Antiquities Exhibits

Most of the knowledge regarding Urartu comes from a series of clay tablets found among ancient Assyrian ruins.  They hold the reports from Assyrian intelligence agents that were sent to various cities in Urartu. These clay tablets give us a record of history for a period of time around 714 BCE.  The people of Urartu referred to themselves as “Biainili.” Urartian texts have shown that the kings of Urartu often called themselves the “king of the land of Biaini,” and in Assyrian texts, Urartian kings were labeled the “king of the land of Nairi.” The land of Nairi/Biaini is known to be the land surrounding Lake Van (or the Sea of Nairi). Hebrew texts referred to Urartu as the “Kingdom of Ararat.” Historians believe that over the entire span of the kingdom’s life, people of Mitanni, Khurry, Khaldea, and Hittite blood lived among the Urartians during its early history. Its later inhabitants, those that eventually brought the kingdom to its end, were the Phrygians, Moskes, Armens, Sc...

Assyrian inscriptions of Shalmaneser I (c. 1274 BCE) first mention Uruartri as one of the states of Nairi, a loose confederation of small kingdoms and tribal states in the Armenian Highlands in the thirteenth to eleventh centuries BCE which he conquered. It extended from northeastern Turkey into northwestern Iran with its cultural center around Lake Van. Its settlements were palace-fortresses that protected agricultural production and supported many crafts, especially an extensive metalworking industry.  The Nairi states were repeatedly subjected to further attacks and invasions by the Middle and Neo-Assyrian Empires.  But Urartu, united under King Arame (860-843 BCE),  reemerged in Assyrian language inscriptions in the ninth century BCE as a powerful northern rival to the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Urartologist Paul Zimansky speculated the Urartian ruling class were few in number and governed over an ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse population. This diversity...

Cultural heritage of Urartu. Ongoing. At the History Museum of Armenia In Yerevan, Armenia. The museum's Urartian collection includes cuneiform inscriptions, bronze statuettes, wall-paintings, painted ceramics, arms, and weapons with sculptural ornamentation, excavated from the archaeological sites of Karmir Blur, Arin-Berd, and Argishtikhinili. The museum also houses a large collection of 3rd to 2nd millennia BCE bronze item s, wooden carts and chariots from the 15th-14th century BCE excavated from Lchashen, a collection of Miletian, Greek-Macedonian, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman, Sasanid, Byzantine, Arabic, and Seljuk gold, silver, and copper coins and 4th-5th century CE Christian finds from the cities of Dvin, Ani, and the fortress of Amberd. Urartian Shield of Sarduri II 753-735 BCE. Image courtesy of Wikimedia contributor Evgeny Genkin.