ARMENIAN - Erevangala500

On the walls of this deep canyon south o f Van on the edge of
the Hakkari, one finds the caves of Yedisalkim, just eighty
meters above the valley floor. The rock-drawings here were
mostly done in dark red or brown. Pictures o f gods, goddesses
with exaggerated sexual parts, dancing human figures, sun
motifs, wild animals and hunting scenes showing now-extinct
beasts are the dominate images. A depiction of the mother
deity standing on an animal is the oldest known drawing of a
"queen o f the animal kingdom" anywhere in Anatolia.
that the Armenians arrived in Anatolia. At the end of the
fifth century (401л00 B.C.), Xenophon writes in his Anabasis
o f the Armenians in connection with other
Anatolian tribes.
The very first mention of the Armenians anywhere is to
be found in the trilingual (Iranian, Babylonian, and
Elamitic) inscription of Behistun in western Iran, in
which the Persian king Darius (485 B.C.) lists Armenia as
one of his satrapies. This first written record could be
seen as having symbolic significance, in light of the fact
that the Armenian communities almost never in their history
rose above the status o f satrapies, or at best semiindependent
principalities.
Bisutun (Behistun): This watercolor by Sir Robert Ker Porter
from the year 1818 shows the cliffs in western Persia where the
royal inscription o f Darius is to be found.
Bisutun (Behistun): Depiction o f the god Ahura Mazda with the
trilingual inscription o f King Darius. Beneath the bas-relief we
see figures representing the tribes owing tribute to Darius;
among them is an Armenian.
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