When people talk about Urartu, they usually picture a powerful Iron Age kingdom that rose suddenly around Lake Van and then “collapsed” just as suddenly in the 7th–6th centuries BCE. In most popular narratives, Urartu vanishes in a blaze: Cimmerians, Scythians, Medes, fire, destruction, the usual suspects. But if you follow the stones themselves,...
New Artaxiad border-stone with Aramaic inscription found in Ardahan
In a remote village of Ardahan province of historic Armenia (modernday northeastern Turkey), archaeologists have uncovered an ancient stone bearing an inscription in the Aramaic language. The artifact has since been transferred to the Kars Archaeology and Ethnography Museum, in neighbouring Kars province, for detailed study. This is the first known Aramaic-language inscription documented...
The Floppy Hats of Urartu
Urartu, a rival kingdom to Assyria in the early 1st millennium BCE, is frequently mentioned and depicted in Neo-Assyrian sources. Among the visual depictions, one curious feature stands out: Urartian figures are often shown wearing distinctive “floppy” hats. These soft, conical caps with drooping peaks appear in Assyrian palace reliefs and have become an...
Who were the Urartians? – Introduction – [Part 1]
Dear reader, it has been a while since I’ve made a post on this blog. The long delay was partially caused by the latest situation in Artsakh, after which, like many of us, I’ve lost some emotional energy for writing, and partially because I was, as much as I possibly could, researching the kingdom...
Freedom or Peace? My thoughts on the political crisis in Armenia
When I first started this blog I promised myself to never write about politics; not because it’s unimportant or outside of my personal interest, but because there are few domains that are capable of dividing a nation as much as politics. But desperate times require desperate measures so I too will weigh in on...
Dreams of Armenia [Video]
I haven’t made a video in a long while. Browsing through my files I came across an old one that I never finished. So I decided to finally finish it and show it the light of day. Here it is. Enjoy my dreams of Armenia.
The Enigmatic Stars of Artsakh
It’s well known that Artsakh (a.k.a. Nagorno-Karabakh) is a magical place. From the heaven reaching mountains to the unexplored caverns that hold secrets to human evolution and countless archaeological sights, Artsakh is unique in many ways. But not many have probably heard of the little star-shaped stones that, according to a local legend, are raining...
Ruins of a 3000 year old Armenian castle found in Lake Van – Turkey
A team of Turkish archaeologists has discovered the remains of what is believed to be a 3,000-year-old castle from the Armenian kingdom of Urartu (Ararat) submerged underwater in Lake Van. The underwater excavations were led by Van Yüzüncü Yıl University and the governorship of Turkey’s eastern Bitlis Province. The castle is said to belong to the...
Iron age Armenian antiques found by Hungarian police in a truck
Hungarian police released footage of ancient artifacts smuggled last year by a Turkish truck driver under way to Lithuania. The trove included ancient Sumerian, Persian, Assyrian and most of all Armenian antiquities of the Urartian era (Kingdom of Van). The artifacts dated to as early as 900 BC., included a helmet, small bells and horse tack, were...
