2014 Elements of Royal Ideology in Urartian Texts

Studies in Economic and Social History of the Ancient Near East in Memory of Péter Vargyas

| Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean Studies |

Volume 2

series editors

zoltán csabai

department of ancient history

and

tibor grüll

department of ancient history

the university of pécs, hungary – l’harmattan hungary

Studies in Economic and Social History of the Ancient Near East in Memory of Péter Vargyas

edited by: zoltán csabai

Department of Ancient History, The University of Pécsl’harmattan, budapest

2014

Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean Studies

edited by Zoltán Csabai and Tibor Grüll

Volume 2

Supporters:

The University of Pécs

The Hungarian Society for Ancient Studies.

The editorial work was supported by the European Union and the State

of Hungary, co-fi nanced by the European Social Fund in the framework of

TÁMOP-4.2.4.A/ 2-11/1-2012-0001 ‘National Excellence Program’.

© Authors, 2014

© Zoltán Csabai, 2014

© L’Harmattan, 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in

a retrival system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – for example,

electronic, photocopy, recording – without the prior written permission of

the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

péter vargyas (1950 – 2009)

Table of Contents

Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

In memory of Péter Vargyas (1950–2009)

László Török . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Publications of Péter Vargyas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

PART ONE

THIRD AND SECOND MILLENNIUM B.C.

Le prix de rachat des captifs d’après les archives paléo-babyloniennes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Dominique Charpin

Les problèmes économiques d’un sheich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Jean-Marie Durand

On Old Babylonian Palastgeschäft in Larsa. The meaning of sūtum

and the ‘circulation’ of silver in state/private business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Zsombor Földi

The Sumerian verb �ug̃ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119Szilvia Jáka-Sövegjártó

Große „private“ Haushalte in der altbabylonischen Zeit in

der Mittlerrolle zwischen Königtum und Untertanen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Gábor Kalla

From Agade to Samaria: The Infl ationary Price of Barley in Situations of Famine . . . . . . 167

Jacob Klein

8 • Table of Contents

Les clauses en tukum-bi dans les textes de prêt de l’époque d’Ur III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Bertrand Lafont

Le rôle économique des dattes dans l’Égypte du Nouvel Empire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Bernadette Menu

Some questions of prices, metals and money in „Old Assyriology” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Zoltán Pálfi

From Counting to Writing: The Quest for Abstraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Denise Schmandt-Besserat

Aspekte einer Sozialgeschichte der spätfrühdynastischen Zeit. Das Beispiel Lagas,

oder: „The inhabited ghosts of our intellectual ancestors” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Gebhard J. Selz

Eighteen Cuneiform Inscriptions from the Ur III and Old-Babylonian Periods . . . . . . . . 283

Marcel Sigrist and Uri Gabbay

Alašian products in Hittite sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Itamar Singer (Z’’L) and Graciela Gestoso Singer

Zulapi – eine Grossmacht im spätbronzezeitlichen Syrien? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Béla Stipich

The semantics of verbal plurality in Sumerian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Bálint Tanos

Silver in Old Assyrian Trade. Shapes, Qualities and Purifi cation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Klaas R. Veenhof

Understanding Economic Growth: The Importance of Money

in Economic History and Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423

David A. Warburton

Table of Contents • 9

PART TWO

FIRST MILLENNIUM B.C.

Jenseits der assyrischen Grenze. Das Bild des Feindes in

den neuassyrischen Königsinschriften . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485

Tamás K. Árvai

Interpretation of a medical commentary text BAM 401 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

András Bácskay

Elements of the Royal Ideology in Urartian Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521

Attila Buhály

Did Seleucid kings impose payments made only in fresh coins

of their own coinages? Units of account, not real coins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

François de Callataÿ

The Economic Determination of the Changing Interests. A Survey Based on

the Loan Documents of the Neo-Babylonian Sîn-uballi/ Archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557

Henrietta Cseke

Documentary Evidence on Wine from the Eanna Temple Archives in Uruk . . . . . . . . . 579

Muhammad A. Dandamayev

Babyloniaca from Qumran – Mesopotamian lore in Qumran Aramaic texts . . . . . . . . . 587

Ida Fröhlich

Les marchands mésopotamiens et la théorie des jeux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603

Laetitia Graslin-Thomé

Expositio totius mundi et gentium. A peculiar work on the commerce of Roman Empire

from the mid-fourth century – compiled by a Syrian textile dealer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629

Tibor Grüll

Die datio in solutum in neubabylonischer Zeit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643

Alessandro Hirata

A Late Babylonian Astrological Tablet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657

Hermann Hunger

10 • Table of Contents

Neues zur Verwendung von mah˘

ir im Eanna-Archiv eine Anomalie? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671

Bojana Janković und Michaela Weszeli

Spätbabylonische Sklavenpreise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683

Joachim Oelsner

A Sasanian taxation list or an Early Islamic booty? A Medieval Persian source

and the Sasanian taxation system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701

Miklós Sárközy

Remarks on the Anatolian Background of the Tel Re�ov Bees and

the Historical Geography of the Luwian States in the 10th c. BC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715

Zsolt Simon

Greeks on Phoenicians. Can we rely on what the Greeks have said? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739

László Vilmos

Double Family Names in Neo-Babylonian Records: The Case of the Ē iru

and ¡ābi�u Families and Their Butchers’ Prebends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751

Cornelia Wunsch

Neo-Assyrian kārus in the Zagros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789

Ádám Vér

Chronologische Aspekte der babylonischen Zinsen in der frühneubabylonischen

und neubabylonischen Zeit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 811

Zoltán Csabai

Databasing the Commodity Chits of the Idumean Ostraca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 825

Bezalel Porten

Foreword

Family, friends, colleagues and all those who knew them stood bereft of speech following the deaths of Péter Vargyas and Éva Darvas, and were trying to make sense of the personal tragedy of these two wonderful people, looking for ways to alleviate the pain their absence had caused. It was only several months later that we realized the irretrievable loss Hungarian Assyriology had suff ered. Péter Vargyas had been the fi rst and until today only Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences within the discipline, whose excellence was acknowledged by both the domestic and the international scholarly community. We had been robbed of a scientist with a number of friends in the fi eld, with formidable international experience, and a wide range of connections in the discipline all over the world.

He was a charismatic fi gure of Hungarian Assyriology, who prioritized the quality and the far-reaching, valuable results of research. He always underlined the researcher’s objectivity, and stressed the equality of the participants of a debate. This is the attitude that students at university, and young scholars at domestic academic programs could learn from him, and this won him recognition outside Hungary, as his numerous invitations to international events testify. He intended to use the innovative experiences gathered during his study trips abroad in Hungary as well, but these intentions were sadly not always well-received. The two decades spent at two major Hungarian universities nevertheless have left their mark. The Department of Ancient History at the University of Pécs will attempt to carry on this scholarly and spiritual legacy.

Three research topics stood out from the diverse fi elds that Péter Vargyas’s work touched upon. These were the society and economy of Ugarit, the history of Babylonian prices, and the monetary history of the Ancient Near East. When we fi rst contemplated producing a memorial volume in honour of his scholarly work, these were the areas

12 • Foreword

that came to mind, so we asked the authors to choose their essay topics, if possible, within the broader area of Ancient Near Eastern economic and social history. We hope we have succeeded in assembling a volume that refl ects adequately on Péter Vargyas’ scholarly career.

We would like to thank all the authors of the essays dedicated to the memory of Péter Vargyas, who accepted our call and enriched these volumes with their contributions. We are especially grateful for the patience they displayed during the prolonged editing process. Sadly two of our collaborators could not live to see the publication of the volumes. We learned with great sadness of the death of Itamar Singer in 2012, who repeatedly expressed his support for our eff orts, and always off ered us words of encouragement when we needed them most. It is also with great sorrow that we were informed of the passing of János Everling in spring 2013, who was an exceptionally talented former student of Péter Vargyas.

The participants, apart from the friends and colleagues of Péter Vargyas, also include former students who now work at various Hungarian universities: Henrietta Cseke (Kodolányi János University of Applied Sciences), András Bácskay (Pázmány Péter Catholic University), Miklós Sárközy (Károli Gáspár University of the Hungarian Reformed Church), and the editor of this volume (University of Pécs). He also supported and encouraged several young talents, beginning in the 1980s, many of whom are today internationally known academics in the fi eld of Assyriology.

There is not enough space to thank all the supporters and helpers who facilitated our work, yet we would like to express our gratitude to Ádám Vér and Vera Benczik for their continual assistance. We would also like to extend our thanks to Bálint Tanos, who in the autumn of 2012 substantially contributed to the editorial and pre-printing work of the fi rst volume. I would like to thank Péter Vargyas’ brother, Gábor Vargyas for his patience and the support he off ered for our work in the past more than two years. Finally I would like to extend my thanks to L’Harmattan Hungary Publishers for accepting the work into their Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean Studies series, and for facilitating the publication process with off ering us their infrastructure.

Z. Cs.

Abbreviations

Abbreviated titles of editions of cuneiform texts and of assyriological journals are those used in the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, but note:

AAAH Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae

ABAW NF Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Neue Folge

ADFU Ausgrabungen der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft in Uruk-Warka

AfO Archiv für Orientforschung

AHw Wolfram von Soden: Akkadisches Handwörterbuch. 1–3 Bände. Wiesbaden, 1965–1981.

AJA American Journal of Archaeology

AJSL American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures

ALASPM Abhandlungen zur Literatur Alt-Syrien-Palästinas und Mesopotamiens

AMI Archaeologische Mitteilungen aus Iran

ANEMS Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean Studies

ANESS Ancient Near Eastern Studies Supplement

AnOr Analecta Orientalia

AnSt Anatolian Studies

AOAT Alter Orient und Altes Testament

AoF Altorientalische Forschungen

ArOr Archiv Orientální

ARM Archives Royales de Mari

AS Assyriological Studies

ASAE Annales du service des antiquités de l’Égypte

ASSF Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae

26 • Studies in Social and Economic History of the Ancient Near East

AUWE Ausgrabungen in Uruk-Warka Endberichte

BA Beiträge zur Assyriologie

BabAr Babylonische Archive

BBVO Berliner Beiträge zum Vorderen Orient

BIN Babylonian Inscriptions in the Collection of James B. Nies

BiOr Bibliotheca Orientalis

BaM Baghdader Mitteilungen

BM cuneiform tablets in the collection of the British Museum, London

BPOA Biblioteca del Próximo Oriente Antiguo

BRM Babylonian records in the Library of J. Pierpont Morgan

CAD The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Chicago,

1956–2010.

CDA Black, J. – George, A. – Postgate, N. 2000: A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian,

Wiesbaden.

CDOG Colloquien der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft

CHANE Culture and History of the Ancient Near East

CHD The Hittite Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago 1989–

CM Cuneiform Monographs

CT Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum

CTH Laroche, E. 1971: Catalogue des textes hittites. Paris.

CTN Cuneiform Texts from Nimrud

CUA cuneiform tablets in the collection of the Catholic University of America

DMOA Documenta et Monumenta Orientis Antiqui

DTC Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi

EAH Entretiens d’Archéologie et d’Histoire

ePSD Electronic version of the Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary. http://psd.museum.

upenn.edu/epsd/index.html

FAOS Freiburger Altorientalische Studien

GMTR Guides to the Mesopotamian Textual Record

HANES History of the Ancient Near East, Studies

HdO Handbuch der Orientalistik

HSAO Heidelberger Studien zum Alten Orient

IBoT Istanbul Arkeoloji Müzelerinde Bulunan Boğazköy Tabletleri

IEJ Israel Exploration Journal

ISCANEE International Scholars Conference on Ancient Near Eastern Economies

JA Journal Asiatique

Abbreviations • 27

JAC Journal of Ancient Civilizations

JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society

JBL Journal of Biblical Literature

JCS Journal of Cuneiform Studies

JEA The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology

JESHO Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient

JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies

JRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

KUB Keilschrifturkunden aus Boghazköi

KBo Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazköi, 1916–

Kt Sigla of texts from Kültepe (kt) found in kārum Kaniš

LAOS Leipziger Altorientalistische Studien

LAPO Littératures Anciennes du Proche-Orient

LD Lepsius, K.R. Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Äthiopien, 12 vols. Berlin. 1849–1859

MBAH Münstersche Beiträge zur Antiken Handelsgeschichte

MC Mesopotamian Civilization

MDOG Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft

MEFRA Mélanges de l’École française de Rome. Antiquité

MSL Materialien zum sumerischen Lexikon; Materials for the Sumerian Lexicon

MVAEG Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatisch-Aegyptischen Gesellschaft

MVN Materiali per il vocabolario neo-sumerico

NABU Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires

NEA Near Eastern Archaeology

Nisaba Studi Assiriologici Messinesi

OAA Old Assyrian Archives

OBO Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis

OECT Oxford Editions of Cuneiform Texts

OIP Oriental Institute Publications

OIS Oriental Institute Seminars

OJA Oxford Journal of Archaeology

OLA Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta

OLZ Orientalistische Literaturzeitung

OrSP Orientalia Series Prior

ÓTI Ókor-Történet-Írás

PBS Publications of the Babylonian Section, The Museum of the Unviersity of

Pennsylvania

28 • Studies in Social and Economic History of the Ancient Near East

PIHANS Publications de l’Institut historique et archéologique néerlandais de Stamboul

PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

PSBA Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology

RA Revue d’Assyriologie et d’Archéologie Orientale

RB Revue Biblique

RdE Revue d’Égyptologie

RGTC Répertoire Géographique des Textes Cunéiformes

RIMA The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia. Assyrian Periods

RIMB The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia. Babylonian Periods

RIME The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Early Periods

RINAP The Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period

RLA Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie. Begründet von E. Ebeling

und B. Meissner, fortgeführt von E. Wiedner, W. von Soden und D. O. Edzard,

herausgegeben von M. P. Streck, München, 1928–

ROMCT Royal Ontario Museum Cuneiform Texts

SAA State Archives of Assyria

SAAB State Archives of Assyria Bulletin

SAAS State Archives of Assyria Studies

SAK Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur

SCCNH Studies on the Civilization and Culture of Nuzi and the Hurrians

SD Studia et Documenta ad Iura Orientis Antiqui Pertinentia

SMEA Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici

StBOT Studien zu den Boğazköy-Texten

TCL Textes cunéiformes du Louvre

TCS Texts from Cuneiform Sources

THeth Texte der Hethiter

TIM Texts in the Iraq Museum

TMH Texte und Materialien der Frau Professor Hilprecht Collection

UAVA Untersuchungen zur Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie.

Ergänzungsbände zu Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasitische Archäologie

UCP University of California Publications in Semitic Philology

UET Ur Excavations Texts

VS Vorderasiatische Schriftsdenkmäler

WAW Writings from Ancient World

WdO Die Welt des Orients

WOO Wiener Off ene Orientalistik

Abbreviations • 29

WVDOG Wissenschaftliche Veröff entlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft

YBC cuneiform tablets in the Yale Babylonian Collection

YOS Yale Oriental Series, Babylonian Texts

ZA Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie

ZAR Zeitschrift für altorientalische und biblische Rechtsgeschichte

ZÄS Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde

ZDPV Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins

ZDMG Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft

ZSSR Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte

P A RT TW O

FIRST MILLENNIUM B.C.

E lements of the Royal Ideology in Urartian Texts

ATTILA BUHÁLY

College of Nyíregyháza

Urartian rulers regularly made several stele- or rock inscriptions both in their homeland and in conquered territories. The style of these inscriptions has frequently been studied and systematized, but without fi nal conclusions.1 Our goal is now to study in these inscriptions how the royal propaganda, the legalization of the facts of domination and conquest referred either to particular rulers or general symbolic components of royal representations. During the study, we were curious mostly about the next topics:

– Are there any diff erencies in time or place in the inscriptions?– If there are, what could be the reasons for them? According to the Ancient Near East, Joan Westenholz classifi ed the iconographic

and epigraphic components of royal representations in her last work as follows:2

– according to the iconographic representations of kings, the pose of the represented king, his body language;

– the representations and/or descriptions of enemies;– the representation of a bow as the king’s weapon;– appearance of astral symbols;– representations and/or descriptions of enemies as rebellious people;– fi ght with beast; hunting scenes;– representations and/or descriptions of extraordinally exploits or adventorous

actions.Westenholz illustrated the existence of these components from the Accadian king,

Naram-Sin through Assyrian kings to the Persian Darius I, emphasizing that the king’s personality, his royal life circle: birth, his selections by the god(s), inauguration, and

1 See for example Zimansky 1985. About history and culture of Urartu: Salvini 1995.2 Westenholz 2000.

522 • Attila Buhály

perhaps his death play extraordinary role in the emergence of an empire in the Ancient Near East. The king is always a hero loved by god(s), the protector of the divine world order, both on the epigraphic and iconographic material. These mostly iconographic representations are further kinds of channels of communication in illiteral times or areas.3

It is a well known fact that during the emergence of the Urartian state in the age of Sarduri I (ca. 835–825 BC), the new power copied lots of Mesopotamian, especially Assyrian pattern; for example, the inscriptions of Sarduri I were made in Assyrian and they adopted the Neo-Assyrian version of cuneiform writing.4 On the other hand, typical Urartian phenomenon is the almost full lack of iconographic representations connected with representations of power; the stele and rock inscriptions are presenting the acts, authority and commands of kings with the abstract sign of the Mesopotamian cuneiform writing. It’s quite strange at fi rst sight, because the pictoral and iconographical representations for the representing of power seems to be more practical than plain texts. For the solution of this contradiction, perhaps the local or contemporary context of literacy, the contemporary role of rock- and stele inscriptions as „media” could be studied.5

Nevertheless, according to the epigraphic material, there are lots of passages that fi t in the viewpoints collected by Westenholz. First of all, let we off er a brief survey of inscriptions which are relevant for showing of royal representations.

According to this view, we could take apart the epigraphic material into the next groups:

– Votiv objects; secular objects off ered by kings for gods (esp. Haldi): mostly weapons, shields, and short texts on them, declared the fact of off ering;

– Inscriptions like „res gestae” of Argišti I (cca. 790–760 BC) and Sarduri II (760–734 BC) in Vankale: here there seem to be an obvious royal propaganda aimed inwards as supplements of a rock tomb (Argišti I, Horhor) or a memorial (Sarduri II,Hazine Kapısı). (There will be mentioned further simplifi ed as chronicles of the given king.)

– There are signifi cant documents of the royal ideology the stelea of Kelišin and Topzawa; Both inscriptions may attest to importance of Ardini/Muoaoir considering the legitimation and inauguration of kings.

– Phrases of isolated rock inscriptions.

3 Westenholz 2000: 100, 103.4 Wilhelm 1986: 95ff .5 The role of writing systems and literacy in ancient societies: Houston 2004.

Elements of the Royal Ideology in Urartian Texts • 523

This last type is important therefore the Urartian kings regularly erected stelea and rock inscriptions during their several campaign in conquered territories. The goal of these inscriptions were obviously declaring the fact of conquest; it meant a direct or indirect way of the royal representation. In the next paragraph we can have a closer look of Westenholz’s viewpoint, namely what kinds of elements of royal power’s declaration appear in the epigraphic material:

– descriptions of rebellious enemies;– parts of the king’s life cycle: choosen by gods, inauguration; the king as a hero

loved by god(s);– some kind of divine weapon;– extraordinally exploits or adventurous actions;– changing any elements of Westenholz’s viewpoint – the bipolar opposition of

„abandoned” vs. „civilized”.

DESCRIPTIONS OF REBELLIOUS ENEMIES

The determined defi nition of conqered lands and territories as rebellious is surprisingly quite rare. It appears defi nitely in an inscription in Patnos in the reign of Minua (thus in relatively early):

(1) „...(5) Through the might of Haldi, through the word of Haldi (6) Minua, son of Išpuini, (7) when he sat down on (his) father’s throne, Šatiru (8) revolted (du-ur-

ba-i-e ma-nu). Haldi set off , his (9) spear (set off )... (10) ...defeated (11) the land of Šatiru (…) (22) ...In the same year Alze revolted (du-ur-ba-i-e ma-nu): (23) Haldi set off ; Minua, son of Išpuini (24) ...conquered Alze...” (KUKN 148 5-11, 22-24)

Because the original Urartian word „revolted” (durb-)6 is hapax in the whole text corpus, our suggestions are strongly hypothetical. But the verb „to occupy” (kar-)7 is well attested in the second part of the phrase, so durb- would mean an opposite of this, a status of Šatiruans and Alzeans before the Urartian campaign (perhaps „turbulent, resistant”).

6 KUKN: (Šebitu and/or Alze) „восставшей была”; „восставать, быть мятежым” (Djakonov 1963: 88); „дейстовать враждевно, восставать” (Chačikjan 1985: 46); Balkan: „...war ein Aufstand” (Balkan 1960: 116; also HchI p.180; Melikišvili 1971: 81). See Hurrian tur-(u)b- (Djakonov 1963: 88); tur(u)bi „enemy” (Laroche 1980: 274); turub2 „враг” (Chačikjan 1985: 46)

7 „heimsuchen, bezwingen” (HchI: 190); „покорить, подчинить” (Djakonov 1963: 90); „besiegen, überwaltigen” (Melikišvili 1971: 84)


THE PASSAGE OF „CHOOSEN BY GODS” AND INAUGURATION

This passage, as we have seen, appears in the sentence above as well. In the case of the inscriptions of Minua’s reign, it seems to be an exception, and his role is just to suggest that Minua had to conquer this two land, Šatiru and Alze, just after his inauguration.

It’s remarkable that this passage appears repeatedly in the late epigraphic material:

– In the fi rst part of Argišti I’s chronicle:

(2) „...Haldi has given the kingship to Argišti, son of Minua, (he) sat down on (his) father’s throne...” (KUKN 174 A3: 17-19)

– During the reign of Sarduri II: • In a similar part of his chronicle (KUKN 241 G: 2; 242 A II+A I: 26-27).• In the inscription of a shrine erected by him in Çavuştepe:

(3) „Sarduri, son of Argišti [have built] this sanctuary for Irmušini […] when (he) sat down on (his) father’s throne...” (KUKN 247: 1-2)

• In an inscription from Karataş (and similar to it but more fragmentary from Armavir8):

(4) „...Sarduri, son of Argišti speaks: when Haldi, the Lord gave me the kingship, I sat down on (my) father’s throne...” (KUKN 274: 2-4)

– The inscription of Argišti II (cca. 714–680 BC) from Erçis:

(5) „...Through the might of Haldi... who strengthened me... who gave me mighty kingship and I sat down on the throne, (who) made me the kingship...” (KUKN 406A:17-26)

– The inscription of Rusa II (680?-) on the shrine of Ayanis:

8 KUKN 271.


(6) „…when Haldi gave me the kingship, I sat down on (my) father’s throne….” (Section I: 4)

„…Rusa, son of Argišti speaks: Haldi presented me success, victory and luck...” (Section VII: 5-6)9

9

– The inscription of „Rusa, son of Erimena” (Rusa III?) found in only lately in Gövelek;10 its structure is similar to Argišti II’s above mentioned insctription from Erçiş.

It’s remarkable that this passage passes throught a specifi c evolution, in contrast with the supposing simply Urartian epigraphic material: while it appears during Minua’s reign very rarely, it has more signifi cant role later, in the Sarduri II’s inscriptions in Çavuştepe, Armavir and Karataş, during the reign of Argišti II, in Erçiş, or Rusa II’s shrine inscriptions and in the stele of Gövelek. (The appearance of passage in Argišti I’ and Sarduri II’s chronicles is quite clear thus there show the whole life of them.) Could be it related to any problems with the enforcing of the royal legitimation in the last cases? Or did any changes happen in the style of inscriptions or in the emphasis of the royal legitimation?

Our above mentioned texts are also remarkable because of two following aspects, as seen in the table:

– the context appeared in the given text;– the person of the speaker.

Relations between the

context and the speaker

The broad context

Military activities The king’s title Establishing of fortress, city,

shrine, vineyard, etc.

The speaker 1Ps. (the

king

speaks)

Sarduri II’s chronicle Sarduri II, Karataş + Armavir (text 4)

Argišti II, Erçiş (text 5)

Rusa II, Ayanis (text 6)

„Rusa, son of Erimena”

(Rusa III?), Gövelek

3Ps. (about

the king

spoken)

Minua (see text 1) Argišti I’s

chronicle (text 2)

Sarduri II, Çavuştepe (text 3)

9 Çilingiroğlu – Salvini 2001.10 Salvini 2008.


The mentioned texts suggest the next tendencies:– In the fi rst part of the „story” of the Urartian epigraphical material (Minua and

the chronicles of Argišti I and Sarduri II), the passage appears mainly in broad contexts of military activities, or it is an introductional part of a king's title;

– The speaker could be grammatically 3rd person (about the king spoken – Minua, Argišti I's chronicle) or the 1st person (the king speaks himself – Sarduri II's chronicle);

– in the latter part of the material, from the reign of Sarduri II, is stressed the establishing of buildings or any agricultural facilities (except of his chronicle);

– the speaker changes to 1st person (except of Sarduri II's shrine inscription in Çavuştepe).

In this latter part of texts, two trends seem to be stressed:– the passage of „choosen by gods” and/or inauguration is declared by the king

himself, thus it will be a part of the self-represenatation of kings;11

– the builder, the establisher role of king will be a stressed part of this representation, beside the military activities.

THE MOTIF OF WEAPON

The appearance of any weapons as a symbol in the Urartian context is quite diff erent from Westenholz’s descripition. In Urartu, as we could see above (1), it is associated with the god Haldi, and this weapon is probably a holy spear.12 The passage „Haldi set off , his spear (set off )” is an integrant part of inscriptions representing military activities. They show a characteristic dimension of the campaigns of the Urartians and the Urartian kings, at least regarding to the royal representation: at the start of a war, it is always Haldi who „leaves”, and ritually he „leads” the army with his spear. On the stele of the Akkadian Naram-Sin, the king himself leads his army13; in Urartu it is not the king, but the god Haldi, at least in the ritual meaning: the real and victorius conqueror is not the king but Haldi himself, thus the king and the campaign are fullfi lling Haldi’s will.

11 Houston 2004: 235.12 Or, there is an iconographical representation of Haldi with a spear-like weapon and a bow: Belli

1998: 40 (Çizim 18).13 Referred by Westenholz 2000: 101ff .


EXTRAORDINALLY AND ADVENTUROUS ACTIONS

The Urartian epigraphical material deals only with the acts and decrees of kings. But the appearance of this element is very rare, at least as we known it from Mesopotamia. The acts of the texts, the executives of campaigns from collecting army to conquer of lands of enemies, or the prescribers of the ritual decrees are the kings themselves (or Haldi, as seen above). They also make uninhabitated territories fertile (see below). But the motifs, which tell us about actions „never made before”, are very rare.

The text locus of Minua mentioned above (1) could be similar. It is maybe about a conquer, which „no one of earlier kings managed” – at least if our interpretations are correct. Apart from it, here we could mention maybe diff erent phrases which stress the mighty nature of rulers” acts (military activities, campaigns).

Particular parts of these texts, which stress a king’s personal abilities or almost „sport achievements”. We have two texts of them:

– King Minua jumped over 22 elbows „with a horse named Eagle” (KUKN 136);– King Argišti I shooted an arrow over 950 elbows, „from the garden of Gilurani to

Išpilini, son of Batu.” (KUKN 408)

THE BIPOLAR OPPOSITION OF „ABANDONED” VS. „CIVILIZED”

One of the frequently occured passage of Urartian texts the contrast of „abandoned” and „fertile”; and there is an important element of the royal legitimacy which is about making fertile earlier abandoned territories. Because of the geographical and natural circumstances of the territory, it could be understand literally (see the making of Minua-canal14), but let we see any motifs according to it:

– building a suse-sanctuary, mostly for Haldi (KUKN 39, passim) but for another deities as well (Irmušini, see above, text 3);

– making an inscription (KUKN 39a)– making a stele for Haldi (KUKN 45; 75)– making a „gate” for Haldi (KUKN 48)– establishing a fortress, named after a king himself (KUKN 48)– making a canal (KUKN 187)– establishing a vineyard, orchard, pasture and/or arable land (KUKN 247; 406)

14 KUKN 60–73; Garbrecht 1980; Belli 1997: 18–25 (Turkish), 39–44 (English).


This kind of civilisational attitude is very important as supporting the king’s legitimation in our texts, connected moreover to the above mentioned passage of inauguration: one of the important role of by gods (more precisely: by Haldi) choosen king is to make the devastated lands fertile, establish inhabitant and inhabitable territories. According to the whole material, there is even a particular diff erence between the early and late age of Urartu’s history: while in the earlier inscriptions (see Minua, above, text 1) the military activities are dominant, as the verifi cator of the king’s might, later, mostly during the reign of Rusa II, mainly the building activities, the fertilisation of inhabitant territories are stressed.

To sum up, in the Urartian epigraphic material are many of the motifs of royal legitimation analized by Westenholz, although lots of particular elements are noticable. Beside of a lack of iconographic representation, the following epic elements are stressed on the stele and rock inscriptions:

– choosen by gods: the king’s might is got from Haldi – in fact whether it is independent and/or beside of that he inherits it from his father;

– the king’s all acts (from the campaign to establishing cities, agricultural foundations, or only erecting a stele) happen by and through the might and urge of Haldi. Vica versa, the king’s all acts eventually are fulfi lling of Haldi’s will;

– it’s similar in the case of campaigns: the starter and leader of the army are Haldi himself; the campaign is just an execution of Haldi’s will;

– The stressed part of the royal ideology is that the king choosen by gods (Haldi) are the builder of cities, fortresses, founder of agricultural projects (vineyards, orchards), or order of ritual prescriptions.

These elements could be organized and stressed diff erent by the several ages of the Urartian epigraphic material; It would be worth studying if there are several historical events behind these motifs or these are purely diff erent emphasis in the texts and ages.


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2014 Elements of Royal Ideology in Urartian Texts

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