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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Over twenty years have passed since the present writer first drew attention to the remarkable but completely forgotten archaeological discoveries made at the Urartian site of Toprak Kale, discoveries made in 1880 by Rassam and his associates, Dr. Raynolds and Captain Clayton, acting for the British Museum. I also summarised the results of the work in 1898 at the same site done by Lehmann (afterwards Lehmann-Haupt) and Belck; these finds are now all well-known. Since then, modern museum conservation work and study has resulted in several new achievements, such as in a fresh publication of the candelabrum at Hamburg Museum, the discovery and publication by Professor G. R. Meyer of a small silver pectoral at Berlin with a presentation scene and á detailed study by him also of the large bronze figure of a “eunuch” in the same museum. Professor Meyer also mentions a fine bronze palmette forming part of a wall panel of bronze plate made up of 17 fragments, also part of a bronze model building similar to that in the British Museum. Lastly, a brief preliminary report of the fruitful excavations of Professors Afif Erzen and Emin Bilgiç, in 1959–61, has been published. One of their most notable finds was another shield similar to those found by Rassam and Lehmann-Haupt with concentric friezes of lions and bulls and a dedicatory inscription of Rusas III.
1 Barnett, R. D., “Excavations of the British Museum at Toprak Kale near Van”, Iraq XII, 1950Google Scholar; idem. “The Excavations of the British Museum at Toprak Kale near Van–Addenda”, Iraq XVI, 1954. See also Piotrovsky, B. B., Urartu; the Kingdom of Van and its Art (London 1967, translated by Gelling, PeterGoogle Scholar). In my surveys I overlooked the publication of part of a shield with concentric circles of passant lions and bulls standing on a guilloche from Lehmann-Haupt's excavations, now in Berlin, Kanze, E., Kretische Bronzereliefs (Berlin 1932)Google Scholar, pl. 51, and Akurgal, , Urartäische und Altiranische Kunstzentren (Ankara 1968)Google Scholar, pl. XXXIX.
2 Hoffmann, K., Friedrich, J. “Der Urartäische Kandelaber in Hamburg und seine Keilinschrift”, Z.D.M.G. N.F. 36, 1961Google Scholar.
3 Meyer, G. R., “Ein neuentdeckter urartäischer Brustschmuck”, Das Altertum I, 1955, pl. XXXIXGoogle Scholar.
4 Meyer, G. R., “Zur Bronzestatuette VA 774 aus Toprak Kale”, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin: Forschungen und Berichte, vol. 8 (1967)Google Scholar.
5 Meyer, loc. cit. p. 9 and note 8. [Mention must also be made of a fine bronze belt ornamented with a flying eagle, Meyer, , Altorientalische Denkmäler im Vorderasiatischen Museum zu Berlin (1965) figs. 133–5Google Scholar.]
6 Öǧün, B., “Kurze Geschichte der Ausgrabungen in Van und die Türkischen Versuchsgraben auf dem Toprak Kale 1959”, Z.D.M.G. N.F. 36, 1961, 254Google Scholar; Erzen, A., “Untersuchungen in der urartäischen Stadt Toprakkale bei Van in den Jahren 1959–61”, Arch. Anzeiger (1963)Google Scholar.
7 Erzen, loc. cit.
7a See note (1) above.
8 Piotrovsky, , Karmir Blur II, pl. 16Google Scholar, III, Fig. 26; idem, The Ancient Civilisation of Urartu, pls. 85, 86.
9 Barnett, loc. cit. p. 14.
10 Barnett, , Irag XII, 1950, p. 14, no. 3Google Scholar.
11 Akurgal, op. cit. pl. XXXIX, pp. 61–3.
page 166 note 1 All duplicates have the logogram EN or EN.ŠÚ.
page 166 note 2 One would expect mru-sa-a-ni.
page 166 note 3 Between -nu and the final URU one expects a-lu-si(-e) URU ṭu-uš-pa-(a-)e but the space available and the traces of signs rule this out in favour of the reading given here.
12 Barnett, loc. cit. p. 13, no. 1.
12a Fragment showing figure of a lion passant. I owe my knowledge of this fragment to the kindness of Monsieur Amiet, P., Keeper of the Departement des Antiquités Orientales, Musée du Louvre, ParisGoogle Scholar.
13 ibid. p. 11 and Fig. 8 and footnote 1.
14 ibid. p. 19.
15 ibid. p. 19.
16 From the excavations of Lehmann-Haupt:see my article, loc. cit. p. 23, note 3.
17 e.g. Layard, , Nineveh and Babylon, p. 200Google Scholar Fig.
18 Barnett, , Iraq XII, 1950, p. 16 and pl. VIIIGoogle Scholar.
19 Iraq XVI, 1954, p. 5 and Fig. 3Google Scholar.
20 ibid. p. 9, Figs. 11 and 12.
21 Boardman, J., “Ionian Bronze Belts”, Anatolia VI (1961/1962), Fig. 4Google Scholar, who compares three belts found in tumulus P at Gordion (Young, R. S., “Gordion 1956: Preliminary Report”, AJA. LXI (1957), 327Google Scholar, pl. 92, Fig. 23), and Phrygian belt from Tumulus I near Ankara (Özgüç, T. and Akok, M., “Zwei Tumuli bei Ankara”, Belleten XI (1947), pls. 12–13, Figs. 23–25)Google Scholar. We may also now add the following further examples of Anatolian belt buckles:- from Boghazköy: Neve, Peter, “Bericht über … die Deutsche Boghazköy-Expedition, 1970”, Türk Arkeoloji Dergisi XIX 1970, pl. 11Google Scholar, c; and from Samos (4 examples): Jantzen, Ulf, Samos VIII. Ägyptische und Orientalische Bronzen, Bonn 1972, pl. 47 and pp. 49–51Google Scholar.
22 Piotrovsky, , Urartu: the Kingdom of Van and its Art, p. 73, Fig. 53Google Scholar.
23 (a) From bronze belt found at Karmir Blur, Piotrovsky, Isskustvo Urartu, Fig. 42; Van Loon, Urartian Art, Fig. 14. (b) On hilt of scabbard from Kelermes, Van Loon, op. cit., pl. XL.
24 B. Piotrovsky, The Ancient Civilisation of Urartu, pl. 112.
25 ibid., pls. 94, 95.
26 Drawings illustrating this article are by Miss A. Searight. For reading and copying and transcribing the cuneiform I am indebted to Dr. E. Sollberger.
