URARTIANS

After the Hurrians, Kars and its surrounding were ruled by the powerful Urartian Kingdom.

Urartians were spread around the Gokce Lake northeast of today’s Cildir, making Lake Van and its environs their center in the eight and ninth centuries BC. Urartians used cuneiform like the Mesopotamian cultures. They reigned over a very large area from north Mesopotamia to Iran, and left many tablets, though they also destroyed all the written works of the Hurrians. The Urartians set up autonomous principalities in the regions they dominated, and Kars, Ani, Divin and Gumru became such principalities: they had to pay heavy taxes of gold, silver, bronze, horses, oxen and sheep to the Urartian Kingdom. The principalities often rebelled against these taxes and much blood was shed to suppress these rebellions; each time, the taxes were made heavier.

Urartian documents show that Diauekhi Principality in the Kars region operated a gold and silver mine at Kagizman stream and a copper mine in Bardiz, and paid taxes to the kingdom.