Urarteans or Urartians were an ancient people who spoke the Urartian language. The territory of the ancient kingdom of Urartu extended over the modern frontiers of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Armenia.Kleiss, Wolfram (2008). "URARTU IN IRAN". Encyclopædia Iranica. Its kings left behind cuneiform inscriptions in the Urartian language, a member of the Hurro-Urartian language family. A related people to the Urarteans are the Hurrians.

History and Origin

It is assumed that the Urarteans spread across the Armenian highlands from the region of Rewanduz (modern-day northwestern Iran), where the ancient city of Musasir was located.Barnett R.D. Urartu // Edwards I.E.S., Gadd C.J., Hammond N.G.L., Boardman J. Cambridge Ancient history. — London: Cambridge University Press, 1982. — Vol. 3, part 1. — P. 314—371. — ISBN 0-521-22496-9.

Since its re-discovery in the 19th century, Urartu, which is commonly believed to have been at least partially Armenian-speaking,Robert Drews. Militarism and the Indo-Europeanizing of Europe. Routledge. 2017. p. 228. "The vernacular of the Great Kingdom of Biainili was quite certainly Armenian. The Armenian language was obviously the region's vernacular in the fifth century BC, when Persian commanders and Greek writers paired it with Phrygian. That it was brought into the region between the early sixth and the early fifth century BC, and that it immediately obliterated whatever else had been spoken there, can hardly be supposed; ... Because Proto-Armenian speakers seem to have lived not far from Hurrian speakers our conclusion must be that the Armenian language of Mesrop Mashtots was descended from an Indo--European language that had been spoken in southern Caucasia in the Bronze Age."Hrach Martirosyan (2013). "The place of Armenian in the Indo-European language family: the relationship with Greek and Indo-Iranian*" Leiden University. p. 85-86.Petrosyan, Armen. "The Armenian Elements in the Language and Onomastics of Urartu." Aramazd: Armenian Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 2010. has played a significant role in Armenian nationalism., p. 276.

Language

Urartian or Vannic is an extinct Hurro-Urartian language which was spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Urartu (Biaini or Biainili in Urartian, it was also called Nairi), which was centered on the region around Lake Van and had its capital, Tushpa, near the site of the modern town of Van in the Armenian highlands, now in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. Its past prevalence is unknown. While some believe it was probably dominant around Lake Van and in the areas along the upper Zab valley,Wilhelm, Gernot. 2008. Urartian. In Woodard, Roger D. (ed.) The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor. P.105. "Neither its geographical origin can be conclusively determined, nor the area where Urartian was spoken by a majority of the population. It was probably dominant in the mountainous areas along the upper Zab Valley and around Lake Van." others believe it was spoken by a relatively small population who comprised a ruling class.

First attested in the 9th century BCE, Urartian ceased to be written after the fall of the Urartian state in 585 BCE and presumably became extinct due to the fall of Urartu.Wilhelm, Gernot. 2008. Urartian. In Woodard, Roger D. (ed.) The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor. P.106: "We do not know when the language became extinct, but it is likely that the collapse of what had survived of the empire until the end of the seventh or the beginning of the sixth century BCE caused the language to disappear." It must have had long contact with, and been gradually totally replaced by, an early form of Armenian,Petrosyan, Armen. The Armenian Elements in the Language and Onomastics of Urartu. Aramazd: Armenian Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 2010. (https://www.academia.edu/2939663/The_Armenian_Elements_in_the_Language_and_Onomastics_of_Urartu) although it is in the 5th century CE that the earliest written examples of Armenian appear.Clackson, James P. T. 2008. Classical Armenian. In: The languages of Asia Minor (ed. R. D. Woodard). P.125. "The extralinguistic facts relevant to the prehistory of the Armenian people are also obscure. Speakers of Armenian appear to have replaced an earlier population of Urartian speakers (see Ch. 10) in the mountainous region of Eastern Anatolia. The name Armenia first occurs in the Old Persian inscriptions at Bīsotūn dated to c. 520 BCE (but note that the Armenians use the ethnonym hay [plural hayk‘] to refer to themselves). We have no record of the Armenian language before the fifth century CE. The Old Persian, Greek, and Roman sources do mention a number of prominent Armenians by name, but unfortunately the majority of these names are Iranian in origin, for example, Dādrši- (in Darius’ Bīsotūn inscription), Tigranes, and Tiridates. Other names are either Urartian (Haldita- in the Bīsotūn inscription) or obscure and unknown in literate times in Armenia (Araxa- in the Bīsotūn inscription)."

Religion

The religious beliefs of the Urarteans shared many similarities with the religions of Mesopotamia. The Urartian pantheon included numerous deities, many of which were borrowed from the religious traditions of Sumer, Akkad and Assyria.Piotrovsky B. B. The Kingdom of Van (Urartu) / Edited by I. A. Orbeli. — Moscow: Publishing House of Oriental Literature, 1959. — 286 pp. — 3,500 copies.

Sacrifices, mainly of animals (bulls and sheep), were practiced, although there is evidence of human sacrifices.Lehmann-Haupt C.F. Armenien, einst und jetzt. — Berlin: B. Behr, 1910—1931. Rituals of worship, usually performed in special chambers carved into the rocks, resembled ziggurats. In one such chamber, a tablet was found listing 79 Urartian deities and the number of animals that were to be sacrificed to each of them.

References