I. M. Diakonoff, The Pre-history of the Armenian People. Remote and Classical Antiquity (original) (raw)
(Continued from Previous Page [67])
Chapter 2.
The History of the Armenian Highlands
in the Middle Bronze and Early Iron Ages
3. The Armenian Highlands during the Age of the Assyrian and Urartian Wars and Conquests
The Mushki, the Apeshlaians, and the Urumeans The fall of the Hittite Empire, the downfall of the lesser states of Syria, and the weakening, for internal reasons, of Egypt and Babylonia which occurred at that time, left Assyria from the middle of the 12th century on, as the only great power in the Near East. At the end of this century begin the campaigns of conquest of king Tiglath-pileser I (Tukulti-apal-Esharra, 1115-1077 B.C). His annals and inscriptions are our main source on the history of the Armenian Highlands for the period which followed the fall of the Hittite Empire.
3.1. The Mushki, the Apeshlaians, and the Urumeans
Fifty years before Tiglath-pileser came to the throne, i.e., around 1165 B.C., the tribes of the Mushki (this was the Assyrians' name for the Thraco-Phrygian tribes) crossed the Upper Euphrates and, [68] having penetrated deep into the valley of the river Arsanias (Muratsu), occupied the countries of Alzi and Purulumzi. Simultaneously the Kaska and the Urumeans also advanced into the valley of the Upper Euphrates. It is to be understood that the term "Kaska" is a very general one, but some inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser I specify the tribal name of these particular "Kaska"--they were Apeshlaians, a tribe which apparently was not known to the Hittite sources (116). It is therefore probable that this is not simply a case of the same Kaska tribes who long had troubled the Hittite Empire resuming their raids to the south and using the empire's fall to enlarge the field of their military activities. It is more likely that here we witness a new ethnical movement in which new tribes were involved. As far as the Urumeans are concerned, we have no information about this tribe at all; we shall dwell on some hypotheses about it below. By 1115 B.C. the Mushki resumed their advance and, numbering twenty thousand men under five chieftains, they descended into the valley of the Upper Tigris (Kadmuhi), creating a serious threat to the Assyrian possessions. One may infer from the text of the annals that the Mushki must have been in alliance with the local inhabitants. This is understandable: in the first half of the 12th century the Assyrians had more than once forced the Kadmuhians, Alzians, and Purulumzians to pay heavy tribute, and the Mushki could get more booty plundering the Assyrian villages than the more humble habitations of the Hurrian mountaineers.
Having come to the throne, Tiglath-pileser I moved into Kadmuhi, inflicted a defeat on the Mushki, and, accorthng to his own assertion, took 6,000 captives. However this thd not finish the matter, since the Kadmuhians refused to pay tribute to the Assyrians and received support from the pabhi (the mountaineer Hurrians). Tiglath-pileser defeated the Kadmuhians and their allies in the battIe of Name (one of the lesser tributaries of the Tigris), and a "king" of the mountaineers, one Kili-Tessub (117), was captured along with his family, his household gods, and the gold, silver, and bronze utensils from his treasury. Later Tiglath-pileser laid siege to the Hurrian mountain fortress of Urrahinash on the upper reaches of the Tigris; its king, Shadi-Tessub, son of Hattuhe (118), surrendered to him and was taken captive.
In the next year (1114 B.C.) Tiglath-pileser advanced to the even more remote "country of the Subareans" (i.e., of the Hurrians), namely, to Alzi and Purulumzi, which had also refused to pay tribute to Assyria. As the reader may recall, these regions had already been occupied by the Mushki for two generations. During this campaign a detachment of four thousand Kaska (Apeshlaians) and [69] Urumeans, "recalcitrant warriors of the country of the Hittites, who had captured the towns of Subartu by their own strength," entered Assyrian service (119). On his way back, the king again ravaged the country of Kadmuhi.
3.2. The Assyrian Offensive into the Heart of the Armenian Highlands at the End of the 12th Century B.C. (*15)
Information about two different campaigns is apparently combined under the third year in the annals (1113 B. C.). One of the campaigns was probably not commanded by the king in person, but by one of his generals. Some of the countries mentioned, judging by the type of their names (120), were probably located in the area of the Quti, to the east or northeast of Assyria. Separately named are some of the countries of the Upper Euphrates valley--Isua (Isuwa) and Daria (121), then again certain eastern areas somewhere beyond the Lower Zab (122), and finally the tribal league (?) of the Sugi in the land of the Haphi.123 The names of the countries included in this league partly coincide with those which had been included in the alliance of the Uruatri. One of them, the country of Alamun, can be identified with the valley of the Upper Zab.
The most important campaign into the Armenian Highlands took place in 1112 B.C. Its goal was the "countries of the far away kings, on the shore of the Upper Sea," i.e., the Black Sea (124). According to the information of Tiglath-pileser's annals, the Assyrians crossed sixteen mountain ridges with clearly Hurro-Urartian names and finally passed over the Euphrates by a bridge which they laid (125)--obviously in its upper reaches, otherwise it would be difficult to imagine sixteen ridges on the way there (126). A tribal coalition consisting of 22,000 warriors (as the annals assure us), headed by the "kings" of twenty-three "countries" which are listed by name (127), came to battle against the Assyrians. The names of many of these countries in all probability are Hurro-Urartian, but none of them belong to the well-known countries of the Upper Euphrates valley. Probably the route lay to the east of that valley, over the central passes of the Highlands. When Tiglath-pileser defeated this coalition, he was met by another, headed this time by "sixty kings of Nairi," not counting those "who had come to their aid." However this greater coalition also retreated before the Assyrians, and Tiglath-pileser states that "I drove them as far as the Upper Sea at arrowpoint." Apparently the retreat of the "kings of Nairi" took place down the valley of the river Coroh in the direction of present-day Batumi (128). It is clear from this general picture that Haiasa no longer existed at this time (*6).
[70] Tiglath-pileser's annals characterize the result of the campaign in the following manner:
I conquered their large temple (or trading) towns, I seized their captives, I carried away their property, their wealth; their villages I burned in flames, I destroyed them, demolished them, turned them to ruins. I drove their extensive herds of horses, countless mules and hinnies, the livestock of their meadows, without number. My hand captured alive all the kings of Nairi; I had mercy on them, spared their lives, freed them from their fetters and bonds before (the god) Shamash, my lord, and made them swear allegiance in (their) slavery by my great gods for the future, forever. I took their sons, the scions of their royalty, as hostages, I im- posed upon them a tribute of 1,200 horses and 2,000 cattle. I allowed them to return to their lands. I brought Seni, king of Daiene, who had not been submissive to (the god) Assur my lord, in bonds and fetters to my city Assur. I had mercy on him and let him leave my city Assur alive. (Thus) I became lord of the complete extensive lands of Nairi. ...
On his way back into Assyria along the valley of the Upper Euphrates, Tiglath-pileser I besieged "Milidia of Hatti," i.e., probably Hittite Maldia, Luwian *Malzi, Aramaic MIz; present-day Eski Malatya. (One of the variants has Milidia of "Hanigalbat," i.e., Mitanni, but this is now regarded as a scribal mistake.) The city surrendered and was not destroyed; the Assyrian king limited himself to a tribute of about one ton of lead ore annually.
It goes without saying that the intention of this campaign was not the subjugation of the Armenian Highlands; its real goal was only to terrorize the mountain dwellers and to plunder.
In 1110 B.C. Tiglath-pileser conducted a campaign in the valley of the Upper Zab. Assyria's enemies here were the same ones as during the time of Tukulti-Ninurta I--Musru, the Qumanians, Arinna, and others. Tiglath-pileser's opponents were of considerable strength: the Assyrian annals assert that the Qumanians presented a force of 20,000, and their fortress Hunusa had a triple wall of baked brick; there were also towers made of baked brick in the neighboring fortress of Kipshuna, "their royal town" (129). As Melikisvili has shown, it was precisely here in the valley of the Upper Zab that one of the main centers of the future Urartian civilization was in the making. It is not impossible that the society of the Qumanians had reached the state level as early as the end of the 12th century B.C. or even before that.
Summing up the results of the campaigns of the first five and one-half years of his rule (1115-1110 B.C.), Tiglath-pileser I says in his annals: "From the beginning of my reign to the fifth year my hand subjected a total of forty-two countries and their rulers from [71] the far side of the Lower (Lesser) Zab, to the far side of the Euphrates and (to) the Upper Sea of the sunset" (130).
The series of campaigns into the Highlands ended with this, and the Assyrian king declares: "I cut off the path of my enemies into my land," from which it is evident that the Assyrians not only made attacks on the mountain dwellers, but that the mountain dwellers also made attacks on Assyria.
In the future Tiglath-pileser's campaigns were directed mostly against Syria. During one of them the Assyrian king, according to his inscription, reached the Phoenician coast, and on his way back he "took possession of the entire country of the Hittites," imposed a tribute of cedar beams on Ini-Tessub, the "king of the great Country of the Hittites," and occupied his city of Milidia (Milide). Apparently the Assyrians also imported "Kanes oak" from here (131). At this time Milidia must have been the center of a state continuing the traditions of the Hittite Empire. This must have been a kingdom with a considerable territory, since it extended to the cedar mountains of Syria and the oak forests north of the Cilician Taurus, or had close trathng ties with them.
Continuing his march upwards along the valley of the Euphrates, Tiglath-pileser conquered the countries Isua and Suhmu (Isuwa and Zuhma of the Hittites).
With the beginning of the 11th century B.C. a massive penetration of the new Western Semitic tribes--the Aramaeans--into Syria and Mesopotamia started. This led to a significant weakening of Assyria. Tiglath-pileser I and his successors were now occupied with a continual struggle against the Aramaeans. However Tiglath-pileser's son Assurbelkala (1074-1057 B.C.) again waged war in the country of the Mushki (Alzi?), and, during another campaign, in Musru, as well as in Hanigalbat, from which places he deported a number of inhabitants. The mountains of Kashiari (modern Tur-'Abdin) and the country of the Haphi are mentioned; later in the same year there was one more warlike expedition, in which this king "during the campaign against the country of Areme fought in the town Murar [...] of the country of Shubre." Areme is here the oblique case of Aramu, i.e., the country of the Aramaeans (132). But the "country of Areme" might also be the country Arme, later mentioned in the Urartian inscriptions and apparently lying between Shubria, Amed, and the sources of the Tigris. From the time of Assurbelkala until the end of the 10th century plundering raids into the Armenian Highlands occurred very seldom. This situation, which was a happy one for the mountain dwellers, is an unlucky one for the scholars, since the sources of information about the Armenian Highlands run dry.
[72]
3.3. States and Tribes of Asia Minor and the Armenian Highlands by the 9th and 8th centuries B.C.*7
The political situation with which the great Assyrian and Urartian conquerors of the following centuries had to deal was gradually formed during the 11th-9th centuries B.C. During this time Asia Minor was apparently slowly recovering after the shock of the fall of the Hittite Empire, and in the Armenian Highlands two centuries of development almost without invasions allowed for the crystallization of a class and state civilization.
In Asia Minor the 11th-10th centuries were a time of decline, from which society began to right itself only toward the 9th century B.C. During this time towns existed on the old sites, but their areas had markedly diminished; the emerging kingdoms were apparently unstable and small. Except for some seals with Luwian hieroglyphic inscriptions, few texts from this period have come down to us. The so-called "Old Phrygian" culture took form to the southwest of the Halys, in the region of modern Konya and Nigde, and east of the bend of the Halys, from Bogazkoy to Malatya. The ethnic affiliation of the creators of this culture has not, however, been established. Its typical pottery is ornamented by concentric circles, rays, and stylized silhouettes of trees and deer. To the northwest of the area of the "Old Phrygian" culture, in the center of future Phrygia proper, another, monochrome pottery was in use.
More than three centuries passed after the fall of the Hittite Empire before the Phrygian Empire was created. There is no ground to suppose that the Phrygians who founded this empire were the people who destroyed the Hittite Empire; it was ruined by the onslaught of many different tribal groups, among which the Phrygians proper, if they were actually already on the spot, were probably neither the leading, nor the main military force. A. Goetze has suggested that the creation of the Phrygian Empire should be dated in the 8th century B.C; however it is likely that its nucleus was formed earlier (133). The Assyrians and Urartians called this empire Mushku or Mushki. Its capital was the city Gordion on the river Sangarius. According to tradition, it was named for its founder, the first great king of Phrygia, Gordias I. Actually an inscription of one Gordias (Luw. Kurtis) has been found at the southernmost point of the bend of the Halys, i.e., far outside the original territory of Phrygia, which lay further to the northeast. The inscription is in Luwian hieroglyphic (a special script for the Phrygian language probably was not introduced until the reign of Midas I). Gordias calls himself "King of the West and East" (the Luwian princes, unless they claimed the Hittite imperial inheritance, mostly styled themselves as kings of the local valleys). The legends and the [73] historical sources preserve for us only two names of the kings of Phrygia --Gordias and Midas--(134) (Assyr. Mita); presumably there were several other Phrygian kings, successively bearing these names (135) The wealth of Midas has become proverbial. An earlier king was Ascanius, a predecessor of Gordias, but he ruled Phrygia Minor near the Sea of Marmara.
In the second half of the 8th century B.C. Phrygia achieved its greatest might; its domain extended in the southeast to the ridges of the Cilician Taurus, and Midas even made attempts to penetrate into Cilicia (136)
Phrygian inscriptions of the 8th-6th centuries are found not only in the valley of the Sangarius, but also in the bend of the Halys and to the east of it. In the west, Phrygia apparently controlled Lydia and had contacts with the city-states of mainland Greece; the inlluence of post-Achaean Greek culture on Phrygia begins to be strongly felt especially after the fall of its empire. The "Neo- Phrygian" ceramics are characteristic of the period of Phrygia's acme, This appears to be a development of the Old Phrygian ceramics, painted with geometric design. This type of pottery was popular throughout the entire territory of Phrygia and even abroad, right up to Pontus and Malatya. Burial mounds were characteristic for the Phrygians (*8).
The excavations of Gordion have shown many ties between Phrygia and Urartu. Common to both kingdoms is the custom of hewing niches in the rock--so-called "doors of the god"--in front of which the deity was worshipped. The most important cult in Phrygia was that of the Mother of the gods, Cybele (Kubele, Kubebe), who was known by the name of Kubaba as far back as before the Hurrians and the Hittites. Connected with her cult was that of Attis, who castrated himself in order to escape from the love of the goddess, thus, as it were, dying and being reborn to a new and purer, blissful life. The self-mutilation of the priests of Cybele and Attis was, as far as we know, a new custom in Asia Minor, although orgiastic feasts connected with their cult had their prototype in the earlier periods of ancient Oriental history (137). A god of the moon, Man or Men, was also worshipped. His cult was perhaps a continuation of the old Asianic cult of the god of the moon, Armas. Another important goddess was Angdistis. The god Sabazius, often mentioned as Phrygian, was actually a Thracian deity. The early Phrygians thd not have particularly close ties with the Greek West (138), but during the 8th century B.C. an alphabet of Phoenician derivation very similar to the Greek was introduced in Phrygia. lt has few affinities with other alphabets of ancient Asia Minor--those of Lydia, Caria, and Lycia. Only the Greek and [74] Phrygian alphabets are quite clearly Phoenician; the Phrygian seems to be an adaptation of the western variant of the Greek alphabet, which reached Aeolis by the middle of the 8th century B.C.
To the southeast of Phrygia several small kingdoms with Luwian dynasties existed. An important confederation was Tabal, in the upper part of the valley of the Seyhun and Yenice-Irmak rivers, where in the 8th century the dynasty of Parwatas ruled (Assyr.Purutash), to which several smaller "kingdoms" were subjected. Between Phrygia and Tabal was situated the kingdom of Tyana.
The kingdom of Kammanu (Comana) can be located to the northeast of Tabal: its capital was Melitia, or Melid (Milidia, Hitt. Maldia, modern Arslantas--Eski Malatya). The domain of this kingdom extended to the Euphrates, possibly even to the sources of the Tigris. There was a period when the kingdom of Melid had a king in common with Carchemish on the Euphrates (139); at other periods the power of the kings of Melid stretched far to the east, and officially the kingdom was evidently called "Hatti," thus claiming to continue the trathtions of the Hittite Empire.
The kingdom of Qummuh (Commagene) was situated south of Malatya, while the small kingdom of Gurgum, with its capital of Markasu (modern Marash), was wedged in between Tabal and Melid- Kammanu, in the valley of the river Ceyhan.
The fertile lowlands on the lower reaches of the rivers Seyhun and Ceyhan and near the gulf of Iskenderun (Alexandretta) were occupied by the kingdoms of the Danunians and Que, or Qawe (it is possible, however, that both are two names of one and the same kingdom). In the 8th century B.C. the kingdom of Cilicia (Hilakku) is mentioned to the west of them (it is the "Cilicia" of classical antiquity).
All these kingdoms had Luwian dynasties (140), as was also the case in several of the states of Northern Syria (Carchemish, which was another claimant to the official name "Kingdom of Hatti"; the kingdom of Unqu, or Pattina on the lower Orontes); the other dynasties were Western Semitic (Samaal, or Yaudi; the kingdom of Arpad --now Tell Erfad--with the dynasty of Agusu; the kingdom of Hatarikka) (141). Luwian ("Hittite") hieroglyphics and the Luwian language were used for official inscriptions in all of the enumerated states, right up to Hamath on the upper Orontes, but Phoenician or the Aramaic dialects, and the Semitic alphabetic writing were also used in some of them (the land of the Danunians, Samaal, Arpad, and others). Almost all these minor kingdoms considered themselves to be descendents of the Hittite Empire (142). For the Assyrians and Urartians of the 9th through the 7th centuries B.C. the term Hatti (in Assyrian) or Hate (in Urartian) was either the [75] designation of all the lands to the west of the Euphrates and their population as a whole regardless of their ethnic affiliation, or the designation specifically of Melid (in Urartian) or of Carchemish (in Assyrian) (143).
A "North Syrian alliance" was constituted toward the 9th century B.C. It included the kingdoms of Kammanu-Melid, Qummuh, Gurgum, Carchemish, Arpad, and Pattina; at various times the hegemony in this union belonged to Melid, to Carchemish, or to Arpad. Its rival was the "Southern Syrian alliance" headed by Damascus or Hamath (144).
To the north of the Luwian states, somewhere on the upper reaches of the Halys or in the valley of the river Kelkit (Lycus), there existed the important state of Kasku (Aramaic Ktk), named for the Kaska tribe which settled there.
The country of Daiene (Urart. Diauhe) is mentioned to the east of Kasku and to the north of the upper reaches of the Euphrates (in the valley of the Choroh) from the 12th to the 8th century B.C. In all probability it was already a state, although it included the territories of a number of separate tribes. The union of Haiasa-Azzi, which had existed here earlier, had by this time disappeared without a trace; the population here seems to have been Hurrian. According to the annals of Tiglath-pileser I, Seni, the king of Daiene, occupied a leading position among the rulers of the "Nairi" as early as the 12th century B.C. By the 8th century B.C. Daiene was one of the richest kingdoms of the Highlands. The main trade route from Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean Sea to the coast of the Black Sea (145) passed along the Upper Euphrates valley and across the pass leading into the valley of the Choroh toward present-day Barburt (Baberd) and into the valley of the Lycus. The route acquired particular significance by the 8th-7th centuries, especially after the emergence on the Black Sea coast of the Greek colonies of Sinope, Trapezus, and others, which constituted the federation of the Pontus (the biblical Phut). The Greek cities exported iron and silver ore (146).
To the northeast of Daiene (where Tiglath-pileser I had met the coalition of the "sixty kings of Nairi"), the country of Qulha (more accurately /Qolxa/ (147), Greek Colchis) certainly existed in the 8th century B.C., but possibly even earlier. When the kingdom of Diauhe was destroyed by the Urartians, the valley of the Choroh was probably acquired by Colchis. It is significant that the Urartian sources note gold as part of the received tribute only in the countries situated along this route (Qummuh, Melid, Diauhe) (148). It apparently came from Colchis.
In the valley of the Upper Euphrates the earlier "countries" were [76] partially preserved, and some new ones formed. In the north is mentioned the country of Suhmu (Hitt. Zuhma), lying from the valley of Erzincan to the valley of the Arsanias (Muratsu), and Alzi is recorded in the lower valley of the Arsanias. As we have seen, the kingdom of Alzi was occupied by the Mushki (Muska- in Luwian). Alzi is thus apparently identical with the "Country of the Mushki" of the early Neo-Assyrian texts. Later the term went out of use since Alzi in the 8th century had been conquered by Urartu. The term "Mushki" was transferred to Phrygia (Musa- in Luwian). Alzi under the Eastern Mushki was a rather important country, which included not only the former territory of Alzi proper, but also the former territory of Isuwa (the Assyrian sources seem to use the term "Isua" as a synonym of Alzi) (149). It also possibly sometimes embraced the regions directly contiguous to the south: viz., Enzite (Anzitene; Andzit of the Middle Ages) and the sources of the Tigris (Angegh-tun of the Middle Ages). The Urartian sources mention the country of Supa (Sophene, Cop'k') to the north (?) of Alzi; it is not quite clear whether this was an independent kingdom or part of Suhmu (150). The texts also mention several smaller "countries" south of the Upper Euphrates valley (Daria, or Dirria, Urart. Dirgu; Nirbu, Urart. Niriba, or Niribai-hube; Mallanu, Nirdun, etc.).
The Aramaic kingdom of Amed (Amida, modern Diyarbakir), with its dynasty ("house") of Zamanu, was located in the upper reaches of the Tigris. The kingdom of Shubria, with its Hurrian dynasty, was situated farther to the northeast in the Sasun mountains. Separate from it (apparently on the northern slopes of the Sasun mountains in the direction of modern Mush) the Assyrian and Urartian sources mention the country of Urumu (in Assyrian) or Urmie (in Urartian), which was probably a settlement of the Urumeans; this country is not to be identified with Arme, mentioned by the Urartian inscriptions (cf. n. 151).
Further to the east the centers and tribal groups known to us as far back as the 13th century B.C. are still mentioned up to the end of the 10th century B.C.: the Uruatri, the Haphi, the Qumanians with their city of Qumme, etc. But in the course of the 9th and 8th centuries B.C. a new formation takes shape here: the kingdom of Hubushkia, or, as it was officially called, "the kingdom of the Nairi," in the valley of the river Kentrites-Bohtan and spreathng at times further to the east, towards the watershed of Lake Urmia. By the 8th century in the valley of the Upper Zab there existed the kingdom of Musasir (Urart. Ardine; possibly the same as the earlier Musru). In this valley there were rich temples: in Qumenu (Qumme) (152)--the temple of the god Teisheba, and in Ardine--the temple of Haldi (Khaldi), where the Urartian treasury was kept, [77] although Musasir was not technically part of Urartu (153). The Hurro- Urartian robber tribes of the Ukkians and others lived in the mountains surrounding Hubushkia and Musasir (154).
In the fertile valley near the eastern coast of Lake Van was founded the kingdom or Urartu (Akkadian, Assyrian dialect, Ur'artu; Babylonian dialect, Urashtu, pronounced Oralt; biblical Ararat, the Urartian Biainele, probably pronounced Vanele, which, strictly speaking, means the "Biaian countries," whence the modern city name Van). The date of its foundation is not clear. In 859 B.C. the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III was already fighting with its king Aramu, but it is likely that Urartu as a state was formed earlier. It is apparently mentioned as a kingdom in the later inscriptions of Assurnasirapal II (884-859 B.C.); there is no way to decide whether the "Uratru" of the inscription of the Assyrian king Adadnerari II (911-890 B.C.) is the tribal federation of Uruatru or the kingdom of Urartu (155).
It is difficult to say whether Gilzan, which may have been situated near the western bank of the Lake Urmia, was actually a kingdom, although Assyrian inscriptions of the 9th century B.C. refer to its "kings" (156). Later it seems to have become part of Urartu. Mana (the Assyrians called it "The Land of the Manneans"), in the hilly plain to the south of this lake, was undoubtedly a kingdom. It was formed at the end of the 9th century on the Lullubian territory of the country of "Inner Zamua" as a result of the merger of many thriving city-states, which probably had existed there as early as the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C. (157) Possessing an archaic socio-political structure (autonomy of its individual districts, participation of a council of elders in the government) (158) Mana nevertheless grew into a major force, which successively rivaled Urartu and Assyria, and was conquered only by Media at the end of the 7th-beginning of the 6th centuries B.C., almost simultaneously with these two empires (159).
North of the center of the Urartian kingdom, including central Transcaucasia, there do not seem to have existed states in the proper sense of the word. The Urartian inscriptions refer to a great number of "countries" and tribes here, including the Etio (160), which apparently formed an extensive but loose tribal confederacy. All of them dwelt mainly in the territory of the modern Armenian Republic and the adjacent regions to the south of the Araxes. To the west of them lived the tribes of Witeru, Lusha, Katarza, Iya (Igane), Zabahae, etc.(161) (on the upper reaches of the Araxes and Kur, and around Lake Caldir). They may have been Georgian-speaking, just as their neighbor Qulha (162).
With respect to the ethnic affiliation of the other "countries" [78] listed, we can say that part of them were Hurrian (Daiene, Shubria, perhaps Gilzan and Mana), and part were Urartian (Urartu, Musasir). In the valley of the Upper Euphrates and Lower Arsanias the population must have consisted of those Hurrian tribes which were linguistically closest to the Urartians; the population there was also mixed with the Luwians and the new arrivals--the Mushki and the Urumeans.
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