Urartians were an Anatolian civilization with a distinctive culture that, between the 9th and 7th centuries BCE, established dominance in Eastern Anatolia, the South Caucasus, and Northwestern Iran, with their capital centered in present-day Van (Tušpa).
Urartians, who produced original works especially in metalworking and architecture, built irrigation systems (dams, reservoirs, and canals) to make use of the country’s limited agricultural land in its mountainous terrain; many of these systems are still in use today. Among the most important surviving architectural works in the numerous cities they established are fortresses, multi-chambered rock tombs, sacred sites carved into rocks, and temples. The most notable of the rock tombs are located in the citadel of Van Fortress in the capital, Tušpa. All of these are thought to have been royal tombs. They had a polytheistic pantheon that included the local gods of the peoples whose lands they had conquered. In honor of their chief god, Haldi, they built tower temples called susi in almost every city.
The Urartians referred to themselves as Biainili, while the name Urartu was given to them by their neighbors and perennial enemies, the Assyrians. Although hundreds of monumental inscriptions carved on rocks and stone blocks by the Urartians have survived to the present day, some details of Urartian history still remain unclear. For this reason, the Urartian chronology is often listed together with that of the Assyrians, who made references to Urartian kings in their inscriptions:
| Urartian Kings | Assyrians Kings |
| [no written records] | Shalmaneser III (859-824 BCE) mentions Ar(r)amu the Urartian (years 859, 856, 844) |
| Sarduri I, son of Lutibri (ca 840-830 BCE) | Shalmaneser III mentions Seduri, the Urartian (year 832) |
| Išpuini, son of Sarduri (ca 830-820 BCE) coregency of Išpuini and Minua, (ca 820-810 BCE) + Inušpua, son of Minua | Šamši-Adad V (823-811 BCE) mentions Ušpina (year 820) |
| Minua, son of Išpuini (ca 810-785/780 BCE) | |
| Argišti I, son of Minua (785/780-756 BCE) | Shalmaneser IV (781-772 BCE) mentions Argištu/i (year 774) |
| Sarduri II, son of Argišti (756-ca 730 BCE) mentions Aššurnirari | Ašur-nirari V (754-745 BCE) Tiglath-pileser III (744-727 BCE) mentions Sarduri, Sardaurri (years 743, 735?) |
| Rusa I, son of Sarduri (ca 730-713) | Sargon (721-705 BCE) mentions Ursa/Rusa (years 719-713) |
| Argišti II, son of Rusa (713- ? ) | Sargon mentions Argišta (year 709) |
| Rusa II, son of Argišti (first half of the 7th cent.) | Esarhaddon (681-669 BCE) mentions Ursa (year 672) |
| Erimena (LÚaṣuli ?) | |
| Rusa III, son of Erimena | Ašurbanipal (669-627 BCE) mentions Rusa (year 652) |
| Sarduri (LÚaṣuli ??), son of Rusa III | |
| Sarduri III, son of Sarduri | Ašurbanipal mentions Ištar/Issar-duri (year 646/642) |
References:
Salvini, M. 2006. Urartu Tarihi ve Kültürü, çev. B. Aksoy, Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yayınları, İstanbul.
Salvini, M. 2008. Corpus Dei Testi Urartei Volume V, Paris.
Salvini, M. 2011. “Urartu Tarihine Genel Bir Bakış / An Overview of Urartian History,” in Urartu: Doğu’da Değişim / Transformation in the East, eds. K. Köroğlu & E. Konyar, İstanbul, 74-101.