Kaisaran's rock inscription
 
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The rock inscription of Kaisaran (Kaissaran) is located in the mountains east of Keşiş Gölü above the village of Kaisaran in the Turkish province of Van “on an inaccessible natural rock castle”. According to Lehmann-Haupt , the village is on the bank of the Keşiş Gölü at an altitude of 2780 m and was inhabited by Kurds .
Research history
Lehmann-Haupt discovered the inscription by chance in 1898/99 when he went to Keşiş-Gölü to inspect Toni's stele . The Ottoman soldiers of his escort told him about cuneiform inscriptions in Ermanes and Kaissaran, but Lehmann-Haupt initially did not believe them, only because of the perseverance of a Zaptieh sergeant he finally visited Kaissaran.
According to Lehmann-Haupt, the Kurdish village of Kaissaran is located at the eastern end of the lake plain, slightly above it. Just above the village there were some crosses carved into the rock. The inscription is about 300 m above the village, on a wide mountain meadow, which is surrounded by individual rock peaks made of marble limestone and represents good pastureland. The three-line inscription is placed on a smooth surface on the northeast side of one of these rocky peaks. Other pinnacles also showed "traces of the characteristic Chaldic type of processing.", Probably a castle complex. The inscription is 10.5 cm high and approx. 10 cm long. From the rock with the inscription, both Keşiş Göl and Lake Van in the west and its islands are visible.
Lehmann-Haupt made a copy and a transcription.
inscription
The inscription is 0.5 m long and well preserved. Unusually, no royal name is given. From this Lehmann-Haupt concluded that it came from the time after the end of the Urartian Empire. Salvini wants to assign the inscription Rusā Erimenaḫi , who had the Keşiş Gölü (Rusa Lake) created. The inscription mentions a Ḫaldi town ( d ḫal-di-ni-i URU-ie ).
interpretation
Lehmann-Haupt was convinced that the inscription was created at a time "when the Chalder had already withdrawn into the mountains before the Indo-European Armenians had invaded the mountains and were no longer able to serve their own king." Felix Bagel, on the other hand, assumed that the inscription was included go back one of the technicians who built the reservoir in Keşiş-Göl. Salvini thinks it is a scribe exercise. Because of a lexical correspondence with the stele from Keşiş-Göl ( a-ú-di ), which Lehmann-Haupt already pointed out, he wants to place it in the time of Rusā Erimenaḫi, who had the Keşiş-Gölü (Rusa Lake) built.
concordance
| author | Abbreviation | number |
|---|---|---|
| Lehmann-Haupt | CICh | 168 (plate 41) |
| king | HchI | 79 |
| Melikisvili | UKN | 301 |
| Artjunjan | KUKN | 482 |
| Salvini 2008 | - | A 14-4 |
literature
- CFF Lehmann-Haupt, Huschardzan-Festschrift on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Mechitharist Congregation in Vienna. Vienna, 1911, 253-257.
- Miroj Salvini, Keşiş-Göl e Kaisaran. Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici 43, 2001, 305-306.
- Miroj Salvini, Corpus dei Testi Urartei. Rome 2008, A 14-4
Individual evidence
- ↑ Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematisch-Physikalische Klasse 1899, 85
- ^ Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 14, 1966, 18
- ↑ Studi ed Micenei egeo-anatolici 73, 177
- ↑ a b c C. F. Lehmann-Haupt, Die Chaldische Keilinsschrift von Kaissaran, p. 255ff
- ↑ Miroj Salvini, Corpus dei Testi Urartei. Rome 2008, 629