URARTU

The lesser kingdoms that eventually came to form Urartu sprang into being during the late Bronze Age, as the Hittites [i] and other large civilizations crumbled during the Bronze Age Collapse [ii]. Despite initial success and expansion after confederation, constant conflict with Assyria began to take its toll on the Urartian state towards the end of the 8th century BCE and the civilization entered a decline. This decline culminated between 640 and 590 BCE, when each Urartian city was fully sacked and destroyed [iii]. Although the identity, or more likely identities, of the perpetrators, remain unknown, the Cimmerians [iv] and the Medes [v] are likely candidates.

For much of its existence, Urartu’s main regional adversary was the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Based in modern-day Iraq [vi], the Assyrians had long been the preeminent regional power. As Urartu expanded and swallowed states into its confederation, they ate into Assyrian influence, culminating in direct engagement in 754 BCE [vii]. Although Urartu would emerge victoriously, this success would prove short-lived as the Assyrians returned a decade later and routed the Urartians. An omen of things to come, Urartian proxies [viii] in what is today’s western Iran [ix] also fell to Assyrian allies, and Urartu itself experienced increasing pressure from the Cimmerians in its northern provinces [x].

Bilingual records from the court of Persia’s Darius the Great show that as early as 521 BCE, the names Urartu and Arminiya were used as synonyms [xi]; the former in Assyrian and the latter in Old Persian. While it is unclear to what extent Urartian genetics and language indeed gave rise to the Armenian nation, the historical associations between Urartu and Armenia are strong, and Armenia’s current capital of Yerevan rests on the ancient Urartian fortress of Erebuni [xii]. Urartu also lives on in biblical documents as the Dead Sea Scrolls confirm Urartu to be represented by the biblical Mountains of Ararat [xiii].

Urartu was governed by a centralized hereditary monarchy, beginning with the Kingdom's first monarch, Arame, who reigned from 860 to 844 BCE [xiv]. Documentation of Urartu became more widespread in Assyrian sources around 830 BCE when Urartu was ruled by Sarduri I [xv]. Sarduri I’s descendants would go on to rule the kingdom for the next two centuries. The central monarchy itself relied on a small group of advisors to design policies and a larger group of civil administrators and governors, tasked with everything from construction, to supervising religion, to implementing policies both in the capital of Tushpa and the ever-fluctuating provinces.

Urartu’s history is one of near-constant conflict. Born from a need to protect interests from larger adversaries, Urartu continued to bring kingdoms into its confederacy long after it was founded. These smaller tribes and kingdoms often paid a steep price in terms of enslaved people and commodities. However, the process of assimilation was not universally prioritized across Urartu’s history– as the confederacy’s 8th-century campaign [xvi] against the Hatti [xvii] culminated in the forced enslavement of over 300,000 prisoners. The Urartians also occasionally acted through proxies when they engaged Assyrian allies through local groups in Mannea, Zikirtu, and Musasi [xviii].

Many of Urartu’s innovations and accomplishments came in the form of architecture and infrastructure [xix]. Tasked with routing more water to the growing Urartian capital of Tushpa, engineers designed the 80-kilometer-long Menua Channel [xx], a stone-lined canal that gathered seasonal runoff from the Artos mountains. The Urartians were also prolific builders of temples and fortifications. Temples devoted to the chief of the Urartian pantheon, Haldi, can be identified by their unique square towers and reinforced corners [xxi]. Examples of this architectural prowess survive today as at Erebuni [xxii], where large blocks of worked stone form the basic shape of a once imposing fortification.

Urartu was a relatively prosperous society as attested by the substantial quantity of ornate bronzes and intricate mural paintings found in excavations of both public and private buildings [xxiii]. In its early stages, the Urartian economy appears to have depended primarily on herding and animal husbandry [xxiv] as most agricultural activities were concentrated around the Lake Van Basin and the Aras Valley. As the population grew the state took an active role in promoting agriculture and enhanced irrigation systems allowed for the widespread development of previously uncultivated land. The Urartians do not appear to have traded widely but did import ironworks, spices, and fabrics [xxv].