WikiSort.ru - Крепости, зАмки и монастыри

Оригинальный текст (англ.)

Comparable grand structures, which surely served an administrative purpose, have been identified across the modern border in Azerbaijan at Qaracamirlı Köyi (including the mound dubbed İdeal Təpə), at Sarıtəpə (Sari Tepe) north of Ganja (Az. Gəncə) near Qazax in northwestern Azerbaijan, and at Beniamin in northern Armenia. There are yet other candidates, including an intriguing hilltop site to the south at Oğlanqala just above the town of Şərur in the Azerbaijani exclave of Naxçıvan (Arm. Naxčawan; Rus. Nakhichevan). However, the Azerbaijani-American team excavating Oğlanqala currently suspects it belonged to a local polity predating the Achaemenids and autonomous of Urartu.

A careful analysis of the evidence submitted by the excavators suggests that it does not preclude Urartian origins for the fortress, which would rather seem to be well established. Indeed the masonry techniques are closely similar to those of Bastam, Ayanis and Hasanlu" (IHb) and the absence of features, such as rusticated masonry, regular buttresses or rock-cut stairs is common to many fortresses considered as certainly Urartian. Many Urartian fortresses also possess irregular shapes, with walls that fit the lie of the land, a characteristic found in many Urartian fortifications. But it is above all the recent discovery during excavations of Biainili pottery, in particular some fragments of pithoi (fig. 6) with cuneiform inscriptions and jars with hieroglyphic signs identical to those found in Ayanis and Bastam, which must date to the 7th century (Risvet et al. 2008: 192-193, fig. 11-13; Risvet et al. 2012; 345, fig. 18-19), that constitutes the final proof of Urartian occupation of the site—and, therefore, of the entire plain. Oglan Qala was certainly a very important border fortress for Urartu, if we consider that the approximate length of the perimeter of its fortifications, estimated at approximately 1400 metres, makes it the thirteenth-largest fortress with regard to the total length of the fortified perimeter in the whole Urartian Kingdom (Biscione/Dan, forthcoming). This system of fortifications recently identified in the Oglan Qala area seems an integral part of the Urartian control system; the forts along the course of the Arpachay (Qizqala 1, Qizqala 2, Karasuqala and the two fortresses on the border with Armenia) controlled the defence of the fortress on that side and, thus, one of the access roads (fig. 3) to Lake Sevan (Parker et al. 2011:195). The system of agricultural exploitation of the plains would have been supplied by two hydraulic works, generally dated to the 7th century B.C., which were also discovered in recent years; these are the artificial canals known as Ferhat Kanali II, 25-30 km long, and the Kalecik Kanali, 5.5-6 km long. These, therefore, date to Urartian times and are considered part of the irrigation system directly controlled by Oglan Qala (Belli 2001a: 361; Belli 2001b: 415)