Читать книгу A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire, 2 Volume Set - Группа авторов - Страница 185

Mirjo Salvini

On the southern slope of the Rock of Van, on the eastern shore of Lake Van in eastern Turkey, still today one can admire this trilingual inscription by Xerxes, son of Darius (Figure 26.1):

Figure 26.1 Van, trilingual rock inscription of Xerxes I.

“A great god is Ahuramazda, the greatest of gods (…) (16–27) Saith Xerxes the king: King Darius, who was my father, he by the favour of Ahuramazda built much good (construction), and this niche he gave orders to dig out, where he did not cause an inscription (to be) engraved. Afterwards I gave orders to engrave this inscription. May Ahuramazda together with the gods protect me, and my kingdom, and what has been built by me”

(Schmitt 2009: pp. 180–182: XVa).

In spite of its generic content, there is a symbolic and programmatic significance in the very fact that this inscription was engraved in the central part of Van Kalesi (Figure 26.2), the old Urartian capital Ṭušpa, beside the monumental rock chambers and inscriptions of the Urartian kings of the ninth and eighth centuries BCE. This is the only royal Achaemenid inscription outside of Persia. Its position proves that Darius and Xerxes were fascinated by the site and recognized the importance of the old kingdom of Urarṭu − henceforth part of the Achaemenid Empire as the satrapy of Armina (Old Persian § 6 I: Schmitt 2009: pp. 36–91)/Urašṭu (Accadian § 6.23.24: Malbran‐Labat 1994) – for the ideology of their kingship (Seidl 1994).

Figure 26.2 The Rock of Van in 2008.

Although 瞈ušpa at Xerxes' time had been abandoned for one and a half centuries, the monumental achievements of the Urartian kings were certainly visible between the end of the sixth and the beginning of the fifth centuries BCE.

It would be astonishing if the Persian kings, knowing the accomplishments of this civilization, which was older than the Median one, were not somewhat influenced by it.