Nairi

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The country of Nairi (Armenian Նայիրի, KUR.KUR Na-i-ri, KUR.KUR Na-'i-ru) was probably in the eastern Turkish province of Van and probably also partly in the neighboring province of Hakkâri . In the Middle Iron Age it was inhabited by a coalition of kingdoms / tribes, which by all means did not have to have been ethnically or culturally uniform. The Assyrian name stands for an ancient Armenian tribe. The Nairi lands were first mentioned in Assyrian sources in the 13th century BC. A clay tablet from Assyria shows that horses were brought from Nairi to Assyria in the Middle Assyrian period.

Emergence

The theory of a Hurrian origin of Nairi and Urartu goes back to Albrecht Götze , who assumed that the empire of Urartu goes back to a merger of the different Nairi empires. According to Benedict (1960), however, there is no evidence of any Hurrian presence in the Lake Van area . The equation of nairi with Nahariya is to be rejected. It is usually assumed that the kings of the Assyrian inscriptions were not hereditary rulers, but rather tribal chiefs who only became closer together under Assyrian pressure.

territory

The territory of Nairi extended between the Tur Abdin and the southwestern shore of Lake Van, "beyond the impassable mountains". Assyrian sources mention A.AB.BA ša KUR Na-i-ri, "the sea ​​of ​​the land of Nairi ", Lake Van or Urmia . Uruartri was probably north and east of Lake Van.

swell

The Nairi lands are only known from Assyrian sources. The following kings report on campaigns against the Nairi and Uruartri:

Surname year Assyrian king source
Aramu the Urartian 858, 856, 844 Shalmaneser III. (858-824)
Kakia, King of Nairi 858 Shalmaneser III. (858-824)
Nairi, Urartu early 9th century Assurnasirpal (883-859)
Urartri, Nairi late 10th century Adad-nirari II (911-891)
Uruartri circa 1070 Assur-bel-kala (1073-1056)
23 kings of Nairi - Tiglath-pilesar I (1114-1076)
60 kings of Nairi Grayson 1976, No. 715, 721, 760, 773, 803 - Tiglath-pilesar I (1114-1076)
40 kings of the lands of Nairi late 13th century Tukulti-Ninurta I (1243–1207)
8 lands of Uruatri circa 1273 Shalmanasser I. (1273-1244) Grayson 1976, No. 527

According to Ruben S. Badalyan et al., 2003.

history

The Assyrians made some campaigns against the Nairi. Initially, under Tukulti-Ninurta I , they fought against several local Nairi princes. After Tukulti-Ninurta I (1244-1208) Kudmuhi (between Mount Kašiari and Alše ) had conquered that at the time of Shalmaneser had thrown off the Assyrian yoke, the king of the adjacent Alše fled from the Assyrian troops to Nairi and from there to an “unknown country”, that is, according to the Assyrian geographical ideas of the time about the boundaries of the world. Tiglath-pileser I (around 1114 BC) boasts on the inscription Tigris II of three campaigns against Nairi and reports that 23 kings were subjected to the Nairi. Later the Nairi appear to have formed a confederation. Assyrian sources name Urartu as one of the Nairi principalities. As a result, Urartu will replace the confederation as a regional power.

Shalmaneser I. names eight kings, Tukulti-Ninurta I. 23 kings and Tiglat-Pileser I. 60 kings. Sevin interprets this as evidence of presumably nomadic individual tribes without a central rule, which found their archaeological expression in the necropolises such as Karagündüz, Dilkaya and Ernis.

Tiglat-pileser I (I, 236) reports how he campaigned against the lands of Nairi, "which lie on the shores of the Upper Lake Vansee and have never been subjugated." Then he enumerates the rulers he opposed , the 23 rulers of Nairi who gathered their chariots :

  • The king of (KUR) tum 4 -me
  • The King of Tunube
  • The King Tuali
  • The King of Kindari
  • The king of Uzula
  • The King of Unzamuni
  • The King of Andiabe
  • The king of Pilakinni
  • The king of Aturgini
  • The king of Kulibarzini
  • The King of Sinibirni
  • The King of Himua
  • The king of Paiteri
  • The king of Uiram
  • The King of Sururia
  • The King of Albaia
  • The king of Ugina
  • The King of Nazabia
  • The king of Abarsiuni
  • The king of Daiaeni
  • other

In an inscription in Yoncalı , at the western end of the Bulanık - Malazgirt plain , he celebrates his victories over the 23 kings of the Nairi lands. The inscription calls him the conqueror of the Nairi lands, from Tumme to Daiaeni . Charles Burney assumes that the battle took place not far from the inscription, i.e. in the Malazgirt plain. Whether Yoncalı was in Tumme or Daiaeni is controversial. After that, Tiglath-Pileser pursued the defeated enemy to the Upper Sea, presumably Lake Van .

He boasts of having captured all the kings of the Nairi. Sieni, king of the Daiaeni, "to whom Aššur did not submit," he brought captive and bound to Aššur , but showed him mercy and released him again. “I subjugated the entire vast land of Nairi, I trampled its kings”. The unusual mildness towards Sieni suggests that this was not entirely true.

Adad-nirari II reports on a foundation slab from Niniveh (BM 12104) of his victories against Urartri. After that, with the help of his master Aššur, he had moved from the other bank of the lower Zab to Lulume , Habhi , Zamua , and to the beginning of the land of Namri , and had subdued the vast Qumani to Mehri, Salua and Urarti. The information is so unspecific that Urarti is perhaps more of a metaphor for “countries far away”.

Aššur-nâṣir-apli II invited the emissaries from Sidon , Tyros , Muṣaṣir , Kumme , Gurgum , Gilzanu and Melidu to the inauguration of Kalhu , as described on the banquet stele . The kings of Nairi are missing from the list, presumably too insignificant or barbaric to be invited.

Shalmaneser III. also knows Tumme, Daiani and Tunube.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.assur.de/Themen/Ausgrabung/Assur2001/Schriftfunde/schriftfunde.html
  2. ↑ a b c d Veli Sevin, The Origins of the Urartians in the Light of the Van / Karagündüz Excavations. Anatolian Iron Ages 4. Proceedings of the Fourth Anatolian Iron Ages Colloquium, Mersin, 19-23 May 1997. Anatolian Studies 49, 1999, 159-164
  3. ↑ Ruben S. Badalyan et al., The emergence of sociopolitical complexity in Southern Caucasia . In: Adam T. Smith / Karen S. Runinson (Eds.), Archeology in the borderlands. Investigations in Caucasia and beyond. Monograph 47, Cotsen Institute of Archeology, UCLA, tab. 7.1
  4. ↑ RIMA 1, 236 No. 1 iv 10
  5. ^ CA Burney, A first season of excavations at the Urartian citadel of Kayalıdere . Anatolian Studies 16, 1966, 58
  6. ↑ after AH Sayce (ed.), Records of the Past, London 1888
  7. ^ AR Millard, Fragments of Historical Texts from Nineveh: Middle Assyrian and Later Kings. Iraq 32/2, 1970, 170

literature

  • Warren C. Benedict: Urartians and Hurrians. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society. Ann Arbor Mich 80.1960,1, pp. 100-104. ISSN  0003-0279
  • Albrecht Götze : Hittites, Churrites and Assyrians. Main lines of the Near Eastern cultural development in the 2nd millennium BC Chr. Geb. Instituttet for sammenlignende Kulturforskning. Series A. Forelesninger. Vol. 17. Aschehoug et al., Oslo et al. 1936. ZDB -ID 777904-5
  • Hugh F. Russell: Shalmaneser's Campaign to Urartu in 856 BC and the Historical Geography of Eastern Anatolia according to the Assyrian Sources. In: Anatolian Studies. Cambridge 34.1984, pp. 171-201. ISSN  0066-1546
  • Veli Sevin: The Origins of the Urartians in the Light of the Van / Karagündüz Excavations. In: Anatolian Studies. Cambridge 49.1999, pp. 159-164. ISSN  0066-1546
  • Ralf-Bernhard Wartke : Urartu, the empire on the Ararat. Cultural history of the ancient world . Vol. 59. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1993. ISBN 3-8053-1483-3

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