8/6/2019 Urartian Rulers

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URARU (NAIRI, BIAINILI)

The early Iron Age population of the Armenian plateau around Lake Van appears to have been urrian inorigin, perhaps indicating continuity with the Late Bronze Age and a remnant of the Upper Mesopotamiankingdom of Mittani/anigalbat. Uraru (Biainili in Urarian) itself appears for the first time in the sourcesunder the name Uruari in the reign of ulmnu-aard I of Assyria (12631233). Later Assyrian interventionsin the northern countries (Nairi) do not mention this name again until the reign of Aur-bl-kala (10741056).Several campaigns of the Assyrian king ulmnu-aard III were aimed against the same Urarian king Arame inthe 850s and 840s BC. He was followed by a series of kings who may have constituted a new dynasty reigningfrom upa (Van), and extending their control far to the north (around Lake Sevan) and west (Erzurum and theheadwaters of the Tigris). These kings invested heavily in agriculture and urbanization; in or near the valley ofthe Araxes alone they built Menuainili, Argitiinili (Armavir), Erebuni (Erevan), and Teiebaini. In thesouthwest and the southeast the kings of Uraru clashed with Assyria for control of vassal states, most notablythe city of Muair (Ardini in Urarian), with its great temple to the god aldi.

Although Assyria proved unable to destroy or conquer Uraru, it did contain its interventions into northernSyria in the 740s and the Assyrian king arru-kn II launched a devastating attack on the core of the Urariankingdom, driving king Rusa I to suicide in 714. Relations between the two kingdoms appear to have become

peaceful in the 7th century, with Uraru apparently becoming a nominal vassal of the Assyrians. Urarian powermay well have been crippled by the invasions of Cimmerians (Gimirri) and Scythians (Ikuza), and in the end,

precisely at what time and in what circumstances we cannot tell, the area must have found itself part of the vast

but probably decentralized Mdian Empire.Names in the list below are represented as much as possible in their native Urarian rather than Akkadianforms: thus Sarduri and notItar-dri. The chronology of Uraru is entirely dependent on the occasionalreferences in Assyrian sources. Because of this the explicit synchronisms of Urarian kings with Assyrian rulersare indicated below.

Kings of Uraru/Biainilic.860840 Arame king in Arakun (~ ulmnu-aard III in 859, 855, 844)c.840825 Sarduri I son of Lutipri; king in upa (~ ulmnu-aard III in 832)c.825810 Ipuini son of Sarduri I (~ am-Adad V in 818)c.810785 Menua son of Ipuini; associated by 815?

Inupua son of Menua; associated 790785?c.785750 Argiti I son of Menua (~ Aur-nrr V, 755745)

c.750735 Sarduri II son of Argiti I (~ Tukult-apil-Earra III in 743, 742)c.735714 Rusa I son of Sarduri II (~ arru-kn II in 714)c.714685 Argiti II son of Rusa I (~ arru-kn II in 708)c.685640 Rusa II son of Argiti II (~ Aur-aa-iddina and Aur-bni-apli in 673 and 653)c.640625 Sarduri III son of Rusa II (~ Aur-bni-apli in 639)c.625615 Sarduri IV son of Sarduri IIIc.615595 Rusa III son of Erimena, son of (?) Rusa IIc.595585 Rusa IV son of Rusa III

(c.585 to the Mdian Empire)