The aims of this research are to provide a comprehensive review of the available evidence for the socio-economic structure of the Urartian kingdom (of the 9th-6th centuries BC) and by doing so, to analyse and critique previous interpretations of the subject. Although there has been intensive research on different aspects of the Urartian kingdom, mainly chronological studies or excavations and surveys that cover different parts of what was once the lands of the kingdom, unlike previous studies this research presents a systematic review of the geographical, archaeological and textual evidence of the Urartian (and Assyrian where relevant textual evidence is available) as well as original ethnographic observations in order to analyse the socio-economic and administrative organisation of the Urartian kingdom. After reviewing and evaluating the history of research of Soviet, Turkish and Western scholars on various aspects of the Urartian kingdom, I move on to investigating the available economic resources in the region and the movement of commodities such as the produce of arable agriculture, animal husbandry, metallurgy, and craft activities undertaken by Urartian society. The next step, in order to understand the management of these economic resources, is to examine the administrative organisation of the state including the Urartian concept of kingship and the king’s role in administration, construction activities, the administrative division of the kingdom, and the income generated by warfare. It is concluded that the Urartian state economy was heavily dependent on agriculture and animal husbandry. Military expeditions generated substantial income in the form of livestock and prisoners of war. Further wealth was accumulated by tribute, taxation and metallurgical activities. However, how these factors combined into a single economic system has been variously interpreted by individual scholars in response to their contemporary theoretical and political context.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:617532 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Cifci, Ali |
| Contributors | Greaves, Alan; Tuplin, Christopher |
| Publisher | University of Liverpool |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/18115/ |
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