Urartu Historical Periods

Assyrians originally mentioned punitive expeditions against the Nairi as early as 13th to 9th Centuries BC. As early as the reign of the Assyrian king Shalmanaser I (1280-1266 BC), there is mention of Urartu, under the name "Uruatri". Shalmanaser's texts describe a campaign against 8 countries collectively called the Uruatri. However by the 11th century BC, the Nairi tribe had fallen, and Assyrian tablets make the first mention of "Urartu" as a strong neighboring threat. About this time Assyria went into 200 years of slow decline, allowing Urartu to develop and expand its influence. Hurrian influences continued, but the Urartu confederacy began to absorb Assyrian culture, including the use of their Assyrian cuneiform to replace the Urartu pictogram writing. Later, Sarduri I was able to extend his kingdom into the areas to the North of Assyria, known as the Nairi region. Sarduri knew how to blow his own horn --- he had a massive wall erected at Tushpa, with the inscription giving himself the titles

The magnificent king, the mighty king, king of the universe, king of the land of Nairi, a king having none equal to him, a shepherd to be wondered at, fearing no battle, a king who humbled those who would not submit to his authority.

He had the heart of a great wargamer!

Urartu appears again in Assyrian inscriptions in the 9th c. BC as a powerful northern rival. The Nairi states and tribes became a unified kingdom under king Aramu (ca. 860-843 BC), whose capital at Arzashkun was captured by Shalmaneser III. Urartu reached the apex of its military might under Argishti I (ca. 785-760 BC), becoming one of the most powerful kingdoms of ancient Near East (note 6).

At the height of Urartu power, in the 8th c BC, they capture entire Assyrian provinces, invaded Babylon, going as far as the river Diala, and usurped Assyria's trade routes. exacting tremendous tribute to allow passage. Argishti also founded several new cities, including Erebuni in 782 BC, the forerunner to the modern Armenian capital of Yerevan. However starting around 714 BC the Cimmerans raiding to the North, and the Assyrians pillaging to the South took their toll. For a period, around 685 BC, Urartu was a vassal state. Whatever the precise circumstances of the fall of Urartu, in the second half of the sixth century, Urartu became a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire; with the satrap's palace in Yerevan (605 BC?). Then in the end, the state of Urartu was annihilated in 585 B.C. by the Scythian invasion. Although most historians are blurry as to how or why, Urartu re- emerged and became part of the transformation into the Orontid Kingdom of Armenia. What IS known, is that the end of Urartu was violent, with most of its palaces and fortresses burned down.