ARMENIAN - Erevangala500

erected there my self >.
Line 6 As the name of the town, I have chosen Sardurihinili
(Sardur City). Sardur says . . .
Line 7 Village houses which were here before 1 have built here
anew for all time.
Line 8 I have this town to the god Irmushini, and the
gates to the god Haldi because of the wealth.
Line 9 The son of Argishti (Sardur 11) built this temple with the
help of the greatness and power of the god Haldi.
Line 10 mighty king, I great king, I great king (sic!) of the Biai
lands*. The master of this city and of Tushpa, Sardur am I.
"Biai" is what the Urartians called them selves. "Urartu" com es from the Assyrian. Until
the tenth century В. C , it was written "Uruartu", but later "Urartu". The name "V an" may
well come from "B ia i" (V i-a-i).
The Urartians
The oldest sources which speak of the Urartians are of
Assyrian origin. The Assyrian king Salmanassar (1274-
1245 B.C.) reports that he undertook a campaign against
the Urartians in the first years of his reign. The inscription
tells us of no less than eight countries and fifty-one cities
which the king (in the year 1274 B.C.) claims to have
destroyed. This would indicate a dispersal o f the
Urartians in the mountainous regions of eastern Anatolia.
The Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta 1 (1244-1208 B.C.)
later reports on the conquest of Nairian lands (Nairi and
Urartu appear to have been largely identical) and the
defeat of forty kings who resided in the area of Lake Van.
These were undoubtedly princes o f Urartian and Nairian
tribes, who ruled between the Euphrates and Lake Urmia,
with the area around Lake Van as a natural center. They
must have been of Hurrian or proto-Urartian origin.
At the beginning of the sixth century B.C., the lands once
ruled over by the Urartians became the cause of a dispute
between the Lydians and the Medes. The Medes finally
won out. This appears to have been the time when the
Armenian tribes immigrated to eastern Anatolia. They
probably came from the Balkan area or from Thrace and
had been driven out by the Illyrians. They were first men­
tioned in an inscription of Darius in the sixth century B.C.
At this time, they already belonged to Darius' sphere of
influence. During the course of time their Indo-European
language took on certain traces of the old, non-Arian
Anatolian languages, but that certainly did not make the
"Haik" "Urartians".
The Armenians can be considered as more or less "related
by marriage". They have no linguistic or ethnic
connection to the greater Hurrian-Urartian family, which
comes from the Asian linguistic sphere. The Turkic peoples,
on the other hand, share common roots with the
"proto-Turkish" peoples of the Hurrian-Urartian world.
These facts were completely irrelevant to later developments
and to the peaceful co-existence o f so many peoples
and races in eastern Anatolia, especially in the days
o f the Ottoman Empire. All ethnic groups in the Ottoman
Empire enjoyed equal standing. In fact, no one ever even
asked about "ethnic" background. It was o f absolutely no
interest to the Sultan-Caliphs.
The Hurrian-Urartian god o f weather, Tesheba-Tashpuea,
standing on his bull. The city o f Van was in ancient times called
"Tushpa" after the god Tashpuea. This is indicative o f the territorial
situation in eastern Anatolia long before the immigration
o f small tribes of Indo-European Armenians in the sixth century
before Christ.
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