Urartu was an ancient civilization and Iron Age kingdom centered on the Armenian highlands between Lake Van, Lake Urmia, and Lake Sevan. The territory of the ancient kingdom of Urartu extended over the modern frontiers of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Armenia.Kleiss, Wolfram (2008). "URARTU IN IRAN". Encyclopædia Iranica. Its kings left behind cuneiform inscriptions in the Urartian language, a member of the Hurro-Urartian language family.
The kingdom emerged in the mid-9th century BC and dominated the Armenian highlands in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. Urartu frequently warred with Assyria and became, for a time, the most powerful state in the Near East. Weakened by constant conflict, it was eventually conquered, either by the Iranian Medes in the early 6th century BC or by Cyrus the Great in the middle of the 6th century BC. Archaeologically, it is noted for its large fortresses and sophisticated metalwork.
Names and etymology
Various names were given to the geographic region and the polity that emerged in the region. Urartu/Ararat: The name Urartu (; Assyrian: ; Babylonian: Urashtu; ʾĂrārāṭ) comes from Assyrian sources. Shalmaneser I (1263–1234 BC) recorded a campaign in which he subdued the entire territory of "Uruatri".Abram Rigg Jr., Horace. "A Note on the Names Armânum and Urartu". Journal of the American Oriental Society, 57/4 (December 1937), pp. 416–418.Zimansky, Paul E. Ancient Ararat: A Handbook of Urartian Studies. Delmar, New York: Caravan Books, 1998, p. 28. . 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 Assyrian Uruatri seems to correspond with the Azzi of contemporaneous Hittite texts.Trevor Bryce. The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia. Taylor & Francis. p. 310. 2009.Aram Kosyan. "Towards the Hittite Eastern Periphery". Armenian Journal of Near Eastern Studies. Vol. VI. Issue 2. 2011. pp. 91–92. Urartu is cognate with the Biblical Ararat, Akkadian Urashtu, and Armenian Ayrarat.Lang, David Marshall. Armenia: Cradle of Civilization. London: Allen and Unwin, 1970, p. 114. .Redgate, Anna Elizabeth. The Armenians. Cornwall: Blackwell, 1998, pp. 16–19, 23, 25, 26 (map), 30–32, 38, 43. . In addition to referring to the famous Biblical highlands, Ararat also appears as the name of a kingdom in Jeremiah 51:27, mentioned together with Minni and Ashkenaz. Mount Ararat is located approximately 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. Biainili/Biaini: The Urartian kings, starting during the co-reign of Ishpuini and his son, Menua, referred to their kingdom as Biainili, or "those of the land of Bia" (sometimes transliterated as Biai or Bias).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. Whoever or whatever "Bia" was remains unclear. It is not to be confused with the nearby land "Biane", which likely became the Armenian Basean (Greek: Phasiane). Kingdom of Van (): A widespread belief is that the Urartian toponym Biainili (or Biaineli),A. Y. Movsisyan, "The hieroglyphic script of van kingdom (Biainili, Urartu, Ararat)", Publishing House Gitutyun of NAS RA, Yerevan 1998. which was possibly pronounced as Vanele (or Vanili), became Van () in Old Armenian.I. M. Diakonoff, "The Pre-history of the Armenian People". Delmar, New York (1968), p. 72. 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 and the lake of the same name. Nairi: Boris Piotrovsky wrote that the Urarteans 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 term Uruatri (Urartu) as a name for this league was superseded during a considerable period of years by the term "land of Nairi".Piotrovsky, Boris B. The Ancient Civilization of Urartu. New York: Cowles Book Co., Inc., 1969, 51. More recent scholarship suggests that Uruatri was a district of Nairi, and perhaps corresponded to the Azzi of contemporaneous Hittite texts.Bryce, Trevor (2009). The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia. Taylor & Francis.Kosyan, Aram (2011). "Towards the Hittite Eastern Periphery". Armenian Journal of Near Eastern Studies. VI (2): 91–92. 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.Paul Zimansky. Ecology and Empire: The Structure of the Urartian State. pp. 49–50. Khaldini: Carl Ferdinand Friedrich Lehmann-Haupt (1910) believed that the people of Urartu called themselves Khaldini after the god Ḫaldi.Lehmann-Haupt, C. F. Armenien. Berlin: B. Behr, 1910–1931. This theory has been overwhelmingly rejected by modern scholars.Zimansky, Paul. "Xenophon and the Urartian legacy". Dans les pas des Dix-Mille (1995): 261–262. Shurili: Linguists John Greppin and Igor M. Diakonoff argued that the Urartians referred to themselves as Shurele (sometimes transliterated as Shurili or Šurili, possibly pronounced as Surili), a name mentioned within the royal titles of the kings of Urartu (e.g. "the king of Šuri-lands").Zimansky, Paul. Ecology and Empire: The Structure of the Urartian State. 1985. p. 67. The word Šuri has been variously theorized as originally referring to chariots, lances or swords (perhaps related to the Armenian word () meaning "sword"). Others have connected Shurili to an as yet undetermined geographical region, such as Shupria (perhaps an attempt by the ruling dynasty to associate themselves with the Hurrians), Cappadocia, the Ararat plain, or the entire world. Armenia: In the late 6thearly 5th century BC, with the emergence of the Satrapy of Armenia in the region, Urartu (Urashtu in Babylonian) was used as a synonym for Armenia (Old Persian Armina) in the trilingual Behistun Inscription. The name Ararat was translated as Armenia in the 1st century AD in historiographical works and very early Latin translations of the Bible, as well as the Books of Kings and Isaiah in the Septuagint. Some English language translations, including the King James Version, follow the Septuagint translation of Ararat as Armenia. 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 called Arme or Armani and the nearby districts of Urme and Inner Urumu. It is possible that the name Armenia originates in Armini, Urartian for "inhabitant of Arme" or "Armean country".Armen Petrosyan. "The Indo-European and Ancient Near Eastern Sources of the Armenian Epic". Journal of Indo-European Studies. Institute for the Study of Man. 2002. p. 184. The Arme tribe of Urartian texts may have been the Urumu, who in the 12th century BC attempted to invade Assyria from the north with their allies the Mushki and the Kaskians. The Urumu apparently settled in the vicinity of Sason, lending their name to the regions of Arme and the nearby Urme and Inner Urumu.Armen Petrosyan. "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.
History
Origins
Assyrian inscriptions of Shalmaneser I (c. 1274 BC) first mention Uruatri as one of the states of Nairi, a loose confederation of smaller kingdoms and tribal states in the Armenian Highlands in the thirteenth to eleventh 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 Middle and Neo-Assyrian Empires, which lay to the south in Upper Mesopotamia ("the Jazirah") and northern Syria, especially under Tukulti-Ninurta I (c. 1240 BC), Tiglath-Pileser I (c. 1100 BC), Ashur-bel-kala (c. 1070 BC), Adad-nirari II (c. 900 BC), Tukulti-Ninurta II (c. 890 BC), and Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC).
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 King Arame of Urartu (c. 860–843 BC), whose capitals, first at Sugunia and then at Arzashkun, were captured by the Assyrians under the Neo-Assyrian emperor Shalmaneser 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 of Musasir. 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.
Growth
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 the Near East.
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 of Lake 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 of Ḫaldi.
Ispuini was also the first Urartian king to write in the Urartian language (previous kings left records written in Akkadian). He made his son Sarduri II viceroy. After conquering Musasir, Ispuini was in turn attacked by Shamshi-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 for Bianili.
Urartu reached the highest point of its military might under Menua's son Argishti I (c. 785–760 BC), becoming one of the most powerful kingdoms of ancient Near East. Argishti I added more territories along the Aras and Lake Sevan, and frustrated Shalmaneser IV's campaigns against him. Argishti also founded several new cities, most notably Erebuni Fortress in 782 BC. 6600 prisoners of war from Hatti and Supani were settled in the new city. Hovhannisyan, Konstantine. «էրեբունի» (Erebuni). Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia. vol. iv. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1979, pp. 90-91.
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-day Georgia 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.