Urartian Stelae in Late Antique and Early Medieval Armenia

Abstract This article concerns how Armenian communities throughout the 1st millennium A.D. reinterpreted and redeployed cuneiform inscriptions originally carved in Iron Age as meaningful traces of local past. It focuses on deliberate re-use by early Christians Iron-Age stelae bearing Urartian region around Lake Van. Scholars have noted such passing since 19th century , but there has been no concerted effort to collect or interpret relevant evidence holistically. The distinguishes several distinct trends engagements with (and hieroglyphic) their native territories over course Combining literary archaeological evidence, it contextualizes cases clashes historical consciousness, expressed via material culture, dynamic situations colonial contact religious conversion.