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Figure 9.4 Van citadel from the west, with Toprakkale in the background to the left

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN IMPERIAL BIAINILI, THE KINGDOM OF VAN

The outlines of the political history of Biainili/Urartu are provided by both native and Assyrian documents, with the latter giving the primary chronological anchors (Table 9.1). The rapid expansion of the kingdom can be traced by the spread of cuneiform inscriptions, which show where each king undertook campaigns and building projects.11 The few inscriptions of Sarduri I are only in Van (Figure 9.5).12 His successor, Ishpuini composed some texts in his own name, and many others jointly with his son and eventual successor, Minua. There is even one example of an Ishpuini inscription where a third generation is represented by Minua’s son Inushpua, although this individual apparently died young and it is uncertain that he ever ruled as king. If it is correct to apply the principle that the inscriptions by Ishpuini are earlier than those of Ishpuini and Minua jointly, the monarchy first sought to fortify the east shore of Lake Van, and then to move into the area around Patnos, to the north. The construction of two fortresses at Anzaf, controlling the road into the Van area from the northeast was part of this effort (Figure 9.6). Sometime around 800 BC the Urartians made a thrust to the southeast, and Minua left an inscription carved into the rock of the destroyed fortress of Tashtepe, although this probably lay outside of the area that he actually sought to govern. This particular campaign, or perhaps series of

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Table 9.1 Urartian king list and synchronisms with Assyrian kings

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Figure 9.5 Block in structure at foot of Van citadel with inscription of Sarduri I, in Akkadian

campaigns are historically interesting for two other reasons. First, the land known as Parsˇua (or Barsˇua) is mentioned in connection with them. This is usually taken as a very early reference to the Persians, and if so, they are either a long way from their later homeland in Fars province of Iran, or Urartians campaigned very far afield indeed. Second, this campaign may have destroyed the flourishing site of Hasanlu, where individuals executed by blows with a mace found in the ruins give testimony to the savagery of Iron Age warfare.13

More inscriptions of Minua survive than for any other Urartian king, and they highlight the effort he put into developing the resources of the Van area. One of his enduring feats was to bring the waters of a powerful spring to the Van basin by constructing a 50-km long canal and aqueduct which continues to operate today. Although the modern channel is now lined with concrete, the massive retaining walls that have kept it functioning for 28 centuries are still in place, as are several of the inscriptions along its course in which Minua proclaims his achievement. Minua also took his armies down the Murat Valley to the west, and went northward at least as far as the Araxes, where he constructed a city in his own name, Menuahinili.

The military achievements of the two kings who succeeded him, Argishti I and Sarduri II, respectively, are quite well documented, thanks to the survival of their annals. Those of the former are carved on the south face of the citadel rock at Van, outside an enormous

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Figure 9.6 Urartian fortresses at Anzaf. Lower Anzaf in foreground, Upper Anzaf in background

multichambered rock cut tomb which was presumably the resting place of the king himself (Figure 9.7). This tomb, which is approached from above by a staircase cut in the living rock, was looted long before the modern era, but its scale made a great impression on subsequent visitors to the site. The annals themselves are not as richly descriptive as those left by Assyrian kings, but they show a very similar pattern of military activity. There was no apology or justification given for each campaign—with the support of the god Haldi, the king set out at the head of his armies at least once a year, and sometimes more often. Several lands would be conquered and at the end of each entry the quantities of prisoners and livestock taken would be listed with great precision, if not absolute honesty.14 No defeats are acknowledged. The annual campaign was clearly an important duty of the monarch, and one assumes was important to the maintenance of the state, which would undoubtedly have had an enormous appetite for forced labor and the wherewithal to feed it, given the number of and scale of royal building projects. In one instance, for example, we are told that Argishti settled 6600 prisoners from Hatti and Supani as he founded the site Erebuni, located at Arin-berd in the modern Armenian capital of Erevan.

The founding of Erebuni and another major center at Argishtihinili (modern Armavir), which is also in the plain of Ararat, were part of a major expansion of the kingdom to the north. This proved to be the last major territorial gain for Urartu, and thereafter the area of control

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Figure 9.7 Annals of Argisti I, on the face of the cliff of the Van citadel, above the stairs leading to his tomb

remained more of less stable for roughly a century. The growth of Urartu’s power in the time of Minua and Argishti I was probably facilitated by Assyrian weakness in the first half of the 8th century. While undistinguished Assyrian kings campaigned “in the country” (i.e., in their own homeland) and their provincial governors usurped powers normally reserved for the king, Urartu briefly became the largest state in western Asia.

In the second half of the 8th century, the balance of power between the rival empires shifted back toward Assyria with the accession of a reformer, Tiglath-Pileser III (744–727 BC). He defeated Sarduri II in a battle on the Euphrates and ultimately marched on the Urartian capital where he claims to have set up a victory stele. These reverses do not seem to have seriously damaged Urartu, however, and from the Urartian side Sarduri II presents himself as a very successful ruler. His annals—in this case inscribed on a large stele found within a large rock niche on the north side of the Van citadel rock (Figure 9.8)—demonstrate that the pattern of annual campaigning continued. Sarduri continued to launch large construction projects, the most impressive of which was citadel of Sardurihinili (Çavus¸tepe) (Figure 9.9) which stretches for 1 km along a ridge in the valley of the Gürpınar, not far from Van.

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Figure 9.8 Niches at Hazine Kapisi, on the north side of the Van citadel. The annals of Sarduri II were inscribed on a stele placed in the larger niche. Note the seated figure for scale

The late 8th century is perhaps the best documented period in Urartu’s history, but in many ways the most confusing. A pivotal date is 714 BC . In that year Sargon II of Assyria (721–705 BC) conducted an important campaign that took him deep into Urartian territory after he defeated an Urartian king named Rusa. He left a vivid description of this campaign in a lengthy “letter” to the god Assur, which includes a description of the Urartian countryside and a detailed booty list drawn up after sacking the temple of Urartu’s chief god Haldi in the buffer state of Musasir on the return journey (Figure 9.10).15 Archaeologists have also recovered numerous intelligence reports summarizing developments in Urartu for the Assyrian court around this time, which are all the more valuable in that they were never intended for the public. These refer to dramatic events, including a catastrophic defeat for the Urartian king at the hands of the Kimmerians, a people who were to wreak destruction throughout Anatolia in succeeding decades and are mentioned here for the first time.16

Despite this wealth of textual evidence, most of it from Urartu’s arch rival, there are problems with chronology and uncertainties about the sequence of events. Our reconstruction of the king

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Figure 9.9 Walls of the western part of Çavus¸tepe at top of ridge, seen from the northeast

list is based on the Urartian practice of regularly giving the patronymic of a king along with his own name. For example Minua, son of Ishpuini, is succeeded by Argishti, son of Minua, who is succeeded by Sarduri, son of Argishti. Because so many Urartian sites and objects of art are associated, by inscription, with specific kings, understanding this sequence is crucial for understanding the archaeology of Urartu as well as its history. From the time of Sargon’s campaign onward, we can no longer be certain of the order in which some very important Urartian kings ruled. In particular, there is currently a great deal of confusion about the sequence of three kings called Rusa (see Table 9.1). Recognition of this problem is a recent development, and the designations Rusa I (Rusa, son of Sarduri), Rusa II (Rusa son of Argishti), and Rusa III (Rusa, son of Erimena) were used confidently throughout most of the 20th century. A newly discovered inscription ties together several strands of evidence to demonstrate that Rusa III ruled before Rusa II, and perhaps even before Rusa I.17 This uncertainty has an impact on our understanding of the final phase of Urartu’s history, to which we shall return later.

Urartu clearly suffered some damage at the hands of Sargon and the Kimmerians, but this was not the end of its power by any means. In fact, its greatest days were still ahead. There does seem to be a change in Urartu’s fortunes at this time. According to Sargon’s annals, the king Rusa

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Figure 9.10 Assyrian depiction of the sack of the Haldi temple in Musasir (after drawing of lost relief from Khorsabad by Flandin, originally published by P. E. Botta, Monument de Nineveh (Paris: Imprimerie nationale) 1849–50)

against whom he campaigned in 714 BC was so distraught by the sack of Musasir that he committed suicide. By 708, Urartu was ruled by Argishti II, whose reign is obscure and peculiar. He does not seem have undertaken any major projects, but his few surviving inscriptions are found farther east and farther west than those of any other king: One in a tomb at Altıntepe, near Erzincan, probably on or beyond Urartu’s northwestern frontier, and another halfway between

Lake Urmia and the Caspian,18 an area that reflects no Urartian cultural remains otherwise and was thus probably never integrated into the political control of the Biainili.

In contrast, Argishti’s successor, traditionally called Rusa II but now understood to be the third king of that name, was probably the most powerful king Urartu ever produced. He was certainly the most energetic builder and in terms of material from controlled excavations—90% of the archaeology of Urartu is the archaeology of this Rusa.19 The discovery of his importance has come rather gradually over the last half century, as one site after another has been excavated in Turkey, Iran, and Armenia.

One firm date for this king is provided by the Assyrian ruler Esarhaddon. He sat rather insecurely on his throne after his father, Sennacherib, had been assassinated by his elder sons, who then fled into the mountains of Shupria, another of the border states between Urartu and Assyria. In 673 BC, Esarhaddon invaded Shupria to apprehend the assassins, and presumably eliminate their claims to his throne. He clearly feared what the response of the Urartians to this

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Rusahinili Qilbanikai (“before Mt. Qilbani”) for Toprakkale and Rusahinili Eidurukai (“before Mt. Eiduru”) for Ayanis. Rusa gave his name to another site located at Bastam, Iran, calling it Rusai-URU.TUR, or “Rusa’s small city.” Ironically, this may be the largest Urartian site ever constructed (Figure 9.12). Across Lake Van from Ayanis and Tushpa, a great citadel with an associated settlement area was also constructed at Kefkalesi, on elevated ground overlooking Adilcevaz. The only known body of monumental Urartian relief sculpture has been discovered in secondary contexts from this area, perhaps originally built into palatial and temple architecture from Kefkalesi itself, but in any case associated with inscriptions of Rusa son of Argishti. We will treat specific aspects of these sites later in more detail, but the essential historical point is that during the first half of the 7th century, Rusa the son of Argishti built the largest sites in Urartu, creating new centers in the heartland of his kingdom, and furnishing them lavishly.

Since Assyrian records of hostilities with Urartu disappear in the 7th century and Rusa himself left no annals it is sometimes assumed that this was a more peaceful era than the previous century. The discovery of a lengthy inscription on the facade of the Ayanis temple in 1997 casts doubt on this, however. While most of the text is devoted to Rusa’s building activities,20 it includes a statement that Rusa conquered the enemy lands, and deported their people. The list is impressive, beginning with the land of Assyria followed by other lands like Mushki and Hatti, which were not minor actors in the world of Iron Age Anatolia. While this list no doubt

Figure 9.12 Bastam from the east

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