Identity and Specialization in the Urartian Settlement at Ayanis

Summary

From its beginning in the 9th century BC the infrastructure of kingdom of Urartu was built around fortresses. In the early 7th century, the fortress network was enhanced by the construction of new group of massive fortified administrative centers, associated with extramural settlements. Of the latter, Ayanis is the most extensively investigated. Survey and excavations conducted from 1997 to 2009 investigated the relationship between the inhabitants of this settlement and the contoling institutions in the fortress. The settlement appears to be diverse, constructed with a mixture of planned and agglutinated houses, with elements of material culture suggesting mixed traditions in different areas. The settlement existed solely to serve the fortress and was abandoned, without perceptible destruction levels, when the citadel was destroyed.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• The social lives of forts: Reconsidering the social construction of ancient fortified settlements and their diverse roles in political organization

Keywords

Spatial Coverage