Tushpa
Location | Turkey |
---|---|
Region | Van Province |
Coordinates | 38°30′00″N 43°20′33″E / 38.50000°N 43.34250°E |
Tushpa (
It was possibly pronounced as "Tospa" in ancient times as there was no symbolic O equivalent in
History
Archaeological excavations and surveys carried out in the Van Province indicate that the history of human settlement in this region dates back at least as far as 5000 BC. The Mound located along the shores of Lake Van and a few kilometres to the south of the citadel of Van, is the only known source of information about the oldest cultures of Van contributing to the founding of Tushpa.
Urartian Kingdom
Tushpa was the capital of the Urartian kingdom in the 9th century BC. The early settlement was centered upon the steep-sided bluff now referred to as Van Fortress (Van Kalesi), not far from the shores of Lake Van and a few kilometers west of the modern city of Van.
The
The lower parts of the walls of Van Citadel were constructed of unmortared
In the trilingual
in Old Persian.Orontid dynasty of Armenia and Persian Empire
The region came under the control of the Orontid dynasty of Armenia in the 7th century BC and later Persians in the mid-6th century BC.
A stereotyped trilingual inscription of
"A great god is
Ahuramazda, the greatest of the gods, who created this earth, who created yonder sky, who created man, created happiness for man, who made Xerxes king, one king of many, one lord of many.
I (am) Xerxes, the great king, king of kings, king of all kinds of people, king on this earth far and wide, the son of Darius the king, the Achaemenid.
Xerxes the great king proclaims:King Darius, my father, by the favor of Ahuramazda, made much that is good, and this niche he ordered to be cut; as he did not have an inscription written, then I ordered that this inscription be written.
Me may Ahuramazda protect, together with the gods, and my kingdom and what I have done."
When it was published by Eugène Burnouf in 1836,[7] through his realization that it included a list of the satrapies of Darius (repeated by Xerxes in nearly identical language), he was able to identify and publish an alphabet of thirty letters, most of which he had correctly deciphered. Burnouf's reading of the Van trilingual inscription had made a significant contribution to the deciphering of Old Persian cuneiform.[8]
Alexander the Great, the Seleucid Empire and the Kingdom of Armenia
In 331 BC, Tushpa was conquered by
Byzantine Empire and Kingdom of Vaspurakan
The
Seljuq Empire
Incursions by the
Ottoman Empire
The first half of the 15th century saw the Van region become a land of conflict as it was disputed by the
Towards the second half of the 19th century Van began to play an increased role in the politics of the Ottoman Empire due to its location near the borders of the Persian, Russian and Ottoman Empire, as well as its proximity to Mosul.[citation needed]
References
- ^ a b Tushpa, site information Retrieved 13 June 2023.
- ^ "Tushpa/Van Fortress, the Mound and the Old City of Van". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. UNESCO. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
- ^ The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World
- ^ a b Dusinberre 2013, p. 51.
- ^ Khatchadourian 2016, p. 151.
- ^ Kuhrt 2007, p. 301.
- ^ Burnouf, Mémoire sur deux inscriptions cunéiformes trouvées près d'Hamadan et qui font partie des papiers du Dr Schulz, Paris, 1836; Schulz, an orientalist from Hesse, had been sent out by the French foreign ministry to copy inscriptions but had been murdered in 1829; see Arthur John Booth, The Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions 1902, esp. pp 95ff, 206.
- ^ Another photograph of the inscription.
- ^ The Journal of Roman Studies – Page 124 by Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
Sources
- Bachenheimer, Avi (2018). Old Persian: Dictionary, Glossary and Concordance. John Wiley & Sons.
- Dusinberre, Elspeth R. M. (2013). Empire, Authority, and Autonomy in Achaemenid Anatolia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107577152.
- Khatchadourian, Lori (2016). Imperial Matter: Ancient Persia and the Archaeology of Empires. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520964952.
- ISBN 978-0415552790.
External links
Media related to Tushpa at Wikimedia Commons