URARU (NAIRI, BIAINILI) The early Iron Age population of the Armenian plateau around Lake Van appears

to have been urrian in origin, perhaps indicating continuity with the Late Bronze Age and a remnant of the Upper Mesopotamian kingdom of Mittani/anigalbat. Uraru (Biainili in Urarian) itself appears for the first time in the sources under the name Uruari in the reign of ulmnu-aard I of Assyria (12631233). Later Assyrian interventions in the northern countries (Nairi) do not mention this name again until the reign of Aur-bl-kala (10741056). Several campaigns of the Assyrian king ulmnu-aard III were aimed against the same Urarian king Arame in the 850s and 840s BC. He was followed by a series of kings who may have constituted a new dynasty reigning from upa (Van), and extending their control far to the north (around Lake Sevan) and west (Erzurum and the headwaters of the Tigris). These kings invested heavily in agriculture and urbanization; in or near the valley of the Araxes alone they built Menuainili, Argitiinili (Armavir), Erebuni (Erevan), and Teiebaini. In the southwest and the southeast the kings of Uraru clashed with Assyria for control of vassal states, most notably the city of Muair (Ardini in Urarian), with its great temple to the god aldi. Although Assyria proved unable to destroy or conquer Uraru, it did contain its interventions into northern Syria in the 740s and the Assyrian king arru-kn II launched a devastating attack on the core of the Urarian kingdom, driving king Rusa I to suicide in 714. Relations between the two kingdoms appear to have become peaceful in the 7th century, with Uraru apparently becoming a nominal vassal of the Assyrians. Urarian power may well have been crippled by the invasions of Cimmerians (Gimirri) and Scythians (Ikuza), and in the end, precisely at what time and in what circumstances we cannot tell, the area must have found itself part of the vast but probably decentralized Mdian Empire. Names in the list below are represented as much as possible in their native Urarian rather than Akkadian forms: thus Sarduri and not Itar-dri. The chronology of Uraru is entirely dependent on the occasional references in Assyrian sources. Because of this the explicit synchronisms of Urarian kings with Assyrian rulers are indicated below. Kings of Uraru/Biainili Arame king in Arakun (~ ulmnu-aard III in 859, 855, 844) Sarduri I son of Lutipri; king in upa (~ ulmnu-aard III in 832) Ipuini son of Sarduri I (~ am-Adad V in 818) Menua son of Ipuini; associated by 815? Inupua son of Menua; associated 790785? Argiti I son of Menua (~ Aur-nrr V, 755745) Sarduri II son of Argiti I (~ Tukult-apil-Earra III in 743, 742) Rusa I son of Sarduri II (~ arru-kn II in 714) Argiti II son of Rusa I (~ arru-kn II in 708) Rusa II son of Argiti II (~ Aur-aa-iddina and Aur-bni-apli in 673 and 653) Sarduri III son of Rusa II (~ Aur-bni-apli in 639) Sarduri IV son of Sarduri III Rusa III son of Erimena, son of (?) Rusa II Rusa IV son of Rusa III (c.585 to the Mdian Empire)

c.860840 c.840825 c.825810 c.810785 c.785750 c.750735 c.735714 c.714685 c.685640 c.640625 c.625615 c.615595 c.595585