Note 3 — Chapter V · FROM VAN TO BITLIS

The compiler of the index to Ritter’s Erdkunde confuses this Artemid with the Ἀρτεμίτα ἡ ἐν τῇ Βαβυλωνίᾳ of Strabo xi. 519, which, according to Ritter (ix. 508), is probably identical with the Artemita in Apolloniatis of Isidorus Charax (Mansiones Parthicæ, c. 2 in Geographi Græci Minores, Paris, 1882), and is to be sought in the district watered by the river Diyala, which joins the Tigris near Baghdad. An Armenian Artemita is mentioned by Ptolemy (c. 13, section 21, and c. 8, section 13, edit. Nobbe, Leipzic, 1843).

Schulz tells us that the present village was in his time sometimes called Atramit (he himself writes it Artamit) “par une transposition de lettres qui rappelle un nom fort significatif dans l’ancienne mythologie orientale” (Journal Asiatique, 1840, ser. 3, vol. ix. p. 310). The same traveller was rewarded for his researches in the vicinity by some interesting finds.

In a little valley about 1¼ miles west of the village (une demi lieue), and about a hundred paces from the lake (environ une centaine de pas au dessus du lac), among a quantity of blocks of stone, fallen from the hill above, he discovered a cuneiform inscription, engraved upon one of these blocks. Professor Sayce translates this inscription as follows:—“Belonging to Menuas of the mother Taririas, this monument the place of the son of Taririas she has called” (The cuneiform inscriptions of Van, Journal R. Asiatic Society, London, 1882, vol. xiv. p. 529). Dr. Belck, on the other hand, would render it:—“This abode, which belongs to Tarias, daughter of Menuas, is called the palace of Tarias” (Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, 1895, p. 608).

At a little distance from this block Schulz found another inscription, which, owing to exposure to damp, was scarcely distinguishable. He describes it as being engraved on a large stone on the left hand of an ancient aqueduct, built up of several layers of massive stones, several five or six square feet in height. They are irregular in shape and not connected by cement; but are held together by their own weight. The conduit which they enclose is square in form, and of sufficient height and breadth to enable one to stand up inside it. Schulz endeavoured to penetrate within it, but was unable to proceed further than some twenty paces, the passage being obstructed by a large block which had fallen in from the colossal wall (Schulz, op. cit. p. 313).

The hillside above this little valley separates it, he goes on to say, from a kind of upper terrace, over which runs the way from Van to Vostan, among masses of rock, detached from the adjacent heights. Between these rocks flows the Shamiram Su, an artificial channel which has its source some nine leagues south of Van, and which, after passing through the gardens of Artemid, has been conducted to the immediate neighbourhood of the city, where it debouches into the lake. So far as Schulz was able to follow its course, it was nowhere embanked by masonry (ibid. p. 313). It was on this terrace, at a distance of 1¼ miles (une demi lieue) from Artemid in a south-westerly direction, immediately by the side of this Shamiram Su, and on the road between Van and Vostan, that he discovered the important inscription which reads according to Professor Sayce:—“To the children of Khaldis the gracious Menuas, the son of Ispuinis, this memorial has selected. Of Menuas the memorial he has named it. To the children of Khaldis, the multitudinous, belonging to Menuas, the king powerful, the king of multitudes, king of the land of Biainas, inhabiting the city of Dhuspas. Menuas says—whoever this tablet carries away, whoever removes the name, whoever with earth destroys, whoever undoes this memorial; may Khaldis, the air god, the sun god, the gods him in public, the name of him, the family of him, the land of him, to fire and water consign” (Sayce, op. cit. pp. 527–28). Messrs. Belck and Lehmann render the word translated by Prof. Sayce as memorial: canal, aqueduct. The rock upon which the inscription was found is known under the name of Kiziltash from its reddish hue.

In the village of Artemid itself Schulz saw the remains of the wall of an ancient edifice on the summit of the cliff. According to Armenian tradition it was formerly a residence of the Armenian kings. Below it he found an ancient conduit (Schulz, ibid. p. 311). I have summarised Schulz’s account afresh because Ritter’s summary of it (Erdkunde, x. 294) misled me.

The inscription on the Kiziltash has been photographed by M. Müller-Simonis, and reproduced in his book (Du Caucase au Golfe Persique, Paris, 1892, p. 252). Professor Sayce conjectures that these inscriptions served to commemorate the completion of the works connected with the Shamiram Su, and even goes so far as to suggest that the monuments erected by Queen Taririas may have given rise to the traditions about a great queen which in the course of time became transferred to the mythical Semiramis (op. cit. p. 529).

Dr. Belck has within recent years found four more inscriptions in or near Artemid which have been translated by Sayce (Journal R. Asiatic Soc. 1893, pp. 8 seq.). Two are without importance; the remaining two are in the sense of the inscription on the Kiziltash, and are therefore canal inscriptions.

Among the notices of Artemid contained in the works of travellers, a few useful remarks may be gleaned. Shiel (Journey in 1836) tells us that in his time it was a large Armenian village of about 350 houses. Brant (1838) speaks of it as populous, and alludes to the quantity of fruit which was grown there. He approached it from the side of Vostan and the Anguil Su, after crossing which he came upon the Shamiram Su, which he describes as an open canal, supported by a wall in some places. Schulz was impressed by the squalor of the houses; according to him it was peopled half by Armenians and half by Mussulmans; the latter dwelt below the cliff, on the border of the lake (Schulz, op. cit. p. 310). Ussher (before 1865) calls it an Armenian village, and adds—“The flat summit of the rocky hill, on the slope of which the village stood, was surrounded by an ancient wall, built of huge stones laid one upon another without mortar or cement of any kind, and resembling somewhat in appearance Cyclopean remains” (From London to Persepolis, London, 1865, p. 324). Müller-Simonis (op. cit. p. 270) speaks of the “grandes substructions du caractère le plus ancien” which support the Shamiram Su at a certain point three-quarters of an hour on the further side of Artemid, coming from Van. ↑