Re-Discovery

Fredrich Eduard Shulz is credited for re-discovering the Urartu, (based on readings from the time of Semiramis), around 1827. He found the equivalent of a Rosetta Stone (with the same message in several languages, including a previously unknown language that was Urartu) on the Kelisin Pass. Unfortunately, Shulz was killed by the Kurds in 1829 and a good deal of his notes were lost (note 4). Most inscriptions -although there are not many- can be read: nearly all of them refer to royal construction activity. For a reconstruction of Urartu history we are pretty dependant on Assyrian sources. Through the years this area has seen almost endemic and continually bitter fighting, so archeology in this area is very dangerous. In 1989, a 7th c. BC fortress built byRusas II was discovered 35 km north of Van, so there is lots yet to uncover and it's estimated that only a third to half of the 300 known Urartian sites in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Armenia have been properly examined by acredited archeologists.

Urartu Kings and Religion

Their principal god was Khaldi (where the "k" is silent), and the king was also the chief priest and envoy of Khaldi. Many shrines to Khaldi were in the various palaces and their temple architecture show a similarity to that discovered in Ur (ca. 3500-2000 BC) and Babylon (note 5)