Qulha

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KUR Qulḫa ( KUR Qu-ul-ḫa-ḫa-li-ei, KUR Qul-ḫa-i, KUR Qu-ulḫa-i-di), Kulcha , or Kulicha or, incorrectly, Kolcha was a kingdom in northern Urartus , the only known from two inscriptions by the Urartian king Sarduri II (760–733 BC), both from the castle hill of Van. It was near Huša / Hušaḫli, the location of which is also not certain. Sarduri II led two campaigns against Qulḫa.

Notation

Lordkipanidze assumes that the Urartian Qulḫa was pronounced as Kolcha , since the cuneiform script does not know the sound "O". Correspondingly, there are also several overview works, for example in Heinz Fähnrich the term "Kolcha".

The inscriptions by Surb Poros

The inscription 241 C can be found on the front of the stele , which was installed in the church of Surb Poros in Van . The beginning of the inscription is missing. In the first legible line, Sarduri reports on his campaign to Qulḫa:

“Sarduri speaks: I went to KUR Qulḫa. [According to the will] Ḫaldis the great. I captured (?) Hahani, the king of the country Hušal ḫi, I abducted his people from there and brought them to my country. "

1 md [Sar 5 -du-ri-še a-li-e uš-ta-di]
2 KUR Qu-ul-ḫa-i-di d Hal-di-ni-ni al-su-i ši-ni
3 [ m ] Ha-ha-a-ni LUGÁl KUR Hu-šá-a al-hi LÚ ÙKU meš -ra- [ni]
4 e-di-ni ta-áš-mu-ú-bi pa-ru-bi e -erṣi du- [bi]
5 KUR e-ba-ni-ú-ki-e

The next line begins again with the formulaic introduction “Sarduri speaks” and reports that in the same year he brought the army to Abilianii, which he took in one day at the will of Ḫaldi. Since there are obviously two different campaigns, and the beginning of the inscription is missing, no itinerary can be reconstructed that could give an indication of the location of Qulḫa, other than that it was near Huša.

The second inscription, 241 D in the count of King and Arutjunojans, is on the narrow right side of the stele. Again the beginning is missing. Sarduri, son of Argisti, reports that he had gone to Qulḫa.

“I devastated 22 cities. The city of Ildamuša, the royal city of Meša, ruler of the Qulḫa country, was fortified and I captured it in battle. I burned the settlement, the garrison of the Qulḫa country that was there, I killed them. I prepared (or made) an iron object and had an inscription put up in the town of Ildamuša. I burned the fortresses and cities, I destroyed the country, I killed men and women. "

The following line begins again with “Sarduri speaks” and reports how he went to the land of Uitirruhi for the third time “in the same year” .

End of Qulha

No other Urartian sources are known about Qulha. It is therefore likely, but not certain, that it was finally conquered. Melikʻišvili blames the Cimmerians for the end of Qulḫa , but there is no archaeological evidence.

Localization

Qulha (Urartu)
Ardanuç
Ardanuç
Kola valley
Kola valley
Phasis
Phasis
Anıtlı (Ḫabhi?)
Anıtlı (Ḫabhi?)
Lake Van
Lake Van
possible location of Qulḫas (Phasis as the center of the Colchis)

Qulḫa is often equated with Kolchis in today's Georgia because of the similarity of the name . Kapancian may want to identify Ildamuša with Adakale / Ardanuç in the lower Çoruh valley, but Diakonov refuses. Edwards wants to equate Qulḫa with the valley of Kola (Georgian K'ola, Armenian Koła) in the area of Göle (Merdenik) near Sarıkamış . He equates Qulha, very unusual, with a Scythian group.

The Georgian Assyriologist Gregor A. Melikʻišvili read the hab-hi of the Yoncalı inscription by Tiglat-pileser I as quil-hi (Kilchi) and equated it with Qulḫa and the Colchis of the Greeks. He further equated the upper sea ​​of ​​Nairi in the inscriptions of Tiglat-pileser I with the Black Sea , instead of, as usual, with Lake Van . This means that Qulha's history can be traced back to the 11th century, but no one has followed him in the reading in recent times. Since the king of Qulḫa does not intervene in the fight, Otar Lordkipanidze thinks it is possible that the royal residence of "Colchis" was very far from Ildamuša and that the king of the besieged city therefore cannot help and therefore wants this residence in the Rionital localize without supporting this assumption with further arguments. He refers to a more detailed discussion in the Georgian work Argonavtika da jveli Kolxet'i (Tiflis 1986, pp. 70–73).

Ruler

  • Meša

Cities

  • Ildamuša (capital)

literature

  • Н. В. Арутюнян: Корпус уратсқих қлинообразных надписеӣ . Гитутюн, Yerevan 2001 (Russian).
  • Grigorij A. Melikišvili: Diauechi. In: Vestnik drevnej istorii. 4, 1950, ISSN  0321-0391 , pp. 26-42 (Russian).
  • Grigorij A. Melikišvili: Nairi-Urartu. Tiflis 1964, pp. 27-28 (Russian).
  • Hugh F. Russell: Shalmaneser's Campaign to Urarṭu in 856 BC and the Historical Geography of Eastern Anatolia according to the Assyrian Sources. In: Anatolian Studies. 34, 1984, ISSN  0066-1546 , pp. 171-201 (English).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Н. В. Арутюнян, Корпус уратсқих қлинообразных надписеӣ. Ереван, Гитутюн 2001, 519
  2. ↑ Н. В. Арутюнян, Корпус уратсқих қлинообразных надписеӣ. Ереван, Гитутюн 2001
  3. ^ RW Hamilton, The decorated bronze strip from Gushchi. Anatolian Studies 15, 1965, 49
  4. ↑ O. Lordkipanidze, Archeology in Georgia, Weinheim 1991, 110
  5. ↑ Heinz Fähnrich, History of Georgia from its beginnings to Mongol rule. Shaker, Aachen 1993
  6. ↑ Н. В. Арутюнян, Корпус уратсқих қлинообразных надписеӣ. Ереван, Гитутюн 2001, No. 241
  7. ^ G. Melikisvili, Kulcha. Drevnij Mir, Moscow 1962, 323, quoted from O. Lordkipanidze, Archäologie in Georgien, Weinheim 1991, 110
  8. ↑ Grigory Melikišvili, Kulcha. Drevnij Mir, sbornik statej. Moskva 1962, 319-326, Н. В. Арутюнян, Корпус уратсқих қлинообразных надписеӣ. Ереван, Гитутюн 2001
  9. ↑ Kapancian, Hayasa - kolybel 'armjan, Yerevan 1948, 16
  10. ↑ Igorʹ Mikhaĭlovich Diakonov / SM Kashkai, Geographical names according to Urartian texts. Répertoire géographique des textes cunéiformes 9. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1981, 44
  11. ^ A b Robert W. Edwards: The Vale of Kola. A Final Preliminary Report on the Marchlands of Northeast Turkey . In: Dumbarton Oaks Papers , Vol. 42 (1988), pp. 119-141, here p. 121, ISSN  0070-7546
  12. ^ G. Melikišvili, Kulcha. Drevnij Mir, Moscow 1962; G. Melikišvili, Černoje more v assirijskije klinopisnych istočnikach XIII-XII vv do ne In: Kavkasiis xalxat'a istoriis sakit'xebi (Festschrift for NA Berjenisvili, Tiflis 1966) quoted from O. Lordkipanidze, Archäologie in Georgia 1991, 106
  13. ↑ Otar Lordkipanidze: Archeology in Georgia. From the Paleolithic to the Middle Ages . VCH, Weinheim 1991, note 668, ISBN 3-527-17531-8 .