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t Map of Ancient Urartu

URARTU

 A FORMIDABLE ANCIENT EMPIRE AND A CIVILIZATION CRADLE

Time Table of the ancient kingdom of Urartu and its relation to the Time Table of Assyria, Elam and Babylonia

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Time Table of the Kings of Urartu

In the early twentieth century, a long forgotten magnificent kingdom and a cradle of civilization was rediscovered in the Anatolian highlands of Asia Minor. Not until 1936 was the first systematic and scientific excavation of an edifice or a fortress of that lost civilization begun. And that was, the ancient Kingdom of Urartu (a name created by the Assyrians) which was centered around Lake Van. Sometimes, historians refer to Urartu as the kingdom of Van. The first Uraturians were called Nairi by the Assyrians and inhabitants of Asia Minor and their homeland was frequently called  Urartu,  while the Uraturians referred to their nation as the Land of Biani. The ancient Phoenicians in Tyr (Today, city of Sour in modern  Lebanon) and Sidon (Today, city of Saida in modern Lebanon) and the Hebrews knew the Uraturians and had exchanged trade and commerce with them. The Hebrews gave the Uraturians the name of Ararat as it was mentioned in the bible. And Ararat became Armenia in Greek, Coptic, Latin and Arabic. A short segment in the Book of Jeremia ,  in the fourth reign year King Zedekiah, circa 594 B.C., the Urarturians were  referred to as Ararat. Another passage in the Bible told the story of the sons of Senharib (Sennocherib) who have killed their father and took refuge in the land of Ararat “Urartu”.

Coming on the wave of the Indo-European migrations into Asia and the Mediterranean, the cultures were in close contact with those that developed in Mesopotamia, sharing ethnic and cultural totems among them.   Federations formed and reformed between the "tribes" in the region during most of the Bronze Age.   The territory was described as a rich land between the rivers, with their head at the "mountains of the gods" (described as "Arartu" in "Gilgamesh", a ca. 4000 BC Sumerian story, considered the first epoch.   In the same epoch the land of Arartu was called the birthplace of humankind, the font of civilization, and to travel there and back, a person had to "go by land, return by water", which perfectly describes the mountainous and river terrain in Armenia).   When the Massoretic scholars were in their first process of vocalizing the text of the Old Testament, they inserted the vowel “a” into their own language’s words, thus 'Urartu' mistakenly became 'Ararat'. The Assyrian kings Salmanazar the first, Tukulti-Ninurta the first, Teglath-Phalazar the first and Salamanazar the third campaigns against Urartu were vividly recorded and described how advanced the Urarturians were in metallurgy, art, architecture, sculpture gold and silver  artwork, military crafts and, particularly, how  formidable the Urarturians were in their resistance and military tactics. The Assyrians records included lengthy descriptions of the magnificent Uraturian fortresses, the Urarturian  bronze and iron swords and shields, their cities, fortifications and ramparts. Assyrians and Hittites feared only one enemy: The People of The North. They meant by that: The Urarturians! In time of war, the ancient Urarturians-Armenians were an incredible war machine.

Right after the fall of the mighty empire of the Hittites, and at the dawn of the first millennium B.C., a new kingdom was created in the eastern part of Anatolia in Asia Minor. This remarkable kingdom was Urartu which flourished from the 9^th  century  to the 6^th  century B.C. and enjoyed a formidable military and economical powers. The Urarturians were related to the Hurrians Hurrians and to the Hittites from whom originally they adopted many of their traditions and customs and particularly the shape and form  of monarch faces, beard style, hairdo and  attire they depicted later on  in their artifacts, tablets and inscriptions in the first millennium, but, later to  create their own style and way of life including  particular characteristics in art, architecture, fashion and metal work art. Urartu’s remarkable status, power and prosperity in the ancient world were recorded in 13^th century B.C. At the beginning, during the very early days of Urartu, Urarturians were grouped into a series of counties called  Nairi by the Assyrians and neighboring tribes before it became a mighty kingdom in 860 B.C. under Aramu,  its first king (860-840 B.C.) and followed by Sardur the first (840-830 B.C.) its second powerful king. Historically, Armenia as a nation was first settled in 6,000 B.C. by the Thracian-Phrygian tribes that crossed in Anatolia from the Balkans. The early Armenians established themselves as a new ruling and imposing aristocracy imposing their Indo-European language on their neighbors, surrounding nations and almost half of Asia Minor. In 590 B.C.

Erebuni, Uraturian God uu

ORIGIN OF THE ANCIENT URARTURIAN ARMENIANS

Where did the Urartians come from? Who are the Urarturians?

Often called the first kingdom or empire in Armenia's history, the Urartians are actually one of a long line of powerful entities that cultivated the Armenian Plateau and created the borders called "Greater" or "Historic" Armenia. They were a powerful tribe which belonged to a federation led by the Nairi. Before Urartu were the Nairi, before the Nairi the Metsamor Kingdom, and before that untold numbers of now anonymous kingdoms and states that sprung from the Indo-European race born on the Armenian Plateau, spreading their language, ethnic identity and the secrets of bronze, iron and astronomy to both Asia and Europe.  

Photo: qqClose-up of Sarduri the second helm et, 8^th century B.C.

As a part of the land and people interchangeably called "The Nairi", Urartians were recognized as early as 2000 BC on Assyrian cuneiform as coming from the "land between the rivers", a land known to hold about 60 tribes and 100 cities.  Until their rise, Urartians were subservient to a tribe also called the Nairi, which were in turn one tribe among many, but they held a predominant position during the 2nd millennium BC, and became the namesake for the entire region.  

Beginning about 2000 BC, the Assyrians used the term "People of the Nairi" to describe the peoples on the Armenian Plateau. The territory and people both were called Nairi, but the word meant "country or land of rivers", and contemporary Assyrian accounts describe about 60 different tribes and small kingdoms and about 100 cities included in this land.From what we know of the tribes in Nairi , indigenous customs and traditions  were similar to those found in Mesopotamia, and some  were of Semitic or Ugaritic origin.   This suggests that Ancestral Armenians are descendants of other, older cultures in the region.  However, recent discoveries and studies have turned the tables on history, showing that the cultures that developed the "Cradle of Civilization" are now pre-dated by Ancestral Armenians in Armenia's Cradle by at least 2000 years. The "people" in this description were an alliance of tribes led by a dominant tribe, the Nairi.  They were by now more than tribes; they were city-states in a common alliance. The Nairi alliance was based around Lake Van, which together with the Ararat Valley has the most fertile land in Western Asia, as well as the largest mineral deposits in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia. 

The Nairi were one tribe among many, but their name became synonymous with that for the entire region. From what we know of the tribes at this time, their customs and traditions were similar to others found in Mesopotamia, and they mixed Semitic or Ugaritic origins with their earlier Indo-European genetic and cultural roots. Among the tribes in Nairi was one called Urartu. About the word Nairi: The Armenian letter "i" (sounds like "ee") can be traced to 15th c. BC inscriptions for water.  Both the Nairi and the Haius used this sound/symbol, as did the Assyrians.   Thus, the word "nair" meant land, and "i" stood for   water/rivers.  The land of rivers north of Mesopotamia is that between the Euphrates and the Tigris, which flow from tributaries and sources above and below Mount Ararat. Ararat was already known as the mountain of the gods, and the territory was one of the major trade routes from Asia. The Nairi were considered a force strong enough to tackle both the Assyrians and Hittites, and populated a large territory rich in resources. They were attacked by the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninutra I, and inscriptions found at the Assyrian palace at Assur tell how 43 kings of the lands of Nairi rose up against the Assyrians, were defeated and brought to Assur in chains. The Nairi offered ransom to the king, tribute was extracted from them, and a new honor was added to the official style of the Assyrian king, "king of the lands of Nairi". By the time Urartu rose in prominence it was already influenced by Indo-Europeans which originated in the Armenian Plateau, and held both genetic and cultural links with the tribes of Nairi as well as those that would later subsume it's place during the formation of the Yervanduni and Armenian Achaemenid Kingdoms. To better understand the Urartian Empire, we go back a few thousand years to the beginnings of Kingdoms and city-states on the Armenian Plateau, and to the Nairi, an often neglected period of Armenia's ancient history, which is now believed to have been the first true empire in Armenia's history.

qqCuneiform commemorating Erebuni birth, 782 B.C.

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Bronze plate of Balawat representing the campaign of Salamanzar the third against Urartu

Map of Ancient Assyria

qSACRED TREE WITH ATTENDANTS ON LID FROM STEATITE JAR. (Urartian, 8th Century B.C. Armenian Historical Museum, Erevan).

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Ancient Uraturians quickly realized and discovered that Armenia’s soil and terrains were rich and abundant with deposits of iron, copper, lead, aluminum, mercury, zinc, silver and gold.  Those discoveries caused the early development of  metal work and various metallurgies.

 tUrarturian gold from the 9^th century B.C.