Many features of Urartian art were preserved in the neighboring countries after the fall of Urartu in the 6th century BC. Observations by Boris Piotrovsky suggest that decoration and production techniques of Scythian belts and scabbards were borrowed from Urartu.[3] The Urartian way of decorating cauldrons spread over the ancient world, and it is believed thatArmenian art and that of southern Georgia were partly based on the Urartian traditions.[20][22]. See rhyton art
Many features of Urartian art were preserved in the neighboring countries after the fall of Urartu in the 6th century BC. Observations by Boris Piotrovsky suggest that decoration and production techniques of Scythian belts and scabbards were borrowed from Urartu.[3] The Urartian way of decorating cauldrons spread over the ancient world, and it is believed thatArmenian art and that of southern Georgia were partly based on the Urartian traditions.[20][22]
Etymology:
Urartu – Urantia
Urartu – Ura – Ural Mountains
Lake Van – Van – Vanites Varun Varna Varuna Vani Wani Waon (Kumaon) Oni
Soon after this relocation, all of Van and Amadon’s loyal material and semimaterial associates of immortality status were translated from Urantia to system headquarters(8), and Van was invested as titular head of all superhuman personalities on Urantia (9). From these secluded heights, within one thousand years, Van and Amadon established three hundred and fifty settlements of people loyal to the plan of mortal progression and universe cooperation (10). This network stretched from Lake Van eastward to the region of the southern Caspian Sea (11) and on to the foothills of the Kopet Daugh, in Turkestan, which we are led in The URANTIA Book to believe was the eastern terminus of the Vannic network and also the primary headquarters of Van and Amadon (12).
ABOVE LEFT: THE MESOPOTAMIAN WALL.
The Zagros Mountain Range, running southwest, overlooking the Mesopotamian plains.
ABOVE RIGHT: THE GREAT CITADEL ROCK AT VAN.
First stronghold and capital of the Urartian state, overlooking Lake Van. Carved in the rock are cuneiform inscriptions of the Urartian kings, some of whom were buried here in rock-cut tombs. Foreground: ruins of an old Turkish city.
For one hundred and fifty thousand years, Van and Amadon led the highland descendants of their original human followers in laboring for the uplift of the world(13). For untold generations, legends grew about these two immortal ministers of God who continued to live and work among men. Gradually, Van and Amadon came to be viewed as divine or near-divine personages and were woven into the spreading traditions, superstitions, and religions of mankind (14).
After the dispatch of a material son and daughter to Urantia had been approved on high, Van and Amadon led their followers in preparing a garden site for the couple (15). Thirty-seven thousand years ago, Adam and Eve arrived and took up the administration of Urantia. Van and Amadon had transplanted the tree of life to the Garden of Eden for the use of the Adamic couple. Shortly after Adam and Eve arrived, Van and Amadon returned to system headquarters, after nearly half a million years of ministering on this small and needy world, leaving behind them a truly living legacy (16).
A land forgotten by history
The earliest recorded mention of Urartu is in ancient Assyrian inscriptions of the thirteenth century B.C., a time before Urartu had become consolidated as a state. At that time, the Assyrians applied the term Uruartri to the loose groupings of people in the region where Urartu was later to appear. The Assyrians also referred to these peoples as the Nairi (17). (Could this be connected with the Nerites referred to in The URANTIA Book?) (18).
In the year 860 B.C., the Urartian kingdom was formed under its first king, Aramu, and the Assyrians began referring to the new nation as Urartu (19). The Urartians, however, referred to their country as the land of Biaini. Scholars somehow derive the word Van, as in Lake Van (and perhaps nearby Lake Sevan), from the word Biaini and sometimes refer to Urartu as the Kingdom of Van (20).
The Urartians were overthrown in 590 B.C. by the Medes and some others formerly held subject by the Urartians. After the destruction of Urartu, a strange thing happened: Other empires have disappeared from the scene of human affairs and lived on in history: the Assyrians, for example; but the vanished civilization of Urartu was completely forgotten. Its great successes were ascribed to its enemies. Its name was lost to the world except for certain Assyrian inscriptions, which constituted a puzzle to later historians.
The ancient Hebrews knew the Urartians and had dealings with them, but the Old Testament mistakenly refers to them by a distorted name. Similarly, the name of a mountain vital to the Hebrew tradition has been distorted through the corruption of the name of Urartu. Professor Boris Petrovskii, a researcher into the Urartian Kingdom, writes of the Hebrew corruption of the name Urartu as follows:
“The name was preserved in the Old Testament in the corrupt form ‘Ararat,’ which in the Latin version became ‘Armenia.’ When the Massoretic writers were vocalising the text of the Bible they inserted the vowel a into words which were unknown to them, so that ‘Urartu’ became ‘Ararat’; and it is only within very recent years that the Qumran scrolls have yielded a form of the name with the semi-vowel w in the first syllable (21).”
Two Old Testament references to Urartians are described by Professor Petrovskii as follows:
“A passage in the Book of Jeremia dated to the fourth year of the reign of King Zedekiah (i.e., 594 B.C.) talks of calling together against Babylon the Medes, the Urartians (‘Ararat’), the Mannaeans (‘Minni’) and the Scythians (‘Aschenaz’) (22).”
And
“The Old Testament preserves a recollection … that Sennocherib’s sons, having killed their father, fled to Urartu (the ‘land of Ararat’ or ‘land of Armenia’) (23).”
Today, almost any Bible atlas includes Urartu on its maps of the ancient world and explains that Ararat in the Bible really refers to Urartu
Professor Seton Lloyd, another researcher into Urartu, has this to say about the ancient civilization:
“Urartu is now being presented to us as a nation–and in its time a very great nation-whose history and even identity seem to have been completely expunged from the records of human memory for two-and-a-half thousand years. Yet today, everything about it–its racial characteristics, political and economic history and its art–constitute it one of the most intriguing problems in Near Eastern Archaeology (24).”
The Urartian Culture
It is generally agreed that the Urartians arose from the Hurrians and employed a language similar to Hurrian. These mountaineers built great fortresses on overlooks throughout the highlands of Urartu. Their kingdom supported huge building programs. Palace remains show evidence of economic might. Much of their art has been recovered, particularly works in bronze. The art of Urartu contains abundant depictions referring to the Cult of the Tree–images of sacred trees guarded by seraphim and genii and sometimes attended by a king or kings.
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Mt Ararat and xisuthrus in Armenia
Ethnology or the History and Genealogy of the Human Race: http://www.archive.org/stream/ethnologyorhist01paingoog#page/n71/mode/2up
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References
- ^ Jump up to:a b c Chahin, 148
- Jump up^ Urartu, Encyclopædia Britannica online
- ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h Пиотровский Б. Б. Искусство Урарту VIII—VI вв. до н. э. (“The Art of Urartu, 8th-6th century BC”). (Hermitage, Leningrad, 1962
References
JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY & FOLKLORE 