A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire, 2 Volume Set. Группа авторов

seventh century BCE the relations between Urarṭu and Assyria apparently became peaceful. Argišti II, successor to Rusa I, was concentrated in the northern territories, as we learn from his rock inscriptions in Azerbaijan and a stele in Armenia (CTU A 11‐3,4,5,6), and his son Rusa II excelled in the construction of beautiful fortified towns and residences like Karmir‐blur, Bastam, Kef Kalesi (literature by Zimansky 1998), Ayanis (Çilingirolu and Salvini 2001), and Toprakkale. The construction of Toprakkale (RlA s.v. Rusainili) was probably begun by Rusa II and completed by Rusa III, son of Erimena. He was the reformer of the Urartian state organization, introducing writing on clay tablets and bullae, unknown before, and the parallel use of a linear (hieroglyphic) script for administrative purposes. The excavation of his towns has restituted a great quantity of bronze objects, which is the most known achievement of the Urartians (Seidl 2004). Rusa III, son of Erimena, constructed the huge dams of the Rusa Lake (modern Keşiş Göl) for the irrigation of the plain of Van and the residence of Toprakkale (CTU A 14‐1,2). The succession of both homonymous kings is controversial (Seidl 2007; Salvini 2007), and the circumstances of the end of the Urartian kingdom are still obscure (different solutions are reflected in some contributions of Biainili‐Urartu 2012, especially by Ursula Seidl and Michael Roaf).

Robert Rollinger (2009), on the basis of a new reading of the Nabonidus Chronicle, maintains that Urarṭu was not destroyed by the Medes in the seventh century BCE but survived until the campaign of Cyrus in 547 BCE. It is possible that some form of state survived after the extinction of the written records, but it was no more the imperial power of the preceding centuries. A few decades later, with his equation Armina = Urašṭu, Darius testifies the presence of the new ethnic element, the Armenians, in the old Urartian territory. If we speak of political continuity, we have to stress that no one of the usurpers against whom Darius fought presents himself as the king of Urarṭu, and there is no reference to the old capital city of 瞈ušpa. However the name aldita (Bisutun § 39) proves that at least the cult of the god of Muṣaṣir survived after the end of Urarṭu.

      The last mentions of Urar

u, in the Babylonian form Uraš

u, refer to a geographical area more than to a policy. Nevertheless, some cultural influences could have entered the Achaemenid Empire. Besides the abovementioned elements we can find a precedent for the phenomenon of inscriptions written in the name of the ancestors, like those of Pasargadae (Schmitt 2009: CMa, CMb → DMc), written by Darius in the name of Cyrus, and of Genç Nameh, written by Xerxes (Schmitt 2009: p. 10) for his father Darius: the duplicate inscriptions of Išpuini's fortress in Zivistan (CTU A 2‐2A–E), south of Van, were certainly engraved in the second part of the reign of his son Minua (CTU IV pp. 321–322).

Urartian Chronology

Assyrian kings	Synchronisms (see Fuchs 2012)		Urartian kings
Shalmaneser III (859–824 BCE)	Quotes Ar(r)amu the Urartian (years 859, 856, 844 BCE)		[no written records]
			[written records of:]
Shalmaneser III	Quotes Seduri, the Urartian (year 832 BCE)	=	Sarduri I, son of Lutibria (c. 840–830 BCE)
Shamshi‐Adad V (823–811 BCE)	Quotes Ušpina (year 820 BCE)	=	Išpuini, son of Sarduri (c. 830–820 BCE)
			Co‐regency of Išpuini and Minua (c. 820–810 BCE)
	[no synchronism]		Minua, son of Išpuini (c. 810–785/780 BCE)
Shalmaneser IV (781–772 BCE)	Quotes Argištu/i (year 774 BCE)	=	Argišti I, son of Minua (785/78–756 BCE)
Ashur‐nirari V (754–745 BCE)	Quoted by (year 754 BCE)		Sarduri II, son of Argišti (756–c. 730 BCE)
Tiglath‐pileser III (744–727 BCE)	Quotes Sarduri, Sardaurri (years 743, 735? BCE)	=	Sarduri II
Sargon (721–705 BCE)	Quotes Ursā/Rusā (years 719–713)	=	Rusa I, son of Sarduri (c. 730–713 BCE)
	Quotes Argišta (year 709 BCE)	=	Argišti II, son of Rusa (713–? BCE)
Sennacherib (704–681 BCE)	[no synchronism]
Esarhaddon (681–669 BCE)	Quotes Ursā (year 673/672 BCE)	=	Rusa II, son of Argišti (first half of the seventh century BCE)
			Erimena (LÚaṣuli?)b
Ashurbanipal (669–627 BCE)	Quotes Rusā (year 652 BCE)c	=	Rusa III, son of Erimena
Ashurbanipal	Quotes Ištar/Issar‐dūrī (year 646/642 BCE)	=	Sarduri III, son of Sarduri

      ^a No written records of him.

      ^b Cf. my attempt to interpret the seal of Erimena, and the chronological problems concerning the seventh century BCE: Salvini 2007.

      ^c We have to take into consideration the new dendrochronology following which Rusainili Eidurukai (Ayanis) was built in the second half of the 670s BCE: Manning et al. 2001, p. 2534; Çilingirog˘lu 2006, 135.

      Last Records on Urar

u

       Nabopolassar