Brun066
★★★★4.0Wrote on 18 Nov 2021
On the northern border of Urartu kingdom
The ruins of Erebuni are impressive. They dominate the outskirts of Yerevan from the top of a rather pronounced hill; and the base of the fortress, a multi-colored wall due to the combination of basalt and volcanic tuff, the first element encountered when climbing from the access stairway, is in my opinion the most impressive element (even if it appears heavily restored). Walking along the walk surrounding the settlement, thus penetrating inside the wall, the path reveals other interesting parts, but in my opinion not so evocative: they have a function well recognized by specialists, but which doesn't immediately strike the visitor. How then to understand more deeply the Erebuni fortress? Historians and archaeologists teach us that the Urartu civilization flourished from the 9th to the 7th century BC (to be eventually replaced by the kingdom of Armenia), affecting the region surrounding Lake Van, up to the other two lakes of Sevan and Urmia (today respectively in Turkey, Armenia and Iran), and extended further west towards the center of 'Anatolia. They also inform us that their capital (at the time when a united state was born in place of what had long been autonomous tribes) was Tushpa (or Turushpa; later known as Van), near Lake Van. If so, what is the sense of Erebuni, the fortress-city founded by the Urartian king Argishti I, starting in 782 BC, as a garrison against enemies on the northern border of the kingdom? Certainly its status is that of one of the most important archaeological sites by the Urartu civilization, more than that of Teishebaini (also near Yerevan) and like that of the Urartian capital, Tushpa (today obviously in Turkey). So Erebuni - despite being all in all peripheral to the heart of the Urartu kingdom - should be considered the greatest testimony of that kingdom within the borders of present-day Armenia. And in turn the Urartian civilization is considered the ancestor of historical Armenia: the kingdom of Armenia takes over from it more or less in the same territories, and a substantial continuity is assumed between its state groups, especially (I think) for the fact that in Bisotun carved stone (Iran), written under the reign of Darius I (about 520 BC) for the first time in the known sources the names "Urartu" and "Armenia" are connected. This despite considerable differences exist between the two peoples: for example, it should be noted that Urartian is not an Indo-European language, while Armenian is. Finally, Erebuni appears to be the city not only ancestor, but eponymous, of the current Armenian capital Yerevan (just as the Urartian ancestors recall the name of the mountain symbolic of the Armenians, Ararat). That same Yerevan which on the other hand (it should be remembered) at the beginning of the nineteenth century was certainly not among the largest Armenian settlements, still counting in the 1820s less than 30% of the population of this ethnic group. These reflections are enough to explain the attention and care the Armenian state dedicates to this ancient settlement. But they are also useful to reflect how the identities of this part of the world are shaky, fluctuating in time and space, and present a mixture of peoples even more than else; even if no one can forget how Medz Yeghem, the “great evil” of 1915, irremediably contributed to making this reflection dramatic.