Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
ANCIENT WEST AND EAST, cilt.17, ss.119-141, 2018 (Hakemli Dergi)
The Urartian kingdom was composed of many disparate tribes across Anatolia, Caucasia
and north-western Iran between the 9th and 6th centuries BC. At the end of the 9th century
BC, the Urartian king Išpuini, followed by his son Minua, raised a lesser-known local god
from the city of Muṣaṣir to the supreme position in the Urartian pantheon. Unlike the
established Storm-god Teišeba or the popular Sun-god Šiuini (ranked second and third in
the Urartian pantheon, respectively), Ḫaldi was a relatively new god to the Urartians. It will
be argued that the selection of Ḫaldi as the protector of both the royal dynastic line and of
the Urartian kingdom was made with the intention of unifying these disparate tribes through
a new, collective identity.