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A Redoubtable Foe
One of the great chapters in the history of Armenia is or
should be the epic of the monarchy which the Assyrians called Urartu, but which
was known to the Hebrews as Ararat. Herodotus called its people Alarodians.
Urartu is regarded by history today as one of the earlier incarnations of
Armenia. In Urartu was manifest not only the indomitable fighting spirit of the
later Armenians, but also the same tendency towards development of a higher
culture. As a noted authority, H. A. B. Lynch, remarks, Urartu was "no obscure
dynasty which slept secure behind the mountains, but a splendid monarchy which
for more than two centuries rivalled the claims of Assyria to the dominion of
the ancient world."
Its Peak Years
As a nation, it lived through many more centuries than that,
but it was only between 860 and 585 B.C. that it
actually disputed with Assyria the right to dominate western Asia. Its
beginnings are lost in the mists of pre-history. Its people must have migrated
from somewhere to the west into the Armenian plateau, then for the most part
known as Nairi. They called themselves Khaldians
or children of the god Khaldis, just as the name of the Assyrians reflects the
name of their god Assur. The cuneiform characters of their inscriptions
were for centuries Assyrian; but later on the
language changed to or was absorbed in the local one. The Assyrian was a Semitic
language, while Urartean was neither Semitic nor Indo-European. Urartean culture
is believed to have been similar to the Hittite and Assyro-Babylonian, blended
with native characteristics. The later Urartean monuments still hold a mystery
for us as to their affinity with the Armenian language, witness of a glorious
past. It has not yet been possible to decipher these inscriptions with any aid
from the Armenian language. N. Marr, Nikolsky, Lehmann-Haupt and earlier
scientists have classified them as in the Japhetic speech-group, and the
Armenian experts, A. Calantar and G. Ghapantsian, agree in this finding.
Professor Nikolsky has found hundreds of words, both nouns and verbs, showing
affinity between the Urartean and the modern Utean.
As early as 1879 H. Hübschmann pointed out in the Urartean inscriptions several
words and suffixes — such as ili,
ini, and
uni — borrowed from Caucasian idioms, especially Georgian and Aghouanian
(Albanian).
Mystery of Origin
Where did these people come from? From Asia Minor, declares
Lehmann-Haupt, seeking proof for his assertion in their metallurgy, architecture
and folkways. Professor Shestokov, a Caucasian author, wrote in 1939 that "The
oldest states of the Soviet Union were founded 3,000 years ago to the south of
Transcaucasia. The oldest among them, that in the Ararat area, by the Lake of
Van, was called Urartu. Its kings ruled over Georgian tribes." Here is another
theory as to the origin of the people once dwelling in Nairi, which comprised
the entire Armenian plateau. Even when the greater part of that tableland became
Urartu, the regions on two flanks of it, from Amit (Diarbekr) to Anzitene
(Harpout), together with Habushkia in Zab Valley, and Paddira, south of Musasir,
were still called Nairi. The name Nairi-Urartu reveals kinship with Hurri,
Namri, Kirruri and other names with the suffix ri,
having no connection with Semitic idioms.
Professor Edward Schultz was one of the first to obtain
original information on Urartu, when he visited Armenia in 1827. He was murdered there by a Kurd, but his papers,
containing 42 inscriptions found at Van and in its neighborhood, were saved. The
later discoveries of Burnouf, Lassen and Rawlinson stimulated interest in
Oriental antiquities. Layard visited Van in 1850 and took new copies of the
inscriptions. Of special interest were one tablet on the rock of Van, and an
inscription on a stone in a ruined wall. The first contains the name of Xerxes,
son of Darius, in the same characters as those of Behistun and Persepolis. The
second resembles Assyrian writings. All others are of a language peculiar to
Van. Another mysterious text was read by Hincks in 1847, and following these
Professor A. H. Sayce added "a new language and
a new people to the museum of the ancient Oriental world." Thereafter the known
Vannic texts were doubled in extent by the German archaeologists, Lehmann and
Belck, who, in the words of Lynch, called up "a vanished civilization from the
grave." But even so, alas, they could evoke only a broken and fragmentary body;
so much has been lost by the ravages of war and vandalism and time.
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Plaque fragment inscribed with the Urartian royal name Argishti (probably Argishti II), 8th–7th century B.C.
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Part of a throne with deity on a bull, late 8th–7th century B.C
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Bell inscribed with the Urartian royal name Argishti, 786–756 B.C.
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Belt fragment of animals, 7th century B.C.
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Urartu Sphinx
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Van-Tosp
The seat of this theocratic monarchy was Thuspa, capital of
the territory of Biaina, corrupted into the form Van.
The Armenian national historian, Moses of Khoren (Khorenatsi),
mentions Van as "in the province of Tosp." In some of the ancient inscriptions,
one finds, "King of Biaina, inhabiting the city of Thuspas." Going back into
history we find Tiglat-Pileser I, King of Assyria, asserting that he conquered
twenty-three kings of Nairi in 1114 B.C. These
"kingdoms"
must have been very small, indeed; and when we find that this same Tiglat
claimed to have slain with his own hand ten elephants and 920 lions, we are
inclined to receive his statements with reserve. In an inscription of the
Assyrian Assurbelkala (1077‑1060 B.C.), first appears
the name Uruatru. A Shalmanaser of Assyria (1028‑1017 B.C.),
claimed the conquest of "the entire country of Uruatru" in three days. In
inscriptions of Ashurnasirpal (885‑859 B.C.) the name
appears as Urardhu or Urarthu. The succeeding king Shalmaneser, now called by
most historians the Second (859‑825 B.C.) sent an
army against a king of Urartu named Aramé,
whose capital was Arzasku or Arzaskun,
identified with the modern Melazgerd, north of Lake Van. Aramé, who, according
to Adontz, was the first organizer of the Urartean Empire, was defeated and his
capital taken by Shalmanaser in 857 B.C.
Arame
To say that he was the "organizer" of the Empire, means that
he combined the "Nairi countries" into a confederation under the aegis of the
god Khaldis, supplanting an earlier Biaina confederation. Some authorities
believe that not Aramé but Sardur I (844‑828) was the organizer of the
confederation. Sardur was the son of Lutipris, who succeeded Aramé. He left an
inscription in the Assyrian language, calling himself King of Sura, which,
according to Professor Albrecht Goetze, is the same as Subaru. If this is so,
the Urartean kings' claim of Hurrite descent entitled them to domination in
Subari, or Upper Mesopotamia. Sardur's other titles were "Great King," and
"Ruler of Four Regions," i.e., Shar-Kishatti, according to Babylonian and
Assyrian inscriptions.
Sardur I
Sardur built a fortress of huge stones west of the Rock of
Van, and Ispuinis, his son and successor, chose that rock as his residence and
as the holy seat of the god Khaldis. Ispuinis was a contemporary of
Adadnirari IV of Assyria, son of Shalmanaser
and husband of Queen Shammuramat (Semiramis). Ispuinis fought and defeated his
powerful rival, and was thus enabled to found a Khaldian colony at Musasir, west
of the Pass of Kelishinin, where he erected a commemorative stone with
inscriptions in Khaldian and Assyrian. Ispuinis and his son Menuas brought the
empire to its peak. Under them it extended from the Zagros Mountains in the East
to Palu in the North and Malatia in the West.
During their reigns great works were constructed around Van,
including the aqueduct of Shamiram‑Su, 45 miles in length, completed by Menuas, which brought the pure water of
the Khoshab River to the eastern shores of Lake Van (whose water is
undrinkable), enabling the King to found there a "Menuas city." This canal
irrigates the plain of Van even to the present time.
Ispuinis and Menuas
Officials were appointed to inspect the canals, to keep their
channels clean, to distribute the water
according to regulations and to plan effective measures against overflowing.
Menuas planted a garden, dedicated to the memory of the wife of Ispuinis; he
repaired and embellished the temple of Khaldi in Van, and he strengthened the
great fortification of Melazkert. No better location for a fortress against a
power operating from the southern lowlands could have been chosen by the
builders of an empire on the Armenian plains. Made more secure by a fleet on the
lake, and by the fortification of the passes of Mount Varag, the place became of
first-rate military importance only when the centers of hostile force lay in
Mesopotamia. These facts explain the comparative immunity and rapid development
of the empire of the successors of Sardur I, at a time when Assyria was ruled by
warlike monarchs. The period of Ispuinis and Menuas is perhaps the most
brilliant in Urartean history.
Argistis I
The political ascendancy of Urartu was enhanced further by
the weakness of Assyria under Shalmaneser III (782‑772). Under Argistis I
(785‑755), son of Menuas, the Vannic Empire was still at the zenith of its
power. The future city of Armavir rose on the bank of the Arax River in honor of
Khaldis. The whole Armenian tableland was subject to Urartu, and its
inscriptions recording conquests are found from Lake Urmiah to the Euphrates
River at Malatia. Thus having become an unrivalled power in Hither Asia, it
imposed its suzerainty in 775 B.C. upon the kingdoms
of Kummuch (Diarbekir), Tabal (west of Malatia) and several other kingdoms and
principalities. Later on, in 758, after crushing the revolt of the Hatti king of
Milidu (Malatia), Sardur III, successor of Argistis I, moved southward, put the
Great King of Carchemish (Jarablus) under tribute, and captured the whole
territory as far as Halpa (Aleppo). The empire of Assyria was then encircled,
says the Turkish scholar, Professor Shemseddin, as if "in an iron hoop."
Sardur III
Argistis left a record of fourteen years of his reign on the
walls of chambers hewn in the Rock of Van, while Sardur III's victories are
inscribed on a monument erected on a spot called "the Treasury Gate" in the
fortress of Van. The Urarteans, then in close contact with
the Hittites in the west, had in the east as neighbors the Minni or Manni, in
the southerly portion of the Urmiah basin. Records of victories are also found
inscribed farther north, on the shores of Lake Sevan, at Alexandropol (now
Leninakan),
at Hasankala (Erzerum), etc.
This brilliant era of Urartu did not last long. Sardur III's
Assyrian contemporaries, Assurnirari (755‑745) and Tiglat-Pileser III (745‑727),
waged war upon him, and the latter dealt him a telling blow, routing him,
together with his allies, the kings of New Hatti (in Malatia), of Gurgum
(Marash) and a score of others. The Menuas-city was destroyed in 735 and the
conqueror claimed to have taken 73,000 prisoners.
Hatti princes thereupon recognized the king of Assyria as their suzerain lord,
instead of the Urartean potentate. Sardur fled deep into his mountains with a
broken spirit and health, and sank into a physical decline, of which he died
in 734 B.C.
Rusas I
Rusas I (733‑714 B.C.), a vigorous and sagacious
prince, reorganized the army, suppressed domestic turbulences and revived the
morale of the people. From Thuspa he transferred his seat to a hill later known
by the Turkish name Toprak-kaleh (the earthen fort). This Rusas-city was
supplied with water from an artificial lake in the side of the Varag Mountain.
All this he recorded on a stele which in 1898‑9 was taken to the Museum of
Berlin.
However, he was given little opportunity to rebuild Urartu's
old eminence. Sargon II (722‑705), the most terrifying figure among the
occupants of the Assyrian throne, darkened the political horizon of all the
Near-Eastern lands. Tusas organized a coalition of the states of Western Asia
and strengthened the position of Urzana, King of Musasir, his vassal and ally.
But in a sanguinary battle described in an inscription found near the shore of
Lake Sevan, the Khaldian army, though resisting stubbornly, was defeated by
Sargon, who also overwhelmed Musasir and plundered its temple. In the vast quantity of spoil carried to Nineveh
were many idols belonging to the Urartean kings.
Even after this terrible loss of men and material, Rusas did
not yield to despair. Whilst neighboring nations were trembling with fear of the
Assyrian scourge, Rusas replenished the reservoirs of his strength and for the
time being, saved his kingdom from destruction. But another black chapter was in
the making for him. Cimmerian hordes from the North, sweeping through the
mountain defiles, down into the regions of the Urmiah and Vannic lakes,
surprised Urartu and wrought great destruction. According to one version of the
outcome, the army of Rusas, unable to offer adequate resistance, melted away,
and Rusas committed suicide in 714. But T. A. Olmstead, in his History of
Assyria, questioning the reliability of the Assyrian royal scribes regards
this as a mere spectacular raid, without enduring
results. One inscription, speaking of the fate of Rusas, says "With his own iron
dagger, he pierced his heart as he would to a pig and ended his life." Olmstead
compares this with a slightly later Assyrian inscription in which the defeated
king is pictured as being ill, though there is not a word about suicide. It may
well be that this malady caused his death.
Argistis II
Argistis II (714‑680), son and successor of Rusas, rid
himself of the Cimmerian hordes by deflecting their trend to westward, into
Cappadocia. As to his relationship with Assyria, the latter's reports are
silent, the explanation undoubtedly being that Sargon was not victorious at the
time, but had been forced into a defensive attitude. Argistis II, however,
was engaged in secret activities, the center of which was the province of Harda
or Kharda, the modern Kharberd or Harpout. The canton of Inzit, the Hantzit of
the geography of Armenia, was then a part of the province of Alzi or Aghtzniq.
Sargon, once so boastful of his devastation in Urartu, now
sent envoys to Argistis, professing great friendship. The Urartean king,
however, did not alter his plans; he continued his preparations, and increased
his pressure upon Assyria in the Eastern Tigris basin. Sargon's son,
Sennacherib, then a provincial governor, urged his father to send more troops to
that area, informing him of Argistis's order to his prefects to "seize the
governors of the Assyrian king in Kumai and drag them before me."
Sennacherib was assassinated in 681 — by two of his sons,
Adramelech and Sharazer, according to the Bible.
Professor N. Adontz ascribes this crime to the second son only, Ardi or
Arad-Ninlil, who, allied with Adramelos Nebusaresur, the governor of Maraski,
fought against his own brother Esarhaddon. Defeated at Carchemish, the two fled
into Armenia.
Efforts have been made to decipher the cuneiform inscriptions
of Armenia through the present-day Armenian language. The failure of these
attempts has led some to believe that the inscriptions in question must be in
some unknown, alien tongue, neither Indo-European nor Semitic.
Linguistic Connections
One investigator, P. Jensen, finds a certain similarity
between the Urartean language and that in which the letter of King Tushratta of
Mitanni (found at Tel-el‑Amarna, Egypt) was written. For example, the name of
the god Tesub of the Mitanni closely resembles that of the god Teisbas of
Urartu. Another scholar thinks that ancient Armenia or Urartu had a cultural
connection with Asia Minor and Syria — citing the Hurri-Mitanni or Subarean
remains in upper Mesopotamia and Syria as having points of resemblance to the
characters of the Khaldian inscriptions.
There appears to have been a pre-Indo-European substratum of
speech which strongly influenced the Indo-European-Armenian. Professor N. Marr,
a Khaldist authority, suspects that the language of the Vannic cuneiforms is of
the type of several modern Caucasian dialects of the Japhetic class. however,
the Aryo-European must have exerted great influence upon the Urartean, even long
before the times of the Vannic Empire.
On the other hand, E. Meyer cites names of royal princes many
centuries before Christ in the Taurus area and Palestine, and later in
Commagene; names such as Arta-tama, Arta-skana and Artamana, all more Iranian in
character than Indian, and all bearing the Arta
prefix which persists in Armenian names to this day. But there were names such
as Kundaspie and Kustaspie, which were originally
Indian, their forms then being Vindaspa and
Vistaspa. Other significant links are found in the Hatti-Mitanni treaty
(1387‑1367 B.C.), which contained the names of other
than gods, and in the Sanskrit numerals, yeka
(one), tria (three) and panja
(five), as found in the treatise upon horse-training by Kikkuli of Mitanni
(1400 B.C.).
The Subarean (Asianic-Hurri-Japhetic) language is the basic
stratum of the various above-mentioned tongues; it was topped and strongly
affected by the Aryan-Mitanni language, from which mixture the Urartean sprang
up, it being related in turn to the old Hatti-Asianic, the new Caucasian and
through Indo-European elements, to the Aryan languages. On this
Indo-European-Armenian foundation was superimposed the Urartean speech, which
was forced upon the conquered natives, from whose dialects also an additional
stock of words was assimilated in the course of time. Traces of anthropological
types of culture, religion and social customs are being discovered from time to
time under the Armen stratum. The same may be said of the linguistic heritage of
the past.
In his analysis of the known Iso-Urartean
root-words, Professor Ghapantsian of Erevan University identifies one-fourth as
of Hittite character. Many other root words and grammatical forms of
non-Indo-European types have been found, but belonging to an Asia Minor group.
All non-Indo-European elements, the Urartean and others, descend from the
Subarean common origin. The same applies to the anthropological strata of the
population of Armenia, whose chronology is stated by Professor A. Hatch as
follows:
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