Читать книгу A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire, 2 Volume Set - Группа авторов - Страница 186

In the Assyrian annals we first encounter the name of Urarṭu (in the forms Uraṭri/Uruaṭri), which was one of the principal objectives of the Assyrian expeditions toward the northern mountains from the Middle Assyrian period on, that is to say starting from the thirteenth century BCE (Salvini 1995: 18 ff). The populations that settled north of the Taurus range were repeatedly invaded by the Assyrian armies of Shalmaneser I (1273–1244), Tukulti‐Ninurta I (1243–1207), Tiglath‐pileser I (1114–1076), and Aššur‐bel‐kala (1073–1056). The name Urarṭu is attested in the Assyrian annals from the ninth century onward. But also Nairi (RlA s.v.) is important for the history of Urarṭu, because the first Urartian kings of the ninth century BCE, Sarduri I (RlA s.v.) and his son Išpuini (in the Assyrian version of his bilingual stela of Kelišin: CTU A 3‐11) claimed to be “king of the country of Nairi,” thus linking up with a prestigious political tradition of the independent mountain populations. The cuneiform inscriptions of Išpuini and the following kings designate them even as “King of the country of Biainili,” a local name which later corresponds to Urarṭu in the Assyrian version of the bilingual stelae by Rusa I (CTU A 10‐3, Movana, and 5, Topzawa).

One of the natural gates through the eastern Taurus lies on the modern road connecting Diyarbakır with Bingöl. In the eleventh century BCE Tiglath‐pileser I, and after him Shalmaneser III in the ninth century, left written records on the border of the Urartian territory: the famous reliefs and inscriptions on the “Tigristunnel” (RlA s.v.). The annals of Shalmaneser III record the conquest of Sugunia, the city of “Aramu, the Urartian,” in 858 BCE and his “royal city” of Arzaškun in 856 BCE. In 832 BCE the Assyrian field marshal crossed the river Arsania (Murad Su) and defeated “Seduru, the Urartian” (RlA s.v. Salmanassar III). This new name is the link with the indigenous Urartian documentation, namely with Sarduri I (RlA s.v.).