Post-Urartian Period in the Van Region, Eastern Turkey

Abstract

Thanks to the archaeological reconnaisances conducted at the Çavuştepe Fortress, Van Kale Mound, and the mound of Karagündüz in the Lake Van region it is evident that some new elements appeared both in tradition and material culture after the end of Urartian Kingdom. Together with the evidence on the primitive stage after the destruction of Çavuştepe fortress new archaeological finds unearthed from the cemeteries on Urartian layers at the mounds of Van Kale and Karagündüz have revealed that a new transition process was starting out. This transition between the Urartian Kingdom and the painted pottery culture of the so-called "triangle ware" can be defined as post-Urartian period. New pottery forms have revealed that the Urartian fortress of Çavuştepe was long-lasting than Ayanis destructed in 653 or 645 B.C. and suggests that the collapse of the kingdom of Urartu might be after the middle of the seventh century B.C.