URARTU, the Assyrian name for the country called later on Armenia and for its inhabitants. It is identical with the country of Ararat, on one of whose mountains Noah's ark stopped, accord ing to Genesis, the name survives in the Armenian province of Ararat and has been transferred to Mount Ararat south of the river Araxes. Herodotus's Alarodoi are the Urartaeans who after the immigration of the Armenians (after 600 B.c.) retained or formed a distinct nation in the valley of the Araxes. The in habitants of Urartu, however, in their cuneiform inscriptions call themselves Cizaldini (plural).
The writing of the cuneiform inscriptions of the Urartaeans was taken from the Assyrians but whereas Assyrian is a Semitic lan guage, Urartaean is neither Semitic nor Indo-European. The Urar taeans or Chaldians must have immigrated from the west into what was then to a greater part called Nari. Apparently Sardur I., son of Lutipris, who built a fort to the west of the rock of Van, out of huge stones brought from afar, united the "Ndiri countries" under his rule after a long war against the Assyrians about the time of Assurnasirabal II., the father of Shalmaneser III. This kingdom of Nairi was replaced by the kingdom of Urartu-Chaldia. Aram, who was the king of Urartu, was fought by Shalmaneser III. (859-824 B.c.), and so was his successor Sardur (Seduri II.), father of King Ispuinis who 'chose the rock of Van for his residence and as the holy seat of the god Chaldis. Ispuinis was the contemporary of Adadnirari IV. of Assyria—son of Shal maneser III. and husband of Queen Shammuramat, i.e., the his torical Semiramis—whom he fought successfully, these successes enabling him to found a Chaldian colony at Musasir, west of the pass of Kelishina. A bilingual Chaldian and Assyrian inscription was erected by Ispuinis upon this occasion.
Menuas, his son, was the mightiest and most successful of the Chaldian rulers. His greatest work is the aqueduct (the so-called Shamiram-su "river of Semiramis") more than 75 km. in length, irrigating the plain of Van to this day and bringing drinkable water to the eastern borders of Lake • Van (whose water is un drinkable), thus enabling him to found a "Menuas-city." Menuas was succeeded by Argistis I., a son, who left records of 14 years of his reign and his successful wars, on the outer walls of the set of chambers hewn into the solid rock of Van. His son Sardur III., contemporary of Assurnirari B.c.) and of Tiglath
pileser III. of Assyria, was defeated by the latter, who destroyed the Menuas-city (735 B.c.).
Rusas I. (714 B.c.), son of a Sardur, belonging to a side-line of the dynasty, removed the capital to a hill called Toprakkalah nowadays, after digging an artificial lake, the outflow of which irrigated the side of the hill and the plain where he founded the Rusas-city. All this he recorded in a stela set up only a few years after the traditional date of the founding of Rome (754 B.c.). It was taken (1898-99) to the Berlin museum. Rusas I. was a most energetic enemy of Sargon II. of Assyria (722-705 B.c.) against whom he summoned a coalition of the states of Western Asia, of which Mardukabaliddin of Babylonia (the Merodach Baladan of the Bible) probably was one. In a bilingual stela erected. over against the capital of Musasir, which had developed into a sort of independent buffer-state, Rusas commemorated his feats against Assyria in re-establishing Chaldian sovereignty and the petty king Urzana in Musasir.
But in 714 the Cimmerians, breaking into the north of Urartu through the passes of the Caucasus, drove Rusas to suicide. Sar gon had made a raid into Urartu and on his return had conquered Musasir, robbing its temple and overthrowing and mutilating Rusas L's stela, which, however was later on re-erected, evidently by Rusas II., the grandson of Rusas I. who once more restored the power of Chaldia. Rusas II. used Cimmerian mercenaries in his combats with Esarhaddon of Assyria (68o-668 B.c.) and suc ceeded in getting rid of the bulk of the Cimmerians who went on to the west of Asia Minor. Rusas III., son of Erimenas, finished the temple of Chaldis on Toprakkalah. Sargon's sculpture of the temple of Musasir shows its front adorned with ornamented shields, a custom which the Chaldians had in common with the Cretans of Minoan times. Such shields, with inscriptions chiefly of Rusas III., were excavated in Toprakkalah. Their circular friezes are divided into semicircles upon which the animals are going in different directions so as to prevent any one appearing to stand on its head (fig. 7), a peculiarity only recurring on Cretan shields of the archaic period. The royal residence at Toprakkalah and the temple of Chaldis were evidently destroyed under Rusas III. The Medes must have overrun Urartu before they crossed arms with the Lydians on the Halys (May 28, 585 B.c.).