By B. Szymanska
WARSAW (https://pcma.uw.edu.pl) — The Polish-Armenian Archaeological Expedition has completed its first season of research at the site of Argishtikhinili. This city, dating to the first half of the 1st millennium BCE, is notable for the cuneiform inscriptions of Urartian kings, monumental defensive architecture, and grand residences of the Urartian elite.
The settlement was founded on the summit of Davti Blur hill [today in Nor Armavir Village of Armavir Province in Armenia] around 774 BCE, by Argishti I, the king of Urartu. Between the 9th and 7th centuries BCE, Urartu was one of the most significant powers in Eastern Anatolia and the South Caucasus. The kingdom’s center was located near Lake Van. Through military campaigns in the late 9th and 8th centuries BCE, its borders expanded to encompass territories between Lake Urmia in the east, Lake Sevan in the north, and the Taurus and Zagros Mountains in the south.
Urartu, particularly in the 8th century BCE, was a formidable rival of the Assyrian Empire, engaging in protracted conflicts for dominance over Syria and southern Anatolia. Urartu is famed for its strongly fortified, hard-to-reach stone fortresses and bronze craftsmanship, examples of which can be found in many European museums.
In the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, Argishtikhinili was one of Urartu’s major administrative and urban centers. The city featured two citadels surrounded by residential districts and irrigation channels supplying water from the Araxes River. The most impressive and best-preserved parts of the city lie in the central and eastern sections of the Davti Blur hill, where the expedition’s work is concentrated.
The expedition is co-directed by Dr. Mateusz Iskra, head of the Department of Near Eastern Studies at PCMA UW, and Hasmik Simonyan from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia and the Service for the Protection of Historical Environment and Cultural Museum-Reservations of Armenia.