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Jewellery, Gold Votive Plaques and a Silver Belt from Altıntepe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Tahsin Özgüç
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Extract

Our knowledge of Urartian jewellery in precious stones and metals has remained obscure in spite of references in Assyrian texts and examples portrayed in Urartian descriptive art. This can be attributed to two causes: (a) The jewellery from illicit excavations has not reached the museums; (b) Urartian tombs and cemeteries have not as yet been subjected to sufficiently methodical systems of research. In addition, jewellery of unknown provenance which has been bought by museums has not been published. However, that brought to light at the three Urartian centres of Karmir-Blur, Altıntepe, and Patnos/Deǧirmentepe has to some degree increased our knowledge of Urartian personal ornamentation.

Jewellery

The jewellery from Altıntepe is made of gold, silver and precious stones:

1. Gold and silver buttons (Pl. XIa–c):

In the second room of the third tomb, and outside the coffin of the man, were found eight gold and six silver buttons. Thirty-two gold buttons, sewn onto the dress of the woman, were found in her sarcophagus. Thirty-eight of the large buttons are 1·75 cm. in diameter and 0·6 cm. in height. All are circular, with convex surfaces decorated at the centre with a six-petalled rosette encircled by six circles in repoussé and six granular triangles. The rosettes and circles are bordered by granules and a gold wire set between two rows of granules encircles the central design around the rim.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 33 , December 1983 , pp. 33 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1983

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References

1 Piotrovsky, B. B., Karmir-Blur, I (Akademii Nauk Armyanskoy, Erivan 1950) pp. 80–3Google Scholar; figs. 51–3; III, 1955, figs. 38–40, 41(16); Piotrovsky, B. B., Urartu, The Kingdom of Van and its Art (London 1967), pp. 53, 74Google Scholar, fig. 38; Piotrovsky, B. B., Urartu (Archaeologia Mundi, Genf 1969), p. 194Google Scholar, pls. 113–14, 118–19, 124.

2 Ozgüç, Tahsin, “Excavations at Altıntepe” (Belleten 98, 1961), pp. 273, 276Google Scholar, figs. 18–19.

3 Balkan, Kemal, “Patnos'ta keşfedilen Urartu tapınağı ve Urartu sarayı” (Atatürk Conferences 1963, Ankara 1964), pp. 239–43Google Scholar.

Excavations conducted by K. Balkan and R. Temizer at Deǧirmentepe, near Patnos, revealed two architectural levels belonging to the Urartian period. Of these, the older building level (II) contained a palace which was abandoned following its destruction in a violent conflagration. A thick wall surrounded the palace (p. 240) and its plan, architectural characteristics and small finds proved to be unique among Urartian remains. As described by K. Balkan (p. 241), the palace consisted of a throne hall with a wide, flagstone-covered court, five rooms opening onto a corridor behind the throne hall and a storeroom furnished with large storage jars. The remains of 45 people who were unable to escape the fire were found within the palace area. Alongside a group of thirty-seven skeletons burnt together in either the sitting room or so-called harem apartment designated by K. Balkan, were found stamps, beads, rings, earrings, bracelets, belts and pins made of gold, silver and precious stones. Faience beads in lion, bird or scorpion form have not been found at Altıntepe (p. 241).

Found in a jar in the first building level were gold lunate earrings with decoration in the form of granular triangles and beads and earrings in the shape of horse-heads, fish and pomegranates. (Maxwell-Hyslop, K. R., Western Asiatic Jewellery c. 3,000–612 B.C., London 1971, p. 198Google Scholar, fig. 115, hereafter: Western Asiatic Jewellery). The gold animal-form beads are perforated. Due to the fact that no other jewellery of this type was found in Level I, K. Balkan suggests that this group was taken from the palace of Level II and hidden in ajar by people of Level I (p. 242). K. Balkan believes that the palace was built sometime during the reign of Menua (805–790 B.C. ) or that of his son, Argišti (789–766 B.C.) and may have been destroyed in the course of Sargon's Eighth Campaign in 714 B.C. or by invasions from within the state of Urartu itself. It is highly probable that the first phase of the palace was burnt toward the end of the eighth century B.C., and the proposition that this was accomplished by Sargon in 714 B.C. is acceptable. The stylistic characteristics of pottery and metal objects now in the museums confirm this viewpoint.

4 Özgüç, Tahsin, Altıntepe, II, Tombs, Storehouse and Ivories (Ankara 1969), p. 68Google Scholar, and Belleten 98, pp. 273–4.

5 Western Asiatic Jewellery, p. 201, pl. 156.

6 Ibid., p. 212, pl. 179.

7 Burney, C. A., “A First Season of Excavations at the Urartian Citadel of Kayalıdere” (Anat. Stud. 16, 1966), p. 78CrossRefGoogle Scholar, fig. 14, pl. XIa.

8 Belleten 98, p. 274, fig. 19; Western Asiatic Jewellery, p. 194, pl. 154a–b.

9 “L'art scythe archaique” (in Archäologischer Anzeiger 29, 1965), p. 895Google Scholar, figs. 5–6.

10 Western Asiatic Jewellery, pp. 194, 207.

11 Ibid., p. 194.

12 Ibid., p. 201, pl. 154a.

13 Piotrovsky, B. B., Urartu (Archaeologia Mundi), pls. 119 and 124Google Scholar.

14 See note 3.

15 Western Asiatic Jewellery, pp. 195, 207.

16 Belleten 98, p. 276.

17 See note 3.

18 Barnett, R. D., “Urartian Cemetery at Iǧdır” (Anatolian Studies XIII, 1963), p. 184Google Scholar, fig. 36.

19 Burney, C. A., A First Season of Excavations at the Urartian Citadel of Kayalıdere (Anatolian Studies XVI, 1966), p. 110Google Scholar, pl. XXVd.

20 Öǧün, Baki, “Die urartäischen Bestattungsbräuche” (Festschrift für F. K. Dörner, Leiden 1978), taf. CLXV, 58–9Google Scholar.

21 Belleten 98, p. 276.

22 Western Asiatic Jewellery, p. 201.

23 Özgüç, Tahsin, “The Urartian Architecture on the Summit of Altıntepe” (Anatolia VII, 1963), p. 43Google Scholar.

24 Taşyürek, O. A., “The Urartian Bronze Hoard from Giyimli” (Expedition 19/4, 1977), p. 17Google Scholar, fig. 12; Kellner, Hans-Jörg, Urartu, Katalog der Ausstellung (München, 1976), pp. 53–60Google Scholar.

25 Özgüç, Tahsin, Altıntepe, I, Architectural Monuments and Wall Paintings (Ankara 1966), p. 56Google Scholar.

26 Belleten 98, p. 276.

27 Özgüç, Nimet, “The decorated bronze strip and plaques from Altıntepe” (in Mansel'e Armaǧan–Mélanges Mansel, Ankara 1974), pp. 847–80Google Scholar; Taşyürek, O. A., Urartu Kemerleri – The Urartian Belts (Ankara, 1975)Google Scholar, figs. 63–65; Berghe, Louis Vanden, in de Meyer, Leon, Urartu, Centrum voor Kunst en Cultur (Ghent, 1982)Google Scholar, Nr. 91.