Urartu
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Urartu was an ancient
kingdom in
Anatolia, centred in the mountainous region around
Lake Van (presently in
Turkey), which existed from about
1000 BC, or earlier, until
585 BC, and which, at its apogee, stretched from northern
Mesopotamia through the southern
Caucasus.
The name
Urartu is actually
Assyrian, a dialect of
Akkadian, and was given to the kingdom by its chief rivals to the south; it may have meant simply "mountain country". The kingdom was named
Biainili by its inhabitants. The name Urartu apparently corresponds to the
Ararat of the Old Testament. Indeed,
Mount Ararat is located in ancient Urartian territory, approximately 120
km north of its former capital.
History
Assyrian inscriptions from about 1250 BC mention a loose confederation called the Uruartri or Nairi in North-East Anatolia, in the region around Lake Van. These towns or tribes became a unified kingdom between 860 BC and 830 BC, under king Aramu or his son Sardur I.
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 almost to the shores of the Black Sea; west to the sources of the Euphrates; east to present-day Tabriz, Lake Urmin, and beyond; and south to the sources of the Tigris. Its capital was the ancient city of Tushpa, modern Van, on the shore of Lake Van.
The Uruatu kingdom suffered heavily from Cimmerian raids and from the campaigns of the Assyrian kings, notably Shalmaneser I, Shalmaneser III and Sargon II. The main temple at Mushashir was sacked and the Urartan king Rusas was defeated by Sargon at Lake Urmin in 714 BC. The kingdom of Urartu was destroyed by the Scythians from the North, in 585 BC. The region was eventually occupied by the Armenians.
Uratu archaological sites include Altintepe, Toprakkale, Patnos and Cavustepe. Urartu fortresses are found Van, Anzaf, Cavustepe and Baskale.
Economy and politics
The people of Urartu were mostly farmers. They were experts in stone architecture; they may have introduced the blind arch to the Near East, and their houses may have been the precursor of the Persian apadana layout. They were also experts in metalworking, and exported metal vessels to Phrygia and Etruria. Excavations have yielded two-storied residential houses with internal wall decorations, windows, and balconies. Their towns generally had well-developed water supply (often taken from far away) and sewage systems.
Their king was also the chief-priest or envoy of Khaldi, their major deity. Some Khaldi temples were part of the royal palace complex, others were independent structures. Other deities included Teisiba, god of the heavens (the Teshub of the Hittites and Khurits), and Siwini, the sun goddess.
Language
The Urartians spoke an agglutinative language, conventionally called Urartian, which was related to Hurrian in the Hurro-Urartian family, and was neither Semitic nor Indo-European. Urartian was written in the Assyrian cuneiform script.
See also
Literature
- Giorgi Melikishvili, Nairi-Urartu (a monograph in Russian), Tbilisi, 1955.\n*Giorgi Melikishvili, About the history of ancient Georgia (a monograph in Russian), Tbilisi, 1959.\n*R.-B. Wartke, Urartu, das Reich am Ararat (in German), Mainz: Zabern, 1993.\n*Paul Zimansky, Ecology and Empire: The Structure of the Urartian State, [Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization], Chicago: Oriental Institute, 1985.
\nExternal links
Category:Ancient Peoples
