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The name Urartu is actually from Assyrian, a dialect of Akkadian, and was given to the kingdom by its chief rivals to the south; it may have meant simply "mountain country". The kingdom was named Biainili by its inhabitants. The name Urartu apparently corresponds to the Ararat of the Old Testament. Indeed, Mount Ararat is located in ancient Urartian territory, approximately 120 km north of its former capital.
Assyrian inscriptions from about 1250 BC mention a loose confederation called the Uruartri or Nairi in North-East Anatolia, in the region around Lake Van. These towns or tribes became a unified kingdom between 860 BC and 830 BC , under king Aramu or his son Sardur I .
At its height, the Urartu kingdom may have stretched North beyond the Aras River ( GreekThe Greek language ( /Elini'k{/) is an Indo-European language which has existed from around the 14th century BC in the Cretan inscriptions called Linear B. Mycenaean Greek of this period is distinguished from later Classical or Ancient Greek of the 8th ce Araxes) and Lake SevanLake Sevan (" " in Armenian) is Armenia's largest lake, the largest lake in Transcaucasia and one of the largest high altitude lakes in the world. The entire lake is situated inside the eastern Armenian province of Geghark'unik'. It is fed by 28 rivers an, encompassing present-day ArmeniaArmenia ( Armenian: ''Hayastan is a landlocked country in southern Transcaucasia, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, Azerbaijan in the east and Iran and the Naxcivan exclave of Azerbaijan in th and even the southern part of GeorgiaGeorgia ( Sakartvelo in Georgian), known from 1990 to 1995 as the Republic of Georgia is a country to the east of the Black Sea in the south Caucasus. A former republic of the Soviet Union, it shares borders with Russia in the north and Turkey, Armenia, A almost to the shores of the Black SeaNASA MODIS The Black Sea (also known as the Euxine Sea is an inland sea between southeastern Europe and Asia Minor. It is connected to the Mediterranean Sea by the Bosporus and the Sea of Marmara, and to the Sea of Azov by the Strait of Kerch. There is a; west to the sources of the EuphratesThe Euphrates (the traditional Greek name for the river, which is in Aramaic Frot/Frat Old Persian Ufrat in Arabic , in Turkish Firat and in ancient Assyrian language Pu-rat-tu is the westernmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia ( Bethnahri; east to present-day Tabriz, Lake Urmin , and beyond; and south to the sources of the Tigris. Its capital was the ancient city of Tushpa , modern Van, on the shore of Lake Van.
Urartu was a rival of Assyria, and fought several wars against their southern neighbors. Much of our historical information on Urartu comes from Assyrian inscriptions and from spies' reports found in Assyrian archives.
The Uruatu kingdom suffered heavily from Cimmerian raids and from the campaigns of the Assyrian kings, notably Shalmaneser I, Shalmaneser III and Sargon II. The main temple at Mushashir was sacked and the Urartan king Rusas was defeated by Sargon at Lake Urmin in 714 BC . The kingdom of Urartu was destroyed by the Scythians from the North, in 585 BC. The region was eventually occupied by the Armenians.
Urartu archaological sites include Altintepe , Toprakkale , Patnos and Cavustepe . Urartu fortresses are found Van, Anzaf , Cavustepe and Baskale .
The existance of Urartu was forgotten by the fifth century A.D. It was not rediscovered until historical and archaeological work done in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Urartian ruins were generally assumed to be Assyrian.