Stamp impressions from ancient Artashat in Armenia
Keywords:
Artashat, Artaxata, AGAP, Urartu, seal impressions, stamped storage vessels, MenuaḫiniliAbstract
During the 2022 excavations in Artashat (ancient Artaxata) in Armenia, an assemblage of pre-Hellenistic stamped pottery sherds was found. The stamps are of a new type and seem to relate to the local administration. In the paper a discussion of the iconography, use and petrography as well as the date of the new material is presented.
References
Abay, E. 2001. Seals and sealings, in: Çilingiroğlu, Salvini 2001: 321-353.
Ayvazian, A. 2004. Ritual scenes in Urartian glyptic. Isimu 7: 123-130.
Ayvazian, A. 2006. Urartian Glyptic. New Perspectives. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.
Badalyan, M., Martirosyan-Olshansky, K., Bobokhyan, A. (eds) 2022. Armenia Maritima. Archaeological Heritage of the Land Uduri-Etiuni. Yerevan: Publishing House of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography.
Biscione, R., Hmayakyan, S., Parmegiani, N. (eds) 2002. The North-Eastern Frontier. Urartians and Non-Urartians in the Sevan Lake Basin, volume I. The Southern Shores (Documenta Asiana 7). Rome: CNR Istituto di studi sulle civiltà dell’Egeo e del Vicino Oriente.
Biscione, R., Dan, R. 2011. Dimensional and geographical distribution of the Urartian fortifications in the Republic of Armenia. AJNES 6/2: 104-120.
Castelluccia, M. 2015. The evolution of the archaeological landscape of the Armenian Highland during the Iron Age. ACSS 21/2: 302-368.
Çilingiroğlu, A., Salvini, M. (eds) 2001. Ayanis I. Ten Years Excavations at Rusaḫinili Eiduru-kai 1989-1998 (Documenta Asiana 6). Rome: CNR Istituto per gli studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici.
Dan, R. 2019. Between Urartian and Achaemenid architectural traditions. Considerations on the so-called ‘Urartian Wall’ of Artašat. IA 54: 1-16.
Dan, R., Petrosyan, A., Vitolo, P., Gasparyan, B. 2022. From the Ararat depression to Lake Sevan. An analysis of Urartian military roads in the territory of modern-day Armenia (Late 9th to mid 8th centuries BC), in: Badalyan et al. 2022: 302-315.
Harutyunyan (Arutjunjan), N.V. 2006. Biajnili – Urartu. Voenno-političeskaja istorija i voprosy toponimiki (Biainili – Urartu. Military-Political History and Questions of Toponymy). St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg State University Publishing House (in Russian).
Invernizzi, A. (ed.) 1998. Ai piedi dell’Ararat. Artaxata e l’Armenia ellenistico-romana (Studi di materiali di archeologia (Fondo di studi Parini-Chirio, Università di Torino) 10). Firenze: Le lettere.
Işık, Ç. 1986. Neue Beobachtungen zur Darstellung von Kultszenen auf urartäischen Rollstempelsiegeln. JDAI 101: 1-22.
Kanetsyan, A. 2001. Urartian and Early Achaemenid palaces in Armenia, in: Nielsen 2001: 145-153.
Khachatrian, Z.D. 1998. Artaxata. Capitale dell’Armenia antica (II sec. a.C.–IV sec. d.C.), in: Invernizzi 1998: 97-158.
Kleiss, W. (ed.) 1979. Bastam I, Ausgrabungen in den Urartäischen Anlagen 1972–1975 (Teheraner Forschungen 4). Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag.
Kleiss, W. (ed.) 1988. Bastam II, Ausgrabungen in den Urartäischen Anlagen 1977–1978 (Teheraner Forschungen 5). Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag.
Kosmin, P.J. 2018. Time and Its Adversaries in the Seleucid Empire. Cambridge, MA – London: Harvard University Press.
Lichtenberger, A., Schreiber, T., Zardaryan, M. H. 2021. First results and perspectives of a new archaeological project in the Armenian capital Artaxata. From Artashes-Artaxias I to Roman imperialism. Electrum 28: 245-276 (open access: https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.21.016.13374).
Lichtenberger, A., Schreiber, T., Zardaryan, M.H. 2022. Artaxata in Armenien. Eine hellenistische Metropole in der Ararat Ebene. Antike Welt 22/5: 41-47.
Lichtenberger, A., Schreiber, T., Zardaryan, M.H. (in press). The Armenian-German Artaxata Project. Preliminary report on the excavations in Artashat 2021. Boreas 46.
Lichtenberger, A., Schreiber, T., Zardaryan, M.H. (in prep.). The Armenian-German Artaxata Project: Preliminary report on the excavations in Artashat 2022. Boreas 47.
Lukonin, V. G. (ed.) 1978. Kul’tura Vostoka. Drevnost’ i rannee srednevekov’e (Culture of the East. Ancient and Medieval Times). Leningrad: Avrora.
Martirosyan, A.A. 1964. Armenija v époxu bronzy i rannego železa (Armenia in the Epoch of Bronze and Early Iron). Yerevan: Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk Armjanskoj SSR (in Russian).
Nielsen, I. (ed.) 2001. The Royal Palace Institution in the First Millennium BC. Regional Development and Cultural Exchange between East and West. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.
Özfirat, A. 2017. Eriqua and Minuahinili. An Early Iron Age-Nairi kingdom and Urartian province and the northern slope of Mt Ağrı. Settlement complexes at Melekli and Karakoyunlu. TÜBA-AR 21: 63-92.
Payne, M. 2005. Urartian Measures of Volume (ANES Supplement Series 16) Louvain – Paris – Dudley, MA: Peeters.
Salvini, M. 2002. The historical geography of the Sevan region in the Urartian period, in: Biscione et al. 2002: 37-60.
Salvini, M. 2008. Corpus dei testi urartei. vol. 1. Le iscrizioni su pietra e roccia. I testi (Documenta Asiana 8/1). Rome: CNR Istituto di studi sulle civiltà dell’Egeo e del Vicino Oriente.
Seidl, U. 1979. Die Siegelbilder, in: Kleiss 1979: 137-150.
Seidl, U. 1988. Die Siegelbilder, in: Kleiss 1988: 145-154.
Seidl, U. 2004. Bronzekunst Urartus. Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Slatery, D.J.G. 1988. The defence of the Urartian northern frontier. Al-Rafidan 9: 173-194.
Ting, C., Erhardt, S., Gyulamiryan, H.A., Lichtenberger, A., Muradyan, S.R., Schreiber, T., Zardaryan, M.H. 2023. The Artaxiad capital of ceramic. Exploring the changing local pottery production and exchange at Artaxata (Armenia) from the 2nd century BCE to 1st century CE. Archaeological Research in Asia 34, 1004444 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ara.2023.100444).
Tiratsian, G. 1978. Urartskij Armavir. Po dannym arxeologičeskix raskopok (Armavir in Urartian times. A study of archaeological materials), in: Lukonin 1978: 106-114 (in Russian).
Tonikian, A. 1992. The layout of Artashat and its historical development. Mesopotamia 27: 161-187.
van Loon, M.N. 1966. Urartian Art. Its Distinctive Traits in the Light of New Excavations. İstanbul: Nederlands historisch-archaeologisch instituut.
Vanden Berghe, L., De Meyer, L. 1983. Urartu. Een vergeten cultuur uit het bergland Armenië. Sint-Pietersabdij – Gent: Centrum voor Kunst en Cultuur.
Yengibaryan, N. 2019. Seals from Argishtikhinili-Armavir. AJNES 13/2: 82-100.
Zardaryan, M.H. 2018. The Early Iron Age settlement of Artashat and problems of chrono-topography of the site (pre-Classical period). AJNES 12/2: 105-145.