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17. BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE 253
– the illustration of Haldi’s shrine, with its unique roof construction and its facade decorated with shields,
spears and statues, is perhaps the most celebrated architectural representation in Assyrian art; only the recovery
of the ruins of the building itself will be able to clarify how the Assyrian depiction is to be interpreted but
while the reconstruction as a prototype of a Classical Greek temple is extremely unlikely we may perhaps
imagine the building with a square ground plan and a pilaster facade, over which a tent roof was erected. 67
Any archaeologist working in the northern Zagros area would of course wish to discover Musasir, the
home of the legendary temple of the god Haldi, recipient of dedicatory gifts from Urartu, Assyria, Habhu and
even far-away Tabal. 68 Since the reign of Ispuini, Haldi headed the Urartian state pantheon despite the fact that
Musasir did not constitute part of the kingdom of Urartu but remained a separate state; from that time onwards,
a series of Haldi temples was built in Urartu, and in a store room of one of them, the shrine at the Upper Anzaf
fortress, a shield was excavated in 1995 that shows the deity leading the other Urartian gods into battle, in the
same sequence as in Ispuini and Minua’s inscription of Meher Kapısı. 69 The shield, dedicated by Ispuini and
Minua, shows Haldi as a warrior with a bow and a javelin (or perhaps a gigantic arrow?) and surrounded by
an aura of flames which calls to mind the blazing sun. 70 This first known depiction of the god would seem to
strengthen the view that there is a conceptual link between Haldi and Mithra, a connection assumed by the
traditional Armenian designation for the blind rock portal at Van, which the Urartians called ‘Door of Haldi’ 71 ,
as Mheri dur ‘Door of Mher (Mithra), of which the more common name Meher Kapısı is but a translation into
Turkish. This association may already have been established in the Achaemenid period when Urartian traditions
played an important role in the shaping of royal ideology; Mithra appears from the reign of Artaxerxes II
(404-359 BC) onwards in royal inscriptions 72 and perhaps before that in the Persepolis Fortification Tablets. 73
Armen Petrosyan 74 has recently analysed the striking similarities between the two deities and argued, convincingly
in my view, that they are part of the same stream of tradition. Indeed, Haldi’s depiction as a soldier and
solar deity corresponds closely to Mithras’ representation as known especially from Roman sources, the cult
of the Invincible Sun (Sol invictus) spreading across the empire from the first century AD with the Roman
army whose members encountered the mystery cult in the east. If we bear in mind that Musasir housed the
original Haldi temple, then two facts become highly significant, that the cult of Mithras is closely connected
to underground caves and that the raven is a key symbol of the god: first, a number of caves 75 in the Baradost
mountains, holy Mount Andaruttu – among them the Shanidar cave, with its millennia long history of human
(and Neanderthal) occupation and ritual use – is situated in Musasir’s territory and secondly, Musasir is called
the ‘city of the raven’ in the already mentioned inscription of Urzana’s seal.
To return to the special connection between Haldi, the city of Musasir and the Urartian royal dynasty, 76
the crown prince of Urartu was appointed or at least confirmed as the future king under Haldi’s auspices in
Musasir, and they and their top officials routinely visited the Haldi temple, apparently following a certain
schedule. If we bear in mind that it was known to the Urartians as ‘The City’, we may be tempted to describe
Musasir as the Holy City of the Urartians, and especially their kings. Is a comparison with Rome’s role for the
emperors of the Holy Roman Empire too far-fetched? Musasir’s special role for Urartian kingship was obvious
67 Boehmer 1993-1997: 448-449.
68 The contents of the temple according to Sargon’s list of booty are discussed by Mayer 1979.
69 König 1955-1957: 51-56 HchI 10 (= CTU A 3-1); see Belli 1999a.
70 Belli 1999a: 37-41; for an improved drawing of the scene, with corrections to the depiction of Haldi, see Seidl 2004: 85 Abb. 48. See
also Roaf this volume Chapter 24: Figs. 24.16, 19-21. Zimansky (this volume 07: n.10) suggests that because he does not wear a divine
horned headdress instead of Haldi this figure represents the king endowed with the powers of Haldi.
71 Salvini 1994: 205.
72 Petrosyan 2006: 230-231.
73 Possibly as the divine name misebaka (Hallock 1969: 19 and 732, but this is contested by Henkelmann 2008: 554) and more probably
as a theophoric element (written missa or mitra) in personal names (Hallock 731-733). According to Schmitt (2001: 750) the name of a ruler
in western Iran in 737 BC, Metraku, ‘doubtless represents’ a hypocoristic based on the theonym Mithra: this is, however, not certain (references
from M. Roaf).
74 Petrosyan 2006; important is the Armenian epic of the hero Mher which is closely connected with the Mithra legend and illustrates the
strength of local traditions.
75 Solecki 1998; see also the map in Solecki 1971: 26.
76 Zimansky 1985: 5; Salvini 1993-1997: 445.