this issue
previous article in this issuenext article in this issue

Document Details :

Title: Notes on the Fall of Horom
Author(s): KOHL, Philip L. , KROLL, Stephan
Journal: Iranica Antiqua
Volume: 34    Date: 1999   
Pages: 243-259
DOI: 10.2143/IA.34.0.519113

Abstract :
That the kingdom of Urartu came to a violent end, is a fact that has been confirmed by the final destruction levels evident at many major Urartian sites. However, ongoing excavations of the Urartian citadel at Horom on the Shirak plain of northwestern Armenia have demonstrated that the site was not violently destroyed. Rather, structures seem to have been gradually abandoned and emptied of their contents. Settled life continued on the Shirak plain in post-Urartian, Achaemenid times at the neighbouring unfortified site of Draskhanakert. The major disruptive events that brought an end to both the neo-Assyrian and Urartian kingdoms seem thus partly to have bypassed settlements situated on the northern limits of Urartian rule. The article attempts to explain some of the anomalous characteristics of the Urartian settlement at Horom and tries to relate them to larger structural features of the Urartian kingdom.

Download article