Urartu

[Yervant1]

MediaMax, Armenia

March 15 2018

Turkey demands of Putin to return artifacts of Urartu era

Yerevan/Mediamax/. Former Turkish minister Faruk Ozak is trying to return to Turkey some valuable artifacts weighing 30 tons and 500 manuscripts, which were moved to Russia during the World War I.

 

 

 

Milliet newspaper reports that the former Minister of Public Works and Housing, ex-president of Trabzonspor FC Faruk Ozak “has been fighting for nine years to return the artifacts to Turkey”.

“Between 2013 and 2015, Ozak kept Prime Minister Recep Erdogan informed about the stolen artifacts, and after the negotiations of the two leaders during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Turkey, the parties reached an agreement on the return of the artifacts to Trabzon. The process was interrupted by the crisis in relations with Russia, which was caused by the downing of the Russian plane,” writes Milliet.

“Our artifacts are most likely to be in the Saint Petersburg Institute of Oriental Manuscripts. Among other valuable pieces, they also contain plenty of artifacts of the Urartu era and more than 200 manuscripts of the Ottoman period. We want Putin to return what they have been keeping all this time,” said Faruk Ozak.

Urartu was an ancient Armenian kingdom in the Southwest Asia, located in the Armenian Highlands. Urartu held a dominant position in Western Asia in the first quarter of the first millennium BC.

http://www.mediamax.am/en/news/foreignpolicy/27563/

[MosJan]

[Yervant1]

RUINS OF A 3000-YEAR-OLD ARMENIAN CASTLE FOUND IN LAKE VAN – TURKEY

MARCH 3, 2020 ARCHAEOLOGY WORLD TEAM LEAVE A COMMENT

RUINS OF A 3000-YEAR-OLD ARMENIAN CASTLE FOUND IN LAKE VAN – TURKEY

The 3,000-year-old remains of an ancient fortification have been discovered at the bottom of Turkey’s largest lake. The underwater excavations were led by Van Yüzüncü Yıl University and the governorship of Turkey’s eastern Bitlis Province.

The castle is said to belong to the Iron Age Armenian civilization also known as the Kingdom of Van, Urartu, Ararat and Armenia. The lake itself is believed to have been formed by a crater caused by a volcanic eruption of Mount Nemrut near the province of Van. The current water level of the reservoir is about 150 meters higher than it was during the Iron Age.

Divers exploring Lake Van discovered the incredibly well-preserved wall of a castle, thought to have been built by the Urartu civilization. Experts had been studying the body of water for a decade before it revealed the fortress lost deep below its surface.

The 3,000-year-old remains of an ancient fortification have been discovered at the bottom of Turkey’s largest lake. Divers exploring Lake Van discovered the incredibly well-preserved wall of a castle, thought to have been built by the Urartu civilization

Underwater Fairy Chimneys in Van lake.

The discovery was made by a team of researchers, including Tahsin Ceylan, an underwater photographer and videographer, diver Cumali Birol, and Mustafa Akkuş, an academic from Van Yüzüncü Yıl University.

Legends among the area’s population spoke of ancient ruins hidden in the water, and the Van team decided to investigate. Over the course of ten years, they captured images of pearl mullets, microbialites, corals and even a sunken Russian ship, but their prize remained elusive.Their search has now paid off, uncovering castle stonework that has been protected from the ravages of time by the lake’s highly alkaline waters. It is thought the stone structure was built by the Urartians, as the rocks used were favoured by civilization.

The castle, as well as a number of villages and settlements in the area, were built at a time when water levels were much lower than they are today.

Speaking to Hurriyet Daily News, Mr. Ceylan said: ‘Many civilizations and people had settled around Lake Van.

‘They named the lake the “upper sea” and believed it hid many mysterious things.

‘With this belief in mind, we are working to reveal the lake’s secrets.

‘It is a miracle to find this castle underwater.’

The Kingdom of Urartu was an ancient country in the mountainous region southeast of the Black Sea and southwest of the Caspian Sea. Today the region is divided among Armenia, eastern Turkey, and northwestern Iran.

Mentioned in Assyrian sources from the early 13th century BC, Urartu enjoyed considerable political power in the Middle East in the 9th and 8th centuries BC.

The Urartians were succeeded in the area in the 6th century BC by the Armenians. Urartu is an Assyrian name and the people called Urartians called their country Biainili. Their capital Tushpa was located at what is now known as Lake Van.

Most remains of Urartian settlements are found between four lakes: Çildir and Van in Turkey, Urmia in Iran, and Sevan in Armenia, with a sparser extension westward to the Euphrates River.

Map of historic Armenian with Lake Van at its center.

 

https://www.archaeology-world.com/ruins-of-a-3000-year-old-armenian-castle-found-in-lake-van-turkey/?fbclid=IwAR0JqNHk8DW4ExMwXmiH56UZxVU399jdR0HMISIlwBn1rIlF65miDE9nBhE

[Yervant1]

 

Asbarez.com

 

Remains Dating to Urartu Kingdom Unearthed in Van

September 11, 2020

http://asbarez.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Urartu-woman-1536x1020.jpg

Remains of a woman dating back to the Urartu Kingdom unearthed in Van

A grave belonging to a noble Urartian woman buried with her jewelry was found at the Çavuştepe Castle in the Gürpınar district of the eastern province of Van, reported the Daily Sabah newspaper citing Anadolu News Agency.

Since 2017, excavation works have been ongoing at Çavuştepe Castle, conducted by a team of academics led by professor Rafet Çavuşoğlu, head of the archaeology department at Van’s Yüzüncü Yıl University.

Over the course of the protracted dig, the team discovered a necropolis believed to mark the burial site of the Urartian ruling class.

Recently, this has led to the unearthing of the skeletal remains of a woman buried with a full set of exquisite jewelry. The team’s anthropologists are now set to examine the skeleton in a lab environment to determine the cause of death and the exact age of the woman.

In an interview with Anadolu Agency, Çavuşoğlu stated that they had found very important information in the necropolis area over the course of the three-year project.

Pointing out that this was not the first time this year that the importance of jewelry in the burial traditions of the Urartians had been attested to, Çavuşoğlu said: “This last grave we unearthed probably belonged to a woman aged 20-25. What matters here is that the woman was buried with all her jewelry. There is almost a complete set of jewelry on her skeleton, which indicates that the adornment traditions of Urartian women were very highly considered. We have determined that the skeleton belonged to a noblewoman, given that there were bracelets on both her wrists, a bronze ring in her left hand, a pendulum earring on both her ears, a brooch on the lower part of her neck and a necklace made of semi-precious stones on her neck. It is understood that she was buried with all the jewelry she used in daily life.”

The professor further noted that the value attached to women in Urartian society had also become more evident as part of their excavations, adding: “The most important point here is that the burials consisted of no ordinary people but rather the wives and relatives of the ruling class in the castle. One of the biggest features of this woman skeleton is her ring. It is perhaps the earliest archaeological find to testify to a prenuptial agreement.”

Urartu also known as the Kingdom of Van, is an Iron Age kingdom centered around Lake Van in the historic Armenian Highlands. The kingdom rose to power in the mid-9th century BC, but went into gradual decline and was eventually conquered by the Iranian Medes in the early 6th century BC.

http://asbarez.com/196755/remains-dating-to-urartu-kingdom-unearthed-in-van/?fbclid=IwAR3mGUnDYy_HXH6FCccXKQUSvJXm9233emWWRSckLL54hXx6Rx6XAHc_8-M