|
Led by Prof. Charles Burney
13 July – 19 July 2008
(6 nights, 7 days)
Charles Burney graduated from Cambridge (1952) and excavated in Turkey,
Jordon, Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq and Iran and he visited Armenia, Georgia and
Azerbaijan, through not recently.
Carried out surveys in Turkey (1954-1957 and 1964) and excavated at the
Urartian Fortress of Kayalidere. For many years on staff of Manchester
University, U.K
The focus of our tour is on the kingdom known now as Urartu, as Ararat in
the Old Testament but as Biaina (Van) to its own rulers. Archibald Sayce was
ahead of his time in terming it the Vannic kingdom; but his example has not
been followed. Not for the only time in history, an aggressive neighbour's
name for a territory has endured. It was Assyria which used the name Urartu,
mentioning the land of Uruadri as early as the thirteenth century BC. The
land of Ararat occurs in the Old Testament as the refuge of the assassins of
Sennacherib king of Assyria (681 BC), and as being summoned by Jeremiah to
attack Babylon, at a date when in fact Urartu had come to an end. The
peoples of the Near Eastern lowlands were ignorant of the history and
culture of this highland kingdom, though there are Assyrian depictions of
its fortresses slightly earlier than the first securely dated monuments in
the Van region.
The essential character of Urartian civilization was indigenous, though
there are indubitable borrowings in artistic style in metalwork and most
strikingly in the cuneiform script, most often on stone but also on storage
jars and clay tablets, pictographs appearing on the large jars at many
sites. Most distinctive is the massive masonry of the fortresses: their
being built of stone rather than mud brick has left a legacy to the modern
traveller and archaeologist alike. The economy of Urartu rested partly on
the extension of cultivable land by the irrigation canals and dams of which
the kings of Van were inordinately proud. Viticulture was also extensive,
demonstrated by inscriptions and the huge storage jars, wine having first
been produced in the Caucasian lands at least by the fourth millennium BC.
We shall visit a number of the Urartian military and religious sites (Van
Kale, Mehr Kapisi, Anzaf, Korzut, Cavustepe and -- in some ways most
spectacular of all -- Ayanis, and wherever possible other sites will be
pointed out or mentioned en route. The standard of masonry varies greatly in
the fortifications, from fine ashlar to very rough boulders, never with any
mortar. There are numerous quite minor sites distinguishable by surface
potsherds.
Tour date:
13 July – 19 July 2008
|
)
:
