[39] “Set up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her (sc. Babylon), call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni and Ashchenaz ...” (Jeremiah li. 27). The latter kingdom seems to have been situated between the Medes at Hamadan and the Minni. [↑]
[40] It must always be remembered that such enterprises are due with us to the energy of individuals, rarely encouraged and inspired by our learned societies or assisted financially by our Government. I trust, however, that the trustees of the British Museum will awake to the fact that excavations of the most comprehensive order can now be conducted in Armenia, and that the soil is practically virgin. With the assistance of the German Embassy at Constantinople Messrs. Belck and Lehmann were enabled not only to dig down the hill of Toprak Kala to the solid rock, but also, as it would appear, to transport their finds to Berlin. [↑]
[41] I cannot discover that any report of these excavations has ever been published. But, since writing this chapter, Mr. Hormuzd Rassam’s book, Asshur and the Land of Nimrod (New York, 1897), has come into my hands. Mr. Rassam’s excavations on the hill of Toprak Kala took place in 1880, and some account of them may be found in his work, pp. 377–8. [↑]
[42] For the excavations at Toprak Kala the various writings of Messrs. Belck and Lehmann should be consulted (Verhandlungen der Berl. Gesell. für Anthropologie, 1895, pp. 612 seq., and 1898, pp. 578 seq. Cp. also Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, 1894, pp. 356 and 357, note). For the canal and the city of Rusas or New Dhuspas see their remarks in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1892, pp. 141 seq.; Verh. der Berl. Gesell. für Anth. 1892, pp. 477 seq.; 1893, pp. 220, 222, 223; 1898, p. 576; Zeitschrift für Assyr. 1894, pp. 349 seq., and 1899, p. 320. [↑]
[43] This is evidently the older form of the legend of Semiramis in Armenia. The Christian hierarchy softened down or obliterated the coming to life again of Ara. [↑]
[44] The name of this goddess only occurs in one inscription, viz. Sayce, No. XXIV.; and it is interesting to observe that this is an inscription of Menuas. The name is written ideographically like that of Istar in Assyrian and is rendered Saris by Professor Sayce. It is noticeable that Sariduris or Sarduris is the name borne by three of the Vannic kings. [↑]
[45] The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Van, Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, 1882, vol. xiv. p. 678. The languages are Babylonian, Persian and “Protomedic,” placed in parallel columns. [↑]
[46] Professor Sayce (Early Israel, London, 1899, pp. 238–239) adopts this date and considers that the classical writers confounded the Scythians with the Medes. A priori this view would seem probable, having regard to the natural evolution of the history of the times. [↑]
[47] According to Herodotus (vii. 73) the Armenians were Phrygian colonists and were armed in the Phrygian fashion. The view of the ancients seems to have been that the Phrygians, as well as the Asiatic Thracians, had migrated from Europe into Asia Minor. [↑]
[48] Herodotus, i. 72 and 194; v. 49 and 52. In the catalogue of the satrapies of the empire of Darius Armenia is joined with the unknown district of Pactyica (iii. 93). In the Behistun inscriptions of Darius, the Persian and Scythic texts everywhere employ Armenia for the more ancient Assyrian title Urardhu. [↑]