The Archaeology of Anatolia, Volume IV, 2021
The many castles in the Kingdom of Urartu are spread over a wide area of approximately 222,000 km... more The many castles in the Kingdom of Urartu are spread over a wide area of approximately 222,000 km2, centering on the Van Basin, including Lake Sevan and Lake Urmia (Salvini 1995; Çilingiroğlu 1997). Rusa, son of Argišti (685–645 BCE), who was the most prominent of the Urartian kings, initiated many reforms during this period, building at least five large castles/cities in the Lake Van basin. One of these, Ayanis Castle, is located 35 km north of Van, on the east coast of Lake Van, north of today’s Ayanis village, 300 m inland from the lake. The magnificent castle was built on rocky ground at an altitude of 250 m above the lake level and 1866 m above sea level (Fig. 14-14). The castle is a one-day walk from Tušpa, which is the Urartian state’s capital city. Ayanis City was destroyed by a great earthquake; almost sealed by the collapse of monumental mudbrick structures, it became uninhabitable. Therefore, the city remained intact to the present day, complete with the original artefacts. Ayanis Castle presents us with many problems in spite of its rich cultural inventory: When was the castle/city established?; When and how was it destroyed?; Is there a relationship between the end of the fortress and that of the Urartian kingdom?; Are the end of the castle and the death of Argišti’s son Rusa simultaneous?; Should discussion of a “Post-Urartu period” ensue? Until now, there were two basic criteria used to date Ayanis: inscriptions and dendrochronological analysis, as no radiocarbon analysis had been carried out for Ayanis. In recent fieldwork, radiocarbon samples were taken in order to resolve the questions highlighted above. In this study, the first results of these analyses will be presented.
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