ARMENIAN - Erevangala500
ARMENIAN - Erevangala500
ARMENIAN - Erevangala500
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On the walls of this deep canyon south o f Van on the edge of<br />
the Hakkari, one finds the caves of Yedisalkim, just eighty<br />
meters above the valley floor. The rock-drawings here were<br />
mostly done in dark red or brown. Pictures o f gods, goddesses<br />
with exaggerated sexual parts, dancing human figures, sun<br />
motifs, wild animals and hunting scenes showing now-extinct<br />
beasts are the dominate images. A depiction of the mother<br />
deity standing on an animal is the oldest known drawing of a<br />
"queen o f the animal kingdom" anywhere in Anatolia.<br />
that the Armenians arrived in Anatolia. At the end of the<br />
fifth century (401л00 B.C.), Xenophon writes in his Anabasis<br />
o f the Armenians in connection with other<br />
Anatolian tribes.<br />
The very first mention of the Armenians anywhere is to<br />
be found in the trilingual (Iranian, Babylonian, and<br />
Elamitic) inscription of Behistun in western Iran, in<br />
which the Persian king Darius (485 B.C.) lists Armenia as<br />
one of his satrapies. This first written record could be<br />
seen as having symbolic significance, in light of the fact<br />
that the Armenian communities almost never in their history<br />
rose above the status o f satrapies, or at best semiindependent<br />
principalities.<br />
Bisutun (Behistun): This watercolor by Sir Robert Ker Porter<br />
from the year 1818 shows the cliffs in western Persia where the<br />
royal inscription o f Darius is to be found.<br />
Bisutun (Behistun): Depiction o f the god Ahura Mazda with the<br />
trilingual inscription o f King Darius. Beneath the bas-relief we<br />
see figures representing the tribes owing tribute to Darius;<br />
among them is an Armenian.<br />
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