PRE-URARTIAN (EARLY IRON AGE) GROOVED POTTERY OF THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES OF EASTERN AND SOUTHEASTERN ANATOLIA (NAIRI-URUATRI LANDS) AND ITS INFLUENCE IN THE URARTIAN POTTERY

Abstract

The highland of eastern Anatolia, southern Caucasia and north-western Iran were the main territory of pre-Urartians, in other words, small local independent polities of the land of Nairi and Uratri communities. Grooved ware related to the local communities of Nairi-Uruatri lands is spread for centuries over this vast area associated with other distinct pottery groups in peripheries during the EIA, from the c. 13th-12th centuries to the 9th century BC. It decreasingly continued with new forms during the MIA until the 7th century BC. The distribution and chronology of the grooved pottery well matched the borders and dates of the Nairi and Uruatri lands mentioned in Middle Assyrian sources starting from the 13th century BC. The fortified site area, the settlement system of the Nairi and Uruatri territory, which is the formation of a mobile-sedentary lifestyle of local communities, also contains these borders. The existence of grooved ware beyond eastern Anatolia in the south indicates to spread of these agro-pastoral groups in the Upper Tigris Valley during the temporary void of the Assyrian Empire. The eastern side of the Lake Van basin within the vast pre-Urartian land shows a particular situation with its different pottery subgroups and fine wares. It seems that Urartian red polished ware (Biainili ware) was derived from the pinkish-buff red slipped ware of the pre-Urartian period on the northern and eastern shores of Lake Van, where major pre-Urartian and Urartian settlements were located and most probably the core area of grooved ware. The eastern side of Lake Van, which is the heartland of the Urartian Kingdom, is also well matched to Uruatri land. The characteristics of the foundation of the Urartian Kingdom seem mainly developed based on the local traditions of the pre-Urartians who lived in the eastern part of Lake Van, which later became the capital of the Urartian Kingdom.