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86-465: William F. Albright dated his reign to 742–735 BCE. Thiele dated his coregency with Uzziah starting in 751/750 BCE and his sole reign from 740/39 to 736/735 BCE, at which time he was deposed by the pro- Assyrian faction in favor of his son Ahaz . Thiele places his death in 732/731 BCE. The Gospel of Matthew lists Jotham of Judah in the genealogy of Jesus . The archeologist Nelson Glueck found an imprint of king Jotham near Eilat. Also near Eilat there

172-525: A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1956. After his death on September 19, 1971, his legacy continued through the many scholars inspired by his work, who specialized in the fields pioneered by Albright. The American School of Oriental Research, Jerusalem , was renamed the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research , in honor of Albright's archeological achievements. From

258-635: A German professor, to the Van area in 1827 on behalf of the French Oriental Society. Schulz discovered and copied numerous cuneiform inscriptions, partly in Assyrian and partly in a hitherto unknown language. Schulz also discovered the Kelishin stele , bearing an Assyrian-Urartian bilingual inscription, located on the Kelishin pass on the current Iraqi-Iranian border. A summary account of his initial discoveries

344-494: A broad swath of American higher education from the 1940s through the 1970s, after which revisionist scholars such as T. L. Thompson , John Van Seters , Niels Peter Lemche , and Philip R. Davies developed and advanced a minimalist critique of Albright's view that archaeology supports the broad outlines of the history of Israel as presented in the Bible. Like other academic polymaths ( Edmund Husserl in phenomenology and Max Weber in

430-577: A king as well, possibly ruling from 635 to 620 BC, but little is known about him. It is possible that Rusa III established a new dynasty and that his father, Erimena, had not been king. Late during the 7th century BC (during or after Sarduri III's reign), Urartu was invaded by Scythians and their allies—the Medes . In 612 BC, the Median king Cyaxares the Great together with Nabopolassar of Babylon and

516-737: A lasting impact on the understanding of ancient Near Eastern history and the historicity of the Bible. Albright was born on May 24, 1891, in Coquimbo , Chile, the eldest of six children of the American Evangelical Methodist missionaries Wilbur Finley Albright and Cornish-American Zephine Viola Foxwell. Albright was an alumnus of Upper Iowa University . He married Ruth Norton (1892–1979) in 1921 and had four sons. He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland , in 1916 and accepted

602-458: A later period unacquainted with the historical details of the time would, or could, have invented them. In Judah, the growing Assyrian pressure strengthened the hand of those who sought accommodation to the enemy from the north, resulting in a change of leadership: In 736 and 735 Tiglath-pileser was again in the northwest, in the regions of Mount Nal and Urartu . Many in Judah would no doubt think that

688-633: A professorship there in 1927. Albright was W. W. Spence Professor of Semitic Languages from 1930 until his retirement in 1958. He was the Director of the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem from 1922–1929, and 1933–1936, and did important archaeological work at sites in Palestine such as Gibeah (Tell el-Fûl, 1922) and Tell Beit Mirsim (1926, 1928, 1930, and 1932). Albright became known to

774-414: A result, it became dependent on Assyria, as evidenced by Rusa II's son Sarduri III (645–635 BC) referring to the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal as his "father". According to Urartian epigraphy, Sarduri III was followed by two kings—Rusa III (also known as Rusa Erimenahi) (620–609 BC) and his son, Rusa IV (609–590 or 585 BC). There is speculation that Rusa III's father, Erimena, may have been

860-751: A significant role in Armenian nationalism . Urartu extended from the Euphrates in the west 850 km to the region west of Ardabil in Iran, and 500 km from Lake Çıldır near Ardahan in Turkey to the region of Rawandiz in Iraqi Kurdistan . The kingdom emerged in the mid-9th century BC and dominated the Armenian Highlands in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. Urartu frequently warred with Assyria and became, for

946-471: A sole reign, while others are given from the start of a coregency, or, in the case of Pekah, from the start of a rival reign. Thiele maintained that the key to understanding these records lies in a proper appreciation of the growing threat from Assyria that both kingdoms faced. In 754 BC, Ashur-nirari V led the Assyrians against Arpad in northern Aram. His successor Tiglath-Pileser III warred against Arpad in

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1032-509: A time, the most powerful state in the Near East . Weakened by constant conflict, it was eventually conquered, either by the Iranian Medes in the early 6th century BC or by Cyrus the Great in the middle of the 6th century BC. Archaeologically, it is noted for its large fortresses and sophisticated metalwork. Various names were given to the geographic region and the polity that emerged in

1118-680: Is a wadi called "Yatam wadi". Jotham inherited a strong government, well-officered and administered. He is recorded as having built the High or Upper Gate of the Temple in Jerusalem , identified by Matthew Poole as the New Gate mentioned in Jeremiah 36 :10. "He built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers." 2 Kings 15 mentions that Jotham fought wars against Rezin , king of

1204-654: Is a 1953 paper, "New Light from Egypt on the Chronology and History of Israel and Judah", in which he established that Egyptian pharaoh Shoshenq I—the Biblical Shishaq —came to power somewhere between 945 and 940 BC. A prolific author, his works in addition to Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan , include The Archaeology of Palestine: From the Stone Age to Christianity , and The Biblical Period from Abraham to Ezra . He also edited

1290-464: Is considered "one of the twentieth century's most influential American biblical scholars", having become known to the public in 1948 for his role in the authentication of the Dead Sea Scrolls . His scholarly reputation arose as a leading theorist and practitioner of biblical archaeology . Albright was a leading theorist and practitioner of biblical archaeology , and is regarded as the founder of

1376-439: Is especially notable for fine lost-wax bronze objects: weapons, figurines, vessels including grand cauldrons that were used for sacrifices, fittings for furniture, and helmets. There are also remains of ivory and bone carvings, frescos , cylinder seals and of course pottery. In general their style is a somewhat less sophisticated blend of influences from neighbouring cultures. Archaeology has produced relatively few examples of

1462-483: Is hardly representative, which ignores the enormous lack of data for the history of the early second millennium, and which wilfully establishes hypotheses on the basis of unexamined biblical texts, to be proven by such (for this period) meaningless mathematical criteria as the "balance of probability" ... Urartu The Urartu was an Iron Age kingdom centered around the Armenian highlands between Lake Van , Lake Urmia , and Lake Sevan . The territory of

1548-524: Is missing between the consonants r and t in the URARTU reading). And as the data in the table shows, it is the result of the misunderstanding that the cuneiform scholars who read the name of the country took the readings ar and ar2 of the AR and UB cuneiform signs, respectively, and ignored their readings ara8 and ara2․ On the famous Babylonian map representing the ancient world (in the 8th century BC) (see figure 1), in

1634-448: Is not universally agreed upon, though given the process which make and preserve bullae, it is generally agreed that faking a seal, while not impossible, is difficult. If genuine, it is perhaps the sole archaeological attestation of Jotham found to date. William F. Albright William Foxwell Albright (May 24, 1891– September 19, 1971) was an American archaeologist , biblical scholar , philologist , and expert on ceramics . He

1720-409: Is the existence of strong pro-Assyrian and anti-Assyrian factions in both Israel and Judah that explains the way the chronological data for the time were recorded: When Jotham began his rule in Judah his reign was synchronized with that of Pekah and not with Menahem , although both were then on their thrones. This points to close Judean ties with Pekah than with Menahem, and a common resistance against

1806-541: The Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research from 1931 to 1968, Albright influenced biblical scholarship and Palestinian archaeology . Albright advocated "biblical archaeology" in which the archaeologist's task, according to fellow biblical archaeologist William G. Dever , is "to illuminate, to understand, and, in their greatest excesses, to 'prove' the Bible." Here, Albright's American Methodist upbringing

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1892-642: The Anchor Bible volumes on Jeremiah , Matthew , and Revelation . Throughout his life Albright was honored with awards, honorary doctorates, and medals, and was proclaimed " Yakir Yerushalayim " (Worthy Citizen of Jerusalem)—the first time that title had been awarded to a non-Jew. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1929. He was elected a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1955 and

1978-470: The Arameans , and Pekah , king of Northern Israel ( 15:37 ). He also defeated Ammon , which paid him an immense annual tribute. However, the corruption of Northern Israel began to permeate Judah. Jotham was a contemporary with the prophets Isaiah , Hosea , Amos , and Micah , from whose advice he benefited. He inherited a strong government, well officered and administered. He himself is said to have built

2064-520: The Armenian Highlands . The modern name of the written language used by the kingdom's political elite is Urartian ; the language is attested in numerous cuneiform inscriptions throughout Armenia and eastern Turkey . It is unknown what other languages were spoken by the peoples of Urartu under the Kingdom of Van, but there is evidence of linguistic contact between the proto-Armenian language and

2150-785: The Armenians . Urartu comprised an area of approximately 200,000 square miles (520,000 km ), extending from the Euphrates in the West to Lake Urmia in the East and from the Caucasus Mountains south towards the Zagros Mountains in northern Iraq. More specifically, Urartu was an area directly surrounded by the mountain chains of the eastern Pontus at the north, the Lesser Caucasus at to

2236-519: The Assyrians . Archaeological sites within its boundaries include Altintepe , Toprakkale , Patnos and Haykaberd . Urartu fortresses included Erebuni Fortress (present-day Yerevan), Van Fortress , Argishtihinili , Anzaf, Haykaberd, and Başkale , as well as Teishebaini (Karmir Blur, Red Mound) and others. Kayalıdere Castle is one of the important centers that enabled the Urartian kingdom to control

2322-574: The Middle and Neo-Assyrian Empires , which lay to the south in Upper Mesopotamia ("the Jazirah") and northern Syria , especially under Tukulti-Ninurta I (c. 1240 BC), Tiglath-Pileser I (c. 1100 BC), Ashur-bel-kala (c. 1070 BC), Adad-nirari II (c. 900 BC), Tukulti-Ninurta II (c. 890 BC), and Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC). Urartu reemerged in Assyrian language inscriptions in

2408-555: The 1930s until his death, he was the dean of biblical archaeologists and the acknowledged founder of the biblical archaeology movement. Coming from his background in German biblical criticism of the historicity of the biblical accounts, Albright, through his seminal work in archaeology (and his development of the standard pottery typology for Palestine and the Holy Land) concluded that the biblical accounts of Israelite history were, contrary to

2494-553: The Aras and Lake Sevan, encompassing present-day Armenia and even the southern part of present-day Georgia almost to the shores of the Black Sea; west to the sources of the Euphrates ; east to present-day Tabriz , Lake Urmia , and beyond; and south to the sources of the Tigris . Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria defeated Sarduri II of Urartu in the first year of his reign (745 BC). There

2580-470: The Argishti I and Menua period, some of which are still used for irrigation. There is a number of remains of sturdy stone architecture, as well as some mud brick , especially when it has been burnt, which helps survival. Stone remains are mainly fortresses and walls, with temples and mausolea, and many rock-cut tombs. The style, which developed regional variations, shows a distinct character, partly because of

2666-485: The Assyrian threat could well have been the cause. The fact that Jotham's accession in 751/50 is synchronized with the years of Pekah provides strong evidence that Pekah was then ruling as king. And the fact that Ahaz's accession in 736/35 is likewise synchronized with a reign of Pekah that began in 752/51 provides further proof that it was at that time that Pekah began his reign. These synchronisms of II Kings 15:32 and 16:1 are not artificial and they are not late. No scribe of

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2752-513: The Assyrians found horsemen and horses, tamed as colts for riding, that were unequalled in the south, where they were harnessed to Assyrian war-chariots. In 714 BC, the Urartian kingdom suffered heavily from Cimmerian raids and the campaigns of Sargon II . The main temple at Musasir was sacked, and the Urartian king Rusa I was crushingly defeated by Sargon II at Lake Urmia. He subsequently committed suicide in shame. Rusa's son Argishti II (714–685 BC) restored Urartu's position against

2838-659: The Behistun Inscription (c. 522 BC) refer to Armenia and Armenians as synonyms of Urartu and Urartians . The toponym Urartu did not disappear, however, as the name of the province of Ayrarat in the center of the Kingdom of Armenia is believed to be its continuum. As the Armenian identity developed in the region, the memory of Urartu faded and disappeared. Parts of its history passed down as popular stories and were preserved in Armenia, as written by Movses Khorenatsi in

2924-498: The Bible." Albright was not, however, a biblical literalist ; in his Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan , for example, he argued that Yahwism and ancient Caananite religion had a reciprocal relationship, in which "both gained much in the exchange which set in about the tenth century and continued until the fifth century B.C". Although primarily a biblical archaeologist, Albright was a polymath who made contributions in almost every field of Near Eastern studies: an example of his range

3010-463: The Cimmerians, however it was no longer a threat to Assyria and peace was made with the new king of Assyria Sennacherib in 705 BC. This, in turn, helped Urartu enter a long period of development and prosperity, which continued through the reign of Argishti's son Rusa II (685–645 BC). After Rusa II, however, Urartu grew weaker under constant attacks from Cimmerian and Scythian invaders. As

3096-679: The Kelishin stele, accompanied by a heavy military escort. The Gulf War then closed these sites to archaeological research. Oktay Belli resumed excavation of Urartian sites on Turkish territory: in 1989 Ayanis, a 7th-century BC fortress built by Rusas II of Urartu , was discovered 35 km north of Van. In spite of excavations, only a third to a half of the 300 known Urartian sites in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Armenia have been examined by archaeologists (Wartke 1993). Without protection, many sites have been plundered by local residents searching for treasure and other saleable antiquities. On 12 November 2017, it

3182-459: The Lake Van region from their religious capital of Musasir . According to Zimansky, the Urartian ruling class were few in number and governed over an ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse population. Zimansky went so far as to suggest that the kings of Urartu might have come from various ethnic backgrounds themselves. Assyria fell into a period of temporary stagnation for decades during

3268-487: The Scythians conquered Assyria after it had been irreversibly weakened by civil war. The Medes then took over the Urartian capital of Van in 590 BC, effectively ending the sovereignty of Urartu. However, some historians believe that Urartu survived until the middle of the 6th century BC and was eventually destroyed by Cyrus the Great. Many Urartian ruins of the period show evidence of destruction by fire. The Kingdom of Van

3354-507: The Urartian pantheon include: Ḫaldi was not a native Urartian god but apparently an obscure Akkadian deity (which explains the location of the main temple of worship for Ḫaldi in Musasir , believed to be near modern Rawandiz, Iraq ). Ḫaldi was not initially worshiped by the Urartians as their chief god. His cult does not appear to have been introduced until the reign of Ishpuini . Theispas

3440-556: The ancient kingdom of Urartu extended over the modern frontiers of Turkey , Iran , Iraq , and the Republic of Armenia . Its kings left behind cuneiform inscriptions in the Urartian language , a member of the Hurro-Urartian language family . Since its re-discovery in the 19th century, Urartu, which is commonly believed to have been at least partially Armenian -speaking, has played

3526-412: The biblical archaeology movement. He served as the W. W. Spence Professor of Semitic Languages at Johns Hopkins University from 1930 to 1958 and was the Director of the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem for several terms between 1922 and 1936. Albright made significant contributions to the fields of Near Eastern studies , biblical archaeology , and ceramic typology, and his work has had

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3612-589: The city of the god of war, Teišeba . Excavations by the American scholars Kirsopp and Silva Lake in 1938-40 were cut short by World War II , and most of their finds and field records were lost when a German submarine torpedoed their ship, the SS ; Athenia . Their surviving documents were published by Manfred Korfmann in 1977. A new phase of excavations began after the war. Excavations were at first restricted to Soviet Armenia . The fortress of Karmir Blur, dating from

3698-409: The complete mitochondrial genomes of 4 ancient skeletons from Urartu were analyzed alongside other ancient populations found in modern-day Armenia and Artsakh spanning 7,800 years. The study shows that modern-day Armenians are the people who have the least genetic distance from those ancient skeletons. As well, some scholars asserted that the Urartians are the most easily identifiable ancestors of

3784-498: The cuneiform AŠ in the cuneiform dictionaries (AŠ 2 = AŠ). And the cuneiform AŠ has 3 ru readings. Assyrian inscriptions of Shalmaneser I (c. 1274 BC) first mention Uruatri as one of the states of Nairi , a loose confederation of small kingdoms and tribal states in the Armenian Highlands in the thirteenth to eleventh centuries BC which he conquered. Uruartri itself was in the region around Lake Van . The Nairi states were repeatedly subjected to further attacks and invasions by

3870-518: The diplomatic intervention of Wilhelm II , Sultan Abdul Hamid II agreed to pay Belck a sum of 80,000 gold marks in reparation. During World War I , the Lake Van region briefly fell under Russian control. In 1916, the Russian scholars Nikolay Yakovlevich Marr and Iosif Abgarovich Orbeli , excavating at the Van fortress, uncovered a four-faced stele carrying the annals of Sarduri II. In 1939 Boris Piotrovsky excavated Karmir Blur , discovering Teišebai ,

3956-588: The dominant German biblical criticism of the day, largely accurate. This area remains widely contested among scholars. Albright's student George Ernest Wright inherited his leadership of the biblical archaeology movement, contributing definitive work at Shechem and Gezer . Albright inspired, trained and worked with the first generation of world-class Israeli archaeologists, who have carried on his work, and maintained his perspective. Other students such as Joseph Fitzmyer , Frank Moore Cross , Raymond E. Brown , and David Noel Freedman , became international leaders in

4042-536: The fields of sociology and the sociology of religion ), Albright created and advanced the discipline of biblical archaeology, which is now taught at universities worldwide and has exponents across national, cultural, and religious lines. Albright's publication in the Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research , 1932, of his excavations of Tell Beit Mirsim, and descriptions of the Bronze Age and Iron Age layers at

4128-431: The first half of the 9th century BC, which had aided Urartu's growth. Within a short time it became one of the largest and most powerful states in the Near East . Sarduri I (c. 832–820 BC), the son of Lutipri, established a new dynasty and successfully resisted Assyrian attacks from the south led by Shalmaneser III, consolidated the military power of the state, and moved the capital to Tushpa (modern Van, Turkey, on

4214-568: The form of garbled legends in his 5th century book History of Armenia , where he speaks of a first Armenian Kingdom in Van which fought wars against the Assyrians. Khorenatsi's stories of these wars with Assyria would help in the rediscovery of Urartu. According to Herodotus, the Alarodians ( Alarodioi ) were part of the 18th Satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire and formed a special contingent in

4300-517: The grand army of Xerxes I . Some scholars have tried to link the Alarodians to Urartians, suggesting that Alarodian was a variation of the name Urartian / Araratian . According to this theory, the Urartians of the 18th Satrapy were subsequently absorbed into the Armenian nation. Modern historians, however, have cast doubt on the Alarodian connection to the Urartians. In a study published in 2017,

4386-434: The greater use of stone compared to neighbouring cultures. The typical temple was square, with stone walls as thick as the open internal area but using mud brick for the higher part. These were placed at the highest point of a citadel and from surviving depictions were high, perhaps with gabled roofs; their emphasis on verticality has been claimed as an influence of later Christian Armenian architecture . The art of Urartu

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4472-567: The historical background. He then found that the regnal years for Judah and Israel that can be constructed from the Biblical texts fit into the known movements of the Assyrian kings during this time. The calendars for reckoning the years of kings in Judah and Israel were offset by six months, that of Judah starting in Tishri (in the fall) and that of Israel in Nisan (in the spring). Cross-synchronizations between

4558-459: The increasing corruption of the Northern Kingdom began to permeate Judah, as is seen in the words of Isaiah and Micah. Hosea's references to Judah indicate also a lack of purity of life and worship under Jotham's reign. Biblical chronologies for the two Israelite kingdoms in the 8th century BC are both profuse and perplexing. Some of the reign lengths or synchronisms are given from the start of

4644-511: The inscription of the Assyrian king Nabopolassar (in 626 - 604 BC) and in the Behistun inscription of the Achaemenid Iranian king Darius I (in 522-486 BC), the name of Armenia is presented in the form UR-AŠ 2 -TU= URAŠTU. Some authors ( S. Yeremyan , B. Piotrovsky , I. Dyakonoff , U. Horovits and others) distinguish URAŠTU from URARTU, but consider them equivalent names. In order for

4730-473: The jewellery in precious metals that the Assyrians boasted of carrying off in great quantities from Musasir in 714 BC. The Urartian pantheon seems to have comprised a diverse mix of Hurrian, Akkadian, Armenian, and Hittite deities. Starting with the reign of Ishpuini, the Urartian pantheon was headed by a triad made up of Ḫaldi (the supreme god), Theispas (Teisheba, god of thunder and storms, as well as sometimes war), and Shivini (a solar god). Their king

4816-561: The late 1840s Sir Austen Henry Layard examined and described the Urartian rock-cut tombs of Van Castle , including the Argishti chamber. From the 1870s, local residents began to plunder the Toprakkale ruins, selling its artefacts to European collections. In the 1880s this site underwent a poorly executed excavation organised by Hormuzd Rassam on behalf of the British Museum . Almost nothing

4902-438: The long run, it will have been the newer 'secular' archaeology that contributed the most to Biblical studies, not 'Biblical archaeology.' Biblical scholar Thomas L. Thompson wrote that by 2002 the methods of "biblical archaeology" had also become outmoded: [ Wright and Albright's] historical interpretation can make no claim to be objective, proceeding as it does from a methodology which distorts its data by selectivity which

4988-499: The most powerful kingdoms of ancient Near East. Argishti I added more territories along the Aras and Lake Sevan , and frustrated Shalmaneser IV 's campaigns against him. Argishti also founded several new cities, most notably Erebuni Fortress in 782 BC. 6600 prisoners of war from Hatti and Supani were settled in the new city. At its height, the Urartu kingdom stretched north beyond

5074-576: The ninth century BC as a powerful northern rival to the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Nairi states and tribes became unified kingdom under King Arame of Urartu (c. 860–843 BC), whose capitals, first at Sugunia and then at Arzashkun , were captured by the Assyrians under the Neo-Assyrian emperor Shalmaneser III . Urartologist Paul Zimansky speculated that the Urartians, or at least their ruling family after Arame, may have emigrated northwest into

5160-446: The northeast, and the Taurus mountains at the south. It was centred around Lake Van, which is located in present-day eastern Anatolia . At its apogee , Urartu stretched from the borders of northern Mesopotamia to the southern Caucasus , including present-day Turkey , Nakhchivan , Armenia and southern Georgia (up to the river Kura). The Taurus mountains also served as a natural barrier against southern threats, particularly from

5246-415: The public in 1948 for his role in the authentication of the Dead Sea Scrolls , but made his scholarly reputation as the leading theorist and practitioner of biblical archaeology , "that branch of archaeology that sheds light upon 'the social and political structure, the religious concepts and practices and other human activities and relationships that are found in the Bible or pertain to peoples mentioned in

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5332-399: The region. The name form of Armenia URARTU appears in 2 Assyrian inscriptions from the 9th century BC. Urartologists identify with this name form the land names mat U-RU-A Ţ -RI mentioned by Shalmaneser I (at the beginning of XIII century) and mat U-RA Ţ -RI mentioned by Adad-nirari II (at the end of X century). The name forms URARTU and Ararat differ by one vowel (the vowel “a”

5418-507: The reign of Rusa II, was excavated by a team headed by Boris Piotrovsky, and for the first time the excavators of a Urartian site published their findings systematically. Beginning in 1956 Charles A. Burney identified and sketch-surveyed many Urartian sites in the Lake Van area and, from 1959, a Turkish expedition under Tahsin Özgüç excavated Altintepe and Arif Erzen. In the late 1960s, Urartian sites in northwest Iran were excavated. In 1976, an Italian team led by Mirjo Salvini finally reached

5504-424: The sacrificial offerings. Urartians did not practice human sacrifice. A number of the gods mentioned in the Gate of Mehr may be of Armenian origins, including Ara (or Arwaa), and possibly the goddess Selardi (although there is confusion about this deity's gender and name, some believe it is to be read Melardi). It has been suggested that the Urartian pantheon could correspond to mountain peaks located within

5590-444: The selection of cultures and methods of processing. From cuneiform sources, it is known that in Urartu grew wheat , barley , sesame , millet , and emmer , and cultivated gardens and vineyards. Many regions of the Urartu state required artificial irrigation, which has successfully been organized by the rulers of Urartu in the heyday of the state. In several regions remain ancient irrigation canals, constructed by Urartu, mainly during

5676-416: The shore of Lake Van ). His son, Ispuini (c. 820–800 BC) annexed the neighbouring state of Musasir, which became an important religious centre of the Urartian Kingdom, and introduced the cult of Ḫaldi . Ispuini was also the first Urartian king to write in the Urartian language (previous kings left records written in Akkadian ). He made his son Sarduri II viceroy. After conquering Musasir, Ispuini

5762-414: The site in 1938 and 1943, marked a major contribution to the dating of sites based on ceramic typologies, which is still in use. "With this work, Albright made Israeli archaeology into a science, instead of what it had formerly been: a digging in which the details are more or less well-described in an indifferent chronological framework which is as general as possible and often wildly wrong". As editor of

5848-413: The state had to pay taxes the central government: grain, horses, bulls, etc. In peacetime, Urartu probably led an active trade with Assyria, providing cattle, horses, iron and wine . According to archaeological data, farming on the territory of Urartu developed from the Neolithic , even in the 3rd millennium BC. In the Urartian age, agriculture was well developed and closely related to Assyrian methods on

5934-537: The study of the Bible and the ancient Near East, including Northwest Semitic epigraphy and paleography. John Bright , Cyrus H. McCormick Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Interpretation at Union Seminary in Richmond (PhD, Johns Hopkins, 1940), went on to become "the first distinguished American historian of the Old Testament" and "arguably the most influential scholar of the Albright school", owing to his "distinctly American commonsense flavor, similar to that of W[illiam] James ". Thus Albright and his students influenced

6020-484: The surrounding regions from Lake Van to the west. Urartian inscriptions were found in Kepenek Castle , located on a hill near the center of Muş, and in the Alazlı . Inspired by the writings of the medieval Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi (who had described Urartian works in Van and attributed them to the legendary Ara the Beautiful and Queen Semiramis ), the French scholar Antoine-Jean Saint-Martin suggested that his government send Friedrich Eduard Schulz ,

6106-444: The time had come to submit or be crushed. In 735 it is altogether likely that a pro-Assyrian group felt itself strong enough to force Jotham into retirement and to place Ahaz on the throne. Although Jotham continued to live to his (Ahaz') twentieth year (II Kings 15:30), 732/31, it was Ahaz who directed affairs from 735. Thiele therefore explained the reason for the complexity of the chronological data for this time by taking into account

6192-473: The two kingdoms therefore often allow narrowing of the beginning and/or ending dates of a king to within a six-month range. For Jotham, the Scriptural data allow the narrowing of the beginning of his coregency with Uzziah as occurring some time in the six-month interval on or following Nisan 1, 750 BCE. In terms of Judean reckoning, this would be in the year that started in Tishri of 751 BCE. His sole reign began in

6278-568: The upper gate of the house of Yhwh and to have avoided the rashnesswhich allowed his father to enter the Temple (II Chron. xxvii. 2). "He built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers." He also defeated the Ammonites, who paid him an immense annual tribute. His might is attributed by the Chronicler (ib. xxvii. 6) to his having "ordered his ways before Yhwh, his God."But

6364-505: The writing form URAŠTU to be identical with URARTU=Ararat, it is necessary for the AŠ2 cuneiform sign to have the reading ru/ra. There is no direct evidence in existing cuneiform dictionaries that the AŠ 2 cuneiform sign has such readings. However, there are a number of side data that confirm the existence of these readings of the AŠ 2 cuneiform. The reading aš 2 of the cuneiform sign AŠ 2 was expressed by

6450-426: The year that started on Tishri 1, 740 BCE, and its end was in the six-month interval that started on Nisan 1, 735 BCE. His death occurred in the year that started in Tishri, 732 BCE. In the mid-1990s, an inscribed bulla seal belonging to Jotham's son, Ahaz, showed up on the antiquities market. The inscription read, “Belonging to Ahaz (son of) Yehotam , King of Judah”. As the seal was unprovenanced , its authenticity

6536-502: The years 743 to 740 BC, capturing the city after three years. In face of this threat, Rezin of Damascus made an alliance with Pekah of Israel, and the two were therefore enemies of the pro-Assyrian king of Judah, Ahaz ( Isaiah 7:1 ). Meanwhile, Menahem, ruling in Samaria, sent tribute to Tiglath-Pileser (Biblical Pul) to "strengthen his hold on the kingdom," (2 Kings 15:19), apparently against his anti-Assyrian rival Pekah. According to Thiele, it

6622-458: The years since his death, Albright's methods and conclusions have been increasingly questioned. In 1993, William G. Dever wrote that: [Albright's] central theses have all been overturned, partly by further advances in Biblical criticism , but mostly by the continuing archaeological research of younger Americans and Israelis to whom he himself gave encouragement and momentum... The irony is that, in

6708-548: Was a version of the Hurrian god, Teshub . According to Diakonoff and Vyacheslav Ivanov , Shivini (likely pronounced Shiwini or Siwini ) was likely borrowed from the Hittites. On the Gate of Mehr (Mehri-Dur), overlooking modern Van, an inscription lists a total of 79 deities, and what type of sacrificial offerings should be made to each; goats, sheep, cattle, and other animals served as

6794-408: Was also the chief-priest or envoy of Ḫaldi. Some temples to Ḫaldi were part of the royal palace complex, while others were independent structures. With the expansion of Urartian territory, many of the gods worshipped by conquered peoples were incorporated into the Urartian pantheon as a means of confirming the annexation of territories and promoting political stability. Some main gods and goddesses of

6880-621: Was announced that archaeologists in Turkey had discovered the ruins of a Urartian castle during underwater excavations around Lake Van. The castle dated to the 8th or 7th centuries BC. The economic structure of Urartu was similar to other states of the ancient world, especially Assyria. The state was heavily dependent on agriculture , which required centralized irrigation . These works were managed by kings, but implemented by free inhabitants and possibly slave labour provided by prisoners. Royal governors, influential people and, perhaps, free peoples had their own allotments. Individual territories within

6966-518: Was clearly apparent. He insisted, for example, that "as a whole, the picture in Genesis is historical, and there is no reason to doubt the general accuracy of the biographical details" (i.e., of figures such as Abraham ). Similarly he claimed that archaeology had proved the essential historicity of the Book of Exodus , and the conquest of Canaan as described in the Book of Joshua and the Book of Judges . In

7052-644: Was destroyed in 590 BC and by the late 6th century, the Satrapy of Armenia had replaced it. Little is known of what happened to the region between the fall of the Kingdom of Van and the appearance of the Satrapy of Armenia. According to historian Touraj Daryaee, during the Armenian rebellion against the Persian king Darius I in 521 BC, some of the personal and topographic names attested in connection with Armenia or Armenians were of Urartian origin, suggesting that Urartian elements persisted within Armenia after its fall. In

7138-439: Was in turn attacked by Shamshi-Adad V . His co-regent and subsequent successor, Menua (c. 800–785 BC) also enlarged the kingdom greatly and left inscriptions over a wide area. During Ispuini's and Menua's joint rule, they shifted from referring to their territory as Nairi, instead opting for Bianili . Urartu reached the highest point of its military might under Menua's son Argishti I (c. 785–760 BC), becoming one of

7224-440: Was prevented by Turkish-Armenian hostilities. Belck together with Lehmann-Haupt visited the area again in 1898/9, excavating Toprakkale. On this expedition, Belck reached the Kelishin stele, but he was attacked by Kurds and barely escaped with his life. Belck and Lehmann-Haupt reached the stele again in a second attempt, but were again prevented from copying the inscription by weather conditions. After another assault on Belck provoked

7310-472: Was properly documented. The first systematic collection of Urartian inscriptions, and thus the beginning of Urartology as a specialized field dates to the 1870s, with the campaign of Sir Archibald Henry Sayce . The German engineer Karl Sester, discoverer of Mount Nemrut , collected more inscriptions in 1890/1. Waldemar Belck visited the area in 1891, discovering the Rusa stele. A further expedition planned for 1893

7396-607: Was published in 1828. Schulz and four of his servants were murdered by Kurds in 1829 near Başkale . His notes were later recovered and published in Paris in 1840. In 1828, the British Assyriologist Henry Creswicke Rawlinson had attempted to copy the inscription on the Kelishin stele, but failed because of the ice on the stele's front side. The German scholar R. Rosch made a similar attempt a few years later, but he and his party were attacked and killed. In

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