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Russian Excavations in Armenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

R. D. Barnett  and
W. Watson
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Extract

The most important contribution to the subject of Urartian archaeology is the publication in 1950 of a preliminary report on the excavations at Karmir-Blur. This (Karmir Blur, I) is a short work of 97 pages accompanied by 16 half-tone illustrations and 64 text figures by B. B. Piotrovsky (Akademii Nauk Armyanskoy S.S.R.., Erivan, 1950). Its importance lies in the fact, first, that it is the first controlled excavation of any importance which has taken place in Urartian territory, and second, in the nature of the material discovered and described. The care with which the excavation was evidently conducted further adds to its importance. As copies of this work outside the “Iron Curtain” must be exceedingly rare, we have thought fit to present a detailed and illustrated summary for the benefit of Western students. The book, too, may be condensed with some profit, as it repeats itself in different chapters yet lacks enough cross-references.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1952 , pp. 132 - 147
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1952

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References

page 134 note 1 For this nomenclature see below, p. 145.

page 134 note 2 In an article which is at present in preparation.

page 135 note 1 c. 785-760 B.C.

page 136 note 1 c. 785-760 B.C. The text is published by Piotrovski, Epig. Vostoka, II, 84: (m) Ar-gi-iš-ti-ni u-ri-iš-ḫu-si-ni-i (m) Me-nu-a-ḫi-ni i-ni a-še (m) Ar-gi-iš-ti-ni (m) Me-nu-a-ḫi-ni Šarru Dan.Nu Šarru al-su-i-ni šar Mat Bi-i-a-na-u-e a-lu-si (alu) Tu-uš-pa (alu) (ilu) Hal-di-e e-u-ri-t i-ni a-še (m) Ar-gi-iš-ti-še (m) Me-nu-a-ḫi-ni uš-tu-ni (ilu) Hal-di-ni-tti al-su-i-ni (m) Ar-gi-iš-ti-ni (m) Men-nu-a-ḫi Šarru Dan.Nu Šarru al-su-i-ni Šar Mat Bi-a-na-u-e a-lu-si (alu) Tu-uš-pa (alu).

page 139 note 1 On p. 96 of the book however these objects are described as found in the “room of the gate-keeper of the citadel.”

page 139 note 2 c. 760-733 B.C.

page 139 note 3 For this nomenclature, see below, p. 145.

page 139 note 4 (m) Ru-sa-a-i (m) Ar-giš-te-ḫi-ni-i (bitu) u-ri-[iš-ḫu-si-ni(alu)(ilu)] Te-i-še-ba-i-ni(alu). Published by Piotrovski, Epig. Vostoka II, 84.

page 142 note 1 The excavators consider this pair of earrings to be Western Anatolian or Ionian, of the sixth century B.C., but one may disagree with this opinion. They would seem to be Oriental, perhaps 625-575 B.C. The closest parallels seem to be Phoenician earrings from Tharros (end of seventh century?)—Marshall, , Catalogue of Greek, etc. Jewellery in the British Museum, Pl. XXIII, 1495Google Scholar, and a pair from Ur, from below the Persian floor of E-nun-makh (Woolley, , A.J. III, No. 4. pl. XXX, 1923)Google Scholar. Cf., a Cretan example (late seventh century: J.H.S., 1944, pl. IX). For Ionic types, see Vinski, , Jahrbuch für kleinasiatische Forschung, 1, 1950Google Scholar.

page 142 note 2 The excavators say that whereas a fibula with thickened arc was the type made locally, another type with flattened arc was used in Urartu proper; but a fibula of this type was found by S. I. Makalatya in the Dran Cemetery (W Georgia).

page 143 note 1 These beak-shaped buckles for crossing straps were apparently taken over in the harnessing of Persian or Median horses, and may be seen illustrated on the sculptures of Persepolis, Pope, Survey of Persian Art, Pl. 94B, 99B, cf. 110; Herzfeld, Iran in the Ancient East, pl. LXVII. They are apparently related in function to the cross-over pieces ornamented with figures of animais, in either bronze or ivory, from the Greek coast of Asia Minor, such as that in form of a boar, or that in form of a wild goat, Hogarth Ephesus, pl. XXIII, 2, 3, fig. 33, datable to the sixth century B.C.

page 143 note 2 Most probably Rusa II (660-625) his son Satduri III (645-625 B.C.).

page 145 note 1 For this see e.g. von der Osten, H. H., Der Urartäischi Töpferei aus Van, I Orientalia, fasc. 21, 1952Google Scholar. (Part II has not yet appeared.)

page 145 note 2 J.H.S. 58, 1949, 13Google Scholar.

page 145 note 3 Krat. Soob. I.I.M.K. XVIII, 1947, 22Google Scholar.

page 147 note 1 But see above, p. 139, whete according also to the excavators these are said to be from Room 4.