par les Mèdes à la fin du VIIe s. mais a continué à exister comme entité politique jusqu'au milieu du VIe s. La Chronique de Nabonide (II 16) montre bien que la conquête de Cyrus le Grand mit fin à ce royaume.
^abcVan de Mieroop, Marc (2007).A History of the Ancient Near East, ca. 3000-323 BC. Blackwell Publishing. p. 215.
^abcDiakonoff, Igor M (1992). "First Evidence of the Proto-Armenian Language in Eastern Anatolia".Annual of Armenian Linguistics.13:51–54.ISSN0271-9800.
^Nunn, Astrid (2011-05-15)."« The Median 'Empire', the End of Urartu and Cyrus the Great's Campaign in 547 BC (Nabonidus Chronicle II 16) ». Ancient West & East 7, 2008, p. 51-66".Abstracta Iranica. Revue bibliographique pour le domaine irano-aryen (in French).31.doi:10.4000/abstractairanica.39422.ISSN0240-8910.Après citation des passages pertinents, analyse des toponymes et une nouvelle lecture de la Chronique de Nabonide II 16, dont le nom géographique clef doit être lu « Urartu », il reste : Cyrus le Grand a « marché vers Urartu et vaincu son roi ». Urartu n'a donc pas été détruit par les Mèdes à la fin du VIIe s. mais a continué à exister comme entité politique jusqu'au milieu du VIe s. La Chronique de Nabonide (II 16) montre bien que la conquête de Cyrus le Grand mit fin à ce royaume.
^abEberhard Schrader,The Cuneiform inscriptions and the Old Testament (1885), p. 65.
^abNunn, Astrid (2011-05-15)."« The Median 'Empire', the End of Urartu and Cyrus the Great's Campaign in 547 BC (Nabonidus Chronicle II 16) ». Ancient West & East 7, 2008, p. 51-66".Abstracta Iranica. Revue bibliographique pour le domaine irano-aryen (in French).31.doi:10.4000/abstractairanica.39422.ISSN0240-8910.Après citation des passages pertinents, analyse des toponymes et une nouvelle lecture de la Chronique de Nabonide II 16, dont le nom géographique clef doit être lu « Urartu », il reste : Cyrus le Grand a « marché vers Urartu et vaincu son roi ». Urartu n'a donc pas été détruit par les Mèdes à la fin du VIIe s. mais a continué à exister comme entité politique jusqu'au milieu du VIe s. La Chronique de Nabonide (II 16) montre bien que la conquête de Cyrus le Grand mit fin à ce royaume.
^abRedgate, Anna Elizabeth.The Armenians. Cornwall: Blackwell, 1998, pp. 16–19, 23, 25, 26 (map), 30–32, 38, 43.ISBN0-631-22037-2.
^Freedman, David Noel; Myers, Allen C. (2000-12-31).Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Amsterdam University Press.ISBN978-90-5356-503-2.
^Paul Zimansky. "Urartian and Urartians". In Sharon R. Steadman, Gregory McMahon (eds.).The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia (10,000–323 BCE). Oxford University Press. 2001. p. 549.
^Birgit Christiansen. "Granaries in Urartu and Neighboring States and the Monumentalization of Administrative Records". In Pavel S. Avestisyan, Roberto Dan, Yervand H. Grekyan (eds.).Over the Mountains and Far Away. Archaeopress Archaeology. 2019. pp. 137, 140.
^Hewsen, Robert H. (2000), "'Van in This World; Paradise in the Next': The Historical Geography of Van/Vaspurakan", inHovannisian, Richard G. (ed.),Armenian Van/Vaspurakan, Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces, Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers, p. 13,OCLC44774992
^A. Y. Movsisyan, "The hieroglyphic script of van kingdom (Biainili, Urartu, Ararat)", Publishing House Gitutyun of NAS RA, Yerevan 1998.
^abOriental Studies in the USSR. Indiana University: Nauka Publishers, Central Department of Oriental Literature. 1988. p. 312.In his view, the first Armenian state was the kingdom of "The House of Togarmah" in the area of Melid (Melitene, modern Malatya) on ... Here, as we know from the abovementionaed inscriptions, "Armenia" and "Urartu" were synonyms ...
^Armen Petrosyan.[1] "The Indo-European and Ancient Near Eastern Sources of the Armenian Epic"].Journal of Indo-European Studies. Institute for the Study of Man. 2002. pp. 166–167.
^D.D. Luckenbill,Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, (1927, vol II:84), quoted in Robin Lane Fox,Travelling Heroes in the Epic Age of Homer (2008:17).
^Edwards, I. E. S., ed. (1970–2005).The Cambridge ancient history (3rd ed.). Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press. pp. 314.ISBN978-0-521-85073-5.OCLC121060.In 1828, a French scholar, J. St Martin, [...] began to grope towards an explanation by connecting [Urartian cuneiform inscriptions] with the garbled legends preserved by an Armenian chronicler, Moses of Khorene (Moses Khorenatsi), probably of the eighth century A.D., according to whom the region was invaded from Assyria by a great army under its queen Semiramis who built a wondrous fortified city, citadel, and palaces at Van itself beside the lake. [...] It is clear that by the time of Moses of Khorene all other memory of this kingdom [Kingdom of Urartu], once the deadly rival of Assyria itself, had been forgotten and remained so, except for these popular legends.
^Basmajian, Gabriel; Franchuk, Edward S.; Ouzounian, Nourhan. (2000–2005). Hacikyan, A. J. (ed.).The heritage of Armenian literature. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. pp. 31.ISBN978-0-8143-2815-6.OCLC42477084.The story [of the legend of Hayk] retains a few remote memories from tribal times, and reflects the struggles between Urartu-Ararat and Assyro-Babylonia from the ninth to the seventh centuries B.C. The tale had evolved through the ages, and by the time Movses Khorenatsi heard it and put it into writing, it had already acquired a coherent structure and literary style.
^Çilingiroğlu, Altan; Darbyshire, G., eds. (2005).Anatolian Iron Ages 5. Fifth Anatolian Iron Ages Colloquium held at Van, 6–10 August 2001. London: British Institute at Ankara. p. 146.ISBN978-1-912090-57-0.OCLC607821861.What had for some time attracted the attention of scholars, and had led the Iranianist Saint-Martin of the Académie des Inscription in Paris to send the young Schulz to explore these sites [in Van], was to be found written in chapter 16 of Khorenatsi's work.
^Diakonov, I.The Pre-history of the Armenian People. Delmar, NY: Caravan Books, 1984.
^abZimansky, Paul "Urartian and Urartians."The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia (2011): 557.[4]
^Margaryan, A.; Derenko, M.; Hovhannisyan, H.; Malyarchuk, B.; Heller, R.; Khachatryan, Z.; Avetisyan, P.; Badalyan, R.; Bobokhyan, A.; Melikyan, V.; Sargsyan, G.; Piliposyan, A.; Simonyan, H.; Mkrtchyan, R.; Denisova, G.; Yepiskoposyan, L.; Willerslev, E.; Allentoft, M. E. (June 29, 2017)."Eight Millennia of Matrilineal Genetic Continuity in the South Caucasus".Current Biology.27 (13): 2023–2028.e7.Bibcode:2017CBio...27E2023M.doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.05.087.PMID28669760.S2CID23400138.To shed light on the maternal genetic history of the region, we analyzed the complete mitochondrial genomes of 52 ancient skeletons from present-day Armenia and Artsakh spanning 7,800 years and combined this dataset with 206 mitochondrial genomes of modern Armenians. We also included previously published data of seven neighboring populations (n = 482). Coalescence-based analyses suggest that the population size in this region rapidly increased after the Last Glacial Maximum ca. 18 kya. We find that the lowest genetic distance in this dataset is between modern Armenians and the ancient individuals, as also reflected in both network analyses and discriminant analysis of principal components. [...] A total of 19 archaeological sites are represented, covering large parts of Armenia as well as Artsakh (Figure 1), and estimated to be between 300–7800 years old based on contextual dating of artifacts. This time span is accompanied by at least seven well-defined cultural transitions: Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Kura-Araxes, Trialeti-Vanadzor 2, Lchashen-Metsamor, Urartian and Armenian Classical/Medieval (Figure 1).
^Redgate, A. E. (2000).The Armenians. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 5.ISBN978-0-631-22037-4.However, the most easily identifiable ancestors of the later Armenian nation are the Urartians.
^abcMallory, J. P.; Adams, Douglas Q., eds. (1997).Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. London: Fitzroy Dearborn. pp. 30.ISBN978-1-884964-98-5.OCLC37931209.Armenian presence in their historical seats should then be sought at some time before c 600 BC; ... Armenian phonology, for instance, appears to have been greatly affected by Urartian, which may suggest a long period of bilingualism.
^Robert Drews.Militarism and the Indo-Europeanizing of Europe. Routledge. 2017. p. 228. "The vernacular of the Great Kingdom of Biainili was quite certainly Armenian. The Armenian language was obviously the region's vernacular in the fifth century BC, when Persian commanders and Greek writers paired it with Phrygian. That it was brought into the region between the early sixth and the early fifth century BC, and that it immediately obliterated whatever else had been spoken there, can hardly be supposed; ... Because Proto-Armenian speakers seem to have lived not far from Hurrian speakers our conclusion must be that the Armenian language of Mesrop Mashtots was descended from an Indo--European language that had been spoken in southern Caucasia in the Bronze Age."
^Hrach Martirosyan (2013). "The place of Armenian in the Indo-European language family: the relationship with Greek and Indo-Iranian*"Leiden University. p. 85-86.
^Petrosyan, Armen. "The Armenian Elements in the Language and Onomastics of Urartu."Aramazd: Armenian Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 2010.[5]
^abRadner, Karen; Moeller, Nadine; Potts, D.T. (2023).The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East Volume IV: The Age of Assyria. Oxford University Press. p. 769.ISBN978-0-19-068763-2.
^Dan, Roberto (2014). "Inside the Empire: Some Remarks on the Urartian and Achaemenid Presence in the Autonomous Republic of Nakhchivan".Iran & the Caucasus.18 (4):327–344.doi:10.1163/1573384X-20140402.ISSN1609-8498.JSTOR43899165.
^Petrosyan, Armen. "The Eastern Hittites in the South and East of the Armenian Highland?"Aramazd: Armenian Journal of Near Eastern Studies. IV, 1 (2009). p. 63
^abThe Cambridge Ancient History: III Part 1: The Prehistory of the Balkans, the Middle East and the Aegean World, Tenth to Eighth Centuries BC. Cambridge University Press. 1971. p. 335.
^Adontz, Nicholas.The World-view of Ancient Armenians. Hayrmik Motuhty. 1926. No. 12, p. 75.
^Mirjo Salvini (1994). Çilingiroğlu A., French D. H. (ed.).The historical background of the Urartian monument of Meher Kapisi. Vol. 16 (Anatolian Iron Ages 3; The proceedings of the Third Anatolian Iron Ages Colloquium held at Van, 6—12 1990 ed.). Ankara: British Institute of Archaeology in Ankara. pp. 205–210.ISBN1-898249-05-9.JSTOR10.18866/j.ctt1pc5gxc.31.
^Róna-Tas, András.Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: An Introduction to Early Hungarian History. Budapest: Central European University Press, 1999 p. 76ISBN963-9116-48-3.
^Greppin, John A. C. (1991). "Some Effects of the Hurro-Urartian People and Their Languages upon the Earliest Armenians".Journal of the American Oriental Society.3 (4):720–730.doi:10.2307/603403.JSTOR603403.Even for now, however, it seems difficult to deny that the Armenians had contact, at an early date, with a Hurro-Urartian people.
^Sayce, Archibald H. "The Kingdom of Van (Urartu)" inCambridge Ancient History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982, vol. 3, p. 172. See also C. F. Lehman-Haupt,Armenien Einst und Jetzt, Berlin, 1931, vol. 2, p. 497.
^Hrach Martirosyan (2014). "Origins and Historical Development of the Armenian Language". Leiden University: 9. Retrieved 16 February 2020.[8]
^Petrosyan, Sargis (2019)."Լույսի պաշտամունքի էթիունյան վայրերը" [Sites of the Etiuni Light Cult].Shirak Centre of Armenological Studies of NAS RA.22 (1–2):5–19.
Ashkharbek Kalantar,Materials on Armenian and Urartian History (with a contribution by Mirjo Salvini), Civilisations du Proche-Orient: Series 4 – Hors Série, Neuchâtel, Paris, 2004;ISBN978-2-940032-14-3
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.
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