Urartian Cuneiform, taken at Erebuni during my 2014 trip to Armenia.
The ancient Kingdom of Urartu, also
known interchangeably as the Kingdom of Ararat, Biainili (as they called
themselves) or Van, was a mighty kingdom to the north of Assyria, stretching
across the modern borders of Armenia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and parts of Iraq and
Iran, existing from about 860-585 B.C. by most estimations. “Urartu” was a name
given to them by the Assyrians and what the kingdom is most known by today. It’s
best understood as an Armenian kingdom, directly preceding the Orontid dynasty
of Armenian rulers under the authority of the Median Empire and the earliest
traceable mentions of Armenia from Persian sources in the 500’s B.C. The
language they spoke is of Indo-European origin, and basically the only living
language directly related to it is modern Armenian. They used a cuneiform
alphabet, much like Assyria.
Since my late teens, I’ve wanted
to write a historical fantasy novel set in Urartu. For about 15 years I’ve
worked on it off and on; I have a finished draft that I’m hoping to publish.
When I went to Armenia in 2015 in an internship with Birthright Armenia, it was
a perfect chance to do research for it (I plan to go through the journal I kept
during this trip and publish entries from it on this blog throughout the year).
I visited Erebuni, an ancient Urartian fortress located in Armenia’s capital,
Yerevan, several times while I was there. At one time I was going through the
library of books in the Birthright Armenia office and found an archeology textbook
about Urartu. I wish I knew the title and author now, but I sadly neglected to
save it, and it was almost five years ago now. But it was one of the only books
on Urartu I found in Armenia that was in English. It had a few Urartian words,
phrases and names of deities in it. I copied several Urartian words into my
notebook so that I could pepper them throughout the fantasy novel I want to
write and make it more authentic.
The notebook itself was quite a find, with
Tatev monastery on the cover, and only 50 drams (that’s about 10 cents in US
money). I’d been using it for my Armenian language classes. I felt like copying
these notes onto the blog, mostly for my own private amusement but also for
anyone who might just be interested in learning a few words from a nearly
3,000-year-old, long-dead language. Who knows if this notebook will last
forever, so I might as well copy and preserve this information somewhere. This
is in the interest of preservation. And if any archeologists read this and see
any mistakes, or perhaps know of any Urartian deities not on the list, go ahead
and let me know in the comments. It’ll be a learning experience.
Armenian – English Pronunciation – English Translation
Words
Բելի – Beli – Weapon
Քումեմուշէ – Koomemoosheh –
Harmless
Գունուշինիէի – Goonooshini-eh-i
-Military
Գազուլի – Gazooli – Wonderful
Շուրի – Shuri – Sword
Բիայինիլի – Biainili – Urartu (the
native term)
Եուրի – Yoori – Lord
Հութութուհի – Hootootoohi – Luck,
Success
Deity Names
I’m assuming these names come from
Mher’s Door, a door-like carving into a cliff face near the city of Van which
lists all 75 deities worshiped in Urartu and what to offer them.
Քիլբանի – Kilbani – The 35th
God in the Urartian Pantheon, who ruled Mt. Varaga (which overlooks the city of
Van, which was the site of Urartu’s capital Tushpa)
Եիդուրրու – Ehidooroo – The God of
Mt.Sipan
Շիուինի – Shivini – A solar God
Հութուինի – Hootoo-ini – The God of
Fate (see also the word for Luck)
Շեբիթու – Shebitoo – A God that
King Rusa the First was mentioned to have worshiped (that’s all the book said about it
unfortunately)
Սելարդի – Selardi – A Moon Goddess
Քուերա – Kooera – A God of Earth
and Water
Ելիպուրի – Elipoori – A Hurrian God
(that’s all the book said)
Իրմուշինի – A protective deity who
cures illnesses
Ուա – Oo-ah – An important deity,
however it’s unknown what they were a God of.
Նալաինի – Nala-ini – God of Mt. Nal
Ուրա – God of Ur
Բաբա – Baba – A Goddess possibly
associated with Heba (that’s all I got)
Թուշպունիա – Tooshpoonia – The
winged Goddess of the Dawn
Ադիա – Adia – Goddess of the city
of Adia
Սարդի – Sardi – A Goddess,
connected to Ishtar
Աիա – Aia – The Goddess of Aia (a
city perhaps?)
Ինուանի – Inoo-ani – The Mother
Goddess, also the general Urartian word for Goddess
I know of a few other deities not
on this list too, such as Khaldi, Theispas (a storm and lightning God) and
Arubani (Goddess of arts and creativity). It’d be great to find a list of all
75 deities printed somewhere. By the time of the pagan Kingdom of Armenia, the
number of deities would be reduced to about eight.
Phrases
<<Խալդինի Քուրունի:>> - “Khaldini Kuruni” – “Khaldi is
strong.” (Khaldi (or Haldi) is the Chief God of the Urartian Pantheon. This
phrase would be the equivalent to “Praise Khaldi”.)
This phrase is seen at the end of
declarations, such as that on the stone tablet unearthed at Erebuni which
detailed King Argishti’s conquest of the area and establishment of the
settlement. I’m guessing the “-ni” suffix is the equivalent of the word “is”. Armenian
does this with definite articles. So substitute Khaldi with whatever name you
like, adding “ni” to the end. Then again, I don’t know how this would work with
the name Arubani. “Arubanini kuruni”? Don’t take my word for it, I don’t claim
to be a scholarly resource for your term paper.
Anyway, that’s all I was able to
copy down back then. However, the Erebuni Historical and Archeological Museum
Reserve periodically posts more Urartian vocabulary on their Facebook page.
I’ve been collecting these images too. So as a bonus, I’ll post them here; I
hope no one from the museum minds. In return I'll advertise their Facebook page.
"I" in Armenian is pronounced "yes". Note the similarity with Urartian.
In Urartian it's "eeyoo", in Armenian, "yerp". Vaguely similar.
And I had this word for "lord" in my notebook too! A good sign I was on the right track.
Pretty sure the Urartians used some kind of solar calendar with the Spring equinox as "new year". But look how "year" in Armenian is "tari" and in Urartian it's "shali".
"Tsue" has an obvious connection with the Armenian "tsov".
And here's how they wrote their numbers.
The cuneiform alphabet. I actually don't remember where I came across this image so I can't credit it, but it was on my computer.
In closing, it’s actually really
hard to dig up much on Urartu, at least online, but I’ve been at it for years.
It’s one of those extremely obscure academic topics where a simple internet search
really isn’t going to get you anywhere far. If you want to know more, I can
point you to at least a couple different resources.
Resources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6BfziEo1mU
– A brief History of Urartu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMJ_X364XYY
– A nice two-hour documentary about Urartu
And if you want a book, I’d
suggest starting with People of the Hills: Ancient Ararat and the Caucasus,
by Charles Burney and David Marshall Lang. I've had this book for a number of years.
Thanks for reading the only blog
in existence that can go from talking about pro wrestling to Norwegian dungeon
synth artists to 3,000-year-old forgotten languages and mythologies. What’s
next? Even I’m not completely sure.
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