Teishebaini

[Ashot]

Teishebaini was the capital of the Urartian Transcaucasian provinces. It is located in the modern Republic of Armenia, 30 miles north of Yerevan. Teishebaini was built by Rusa II in the first half of the 7th century BC, to protect the eastern borders of Urartu from the barbaric Cimmerians and Scythians. A palace and citadel were also built in the city by Rusa II. The citadel was called the citadel of Teisheba, after the Urartuian god of war. The construction of the city, palace and the citadel was not fully finished until the reign of Rusa III, some 50 years later. The site of the city, palace and citadel together measure over 110 acres.

 

 

The Art and Culture of the Peoples of the Caucasus:

1100 B.C.-19th century

Ground floor, rooms 55-66

 

 

 

The items displayed in room 55 confirm the fact that the tribes of

Transcaucasia, whose basic occupation was cattle-breeding and to some

extent farming, underwent a period (between the eleventh and seventh

centuries B.C.) in which the primitive system of communal relations broke up.

 

Room 56. Urartu, 8th-6th centuries B.C. Urartu, otherwise called

the Van empire, the most ancient of the then existing slave-owning nations

within what is now the Soviet Union, held a position of supremacy in the

first half of the eighth century B.C. among the nations of south-western

Asia. The earliest information concerning Urartu was obtained as a

result of excavations carried out in 1911 and 1916 by Russian archaeolog-

ists on the hill of Toprak-kala, where in ancient times stood the Urartian

capital Tushpa (upon the eastern shores of Lake Van in Turkey). Case 1

contains the bronze figurines of winged deities from Toprak-kala, items

typical of the Urartian art of the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. The

engraved surface of the figurines were covered with gold and coloured

with thick paint. The motionless impassive faces made of white stone,

with the eyes and eyebrows inlaid with black stone, are nevertheless

expressive in their own way. In the past these statuettes, monumental in

spite of their small size, embellished the arms of a throne. A very great

contribution to the study of Urartian history was made as a result of

archaeological excavations at Karmir-blur (Red Hill), from where a large

number of the items in the exhibition originate. Many years ago, on

Karmir-blur in the environs of Erevan, a fragment of a stone slab was

found bearing traces of cuneiform. The inscription gave reason to suppose

that at one time a fortress had stood there belonging to the Urartians,

an ancient people whose name is preserved in the contemporary name of

Mount Ararat. In the summer of 1938 an expedition under the leader-

ship of Academician Boris Piotrovsky began excavations. Upon the

strength of the cuneiform inscription found on a bronze door bolt

(cabinet 5), the name of the citadel was determined-Teishebaini, i.e.

the town of the god of war Teishebas. The research has produced a clear

picture of the life and the destruction of Teishebaini, an important ad-

ministrative and economic centre in the north of Urartu. The fortress

received a tribute in the form of foodstuffs, collected from the tribes of

Transcaucasia, and after processing this was sent to the capital of the state,

Tushpa. Buildings were discovered, intended for the production of

sesame oil, with heaps of oilcake wastage; a workshop for the brewing

of beer, a storeroom for grain, where large quantities of barley, wheat,

millet and flour were kept, and enormous wine cellars with huge vessels

half buried in the earthen floor. It is reckoned that more than four

hundred thousand litres of wine could be kept in these vessels. The

fortress perished around 585 B.C. after a Scythian raid-bronze Scythian

arrowheads were found in the unkilned bricks of the fortress wall.

During the assault a fire broke out, buildings collapsed in the flames,

burying beneath them people and various objects. Much bronzeware was

found in Teishebaini-helmets, shields, quivers and ninety-seven bowls.

These bowls of sparkling golden bronze produce, when struck, a long-

lasting, melodic ring, and in addition each of them, like a bell, had the

sound of a particular key. The inscribed helmet of emperor Sarduris II is

especially noteworthy; the inscription reads: "To the god Khaldis, the

protector of Sarduris, from the son of Argistis for his life's sake."

Excavations on the fortress are going on, the items found at Teishebaini

being sent to the Armenian Historical Museum and to the Hermitage.

Room 58. Transcaucasia, 3rd century B.C.-3rd century A.D. The

items displayed here have come from rich burial-grounds discovered

upon the lands of Georgia and Armenia at the turn of the century.