Toprakkale Ancient fortress, Turkey -- Urartu (Armenian: Ուրարտու - Urartu, Assyrian: māt Urarṭu; Babylonian: Urashtu)

Toprakkale, also spelled Topra Kaleh, ancient Urartian fortress located near modern Van in southeastern Turkey. The walls of Toprakkale, erected in the 8th century bc, were of cyclopean masonry and sloped slightly inward, perhaps as a defense against earthquakes. Excavations at the site, carried out primarily by British and German teams, have revealed the high level of artistic achievement of ancient Urartu, especially in bronze but also in gold, silver, and ivory. Bronze objects of particular importance included a candelabrum about 53.5 inches (136 cm) high, decorated shields, and building reliefs that have provided valuable information about Urartian domestic architecture. In addition, excavations have uncovered a basalt floor inlaid with limestone and marble, parts of a decorated marble frieze, and brilliantly polished red pottery vessels.

Engraving of the Urartian God Teisheba

Bronze Sculpture of an Urartian God

Rusahinili - Toprak-Kale, Turkey

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Urartu (Armenian: Ուրարտու - Urartu, Assyrian: māt Urarṭu; Babylonian: Urashtu), corresponding to the biblical Kingdom of Ararat (Armenian: Արարատյան Թագավորություն) or Kingdom of Van (Armenian: Վանի Թագավորություն, Urartian: Biai, Biainili; was an Iron Age kingdom centred on Lake Van in the Armenian Highlands.

Strictly speaking, Urartu is the Assyrian term for a geographical region, while "kingdom of Urartu" or "Biainili lands" are terms used in modern historiography for the Proto-Armenian (Hurro-Urartian) speaking Iron Age state that arose in that region. That a distinction should be made between the geographical and the political entity was already pointed out by König (1955). The landscape corresponds to the mountainous plateau between Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and the Caucasus mountains, later known as the Armenian Highlands. The kingdom rose to power in the mid-9th century BC, but was conquered by Media in the early 6th century BC. The heirs of Urartu are the Armenians and their successive kingdoms.

The name Urartu comes from Assyrian sources: the Assyrian King Shalmaneser I (1263–1234 BC) recorded a campaign in which he subdued the entire territory of "Uruatri." The Shalmaneser text uses the name Urartu to refer to a geographical region, not a kingdom, and names eight "lands" contained within Urartu ( which at the time of the campaign were still disunited ) . "Urartu" is cognate with the Biblical "Ararat," Akkadian "Urashtu," and Armenian "Ayrarat." The name used by the local population as a toponym was Biainili (or Biaineli), which forms the root of the Armenian Վան ("Van"),hence the names "Kingdom of Van (Bianili)" or "Vannic Kingdom."

Scholars such as Carl Ferdinand Friedrich Lehmann-Haupt (1910) believed that the people of Urartu called themselves Khaldini after their god Khaldi. Boris Piotrovsky wrote that "the Urartians first appear in history in the 13th century B.C. as a league of tribes or countries which did not yet constitute a unitary state. In the Assyrian annals the term Uruatri (Urartu) as a name for this league was superseded during a considerable period of years by the term "land of Nairi"". Scholars believe that Urartu is an Akkadian variation of Ararat of the Old Testament. Indeed, Mount Ararat is located in ancient Urartian territory, approximately 120 km north of its former capital. In addition to referring to the famous Biblical mountain, Ararat also appears as the name of a kingdom in Jeremiah 51:27, mentioned together with Minni and Ashkenaz.

In the early 6th century BC, the Urartian Kingdom was replaced by the Armenian Orontid dynasty. In the trilingual Behistun inscription, carved in 521 or 520 BC by the order of Darius the Great of Persia, the country referred to as Urartu in Assyrian is called Arminiya in Old Persian and Harminuia in Elamite.

Shubria was part of the Urartu confederation. Later, there is reference to a district in the area called Arme or Urme, which some scholars have linked to the name Armenia.

fonte: @edisonmariotti #edisonmariotti COLABORAÇÃO 

Agapi Yeganyan

Alternate title: Topra Kaleh
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/599735/Toprakkale