LOST SECRETS OF DISTANT PAST: THE KING OF URARTU, RUSA THE ARMENIAN
Abstract: Aram, the 6th patriarch of the Haykid dynasty, who, according to Movses Khorenatsi, is the senior contemporary of Assyria's fabulous king Ninos, corresponds accurately to the King of Urartu, Aramu or Arame, mentioned in the Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions of the first half of the IX century BC. The latter ruled in the Armenian Highland, as the Armenian history tells, in 888-845 BC, and, according to N. Adontz, from 880 to almost 843-840 BC.
He was succeeded by Sarduri I (or Sedur) (845-825), the founder of the Van dynasty of Urartu, 11 rulers of which reigned from father to son until 590 BC (or 585); these were Ishpuini (825-810), Menua (810-786), Argishti I (786-764), Sarduri II (764-735), Rusa I (735-713), Argishti II (713-685), Rusa II (685-645), Sarduri III (645-635), the latter having been called Ishtarduri by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal in his chronicle. Ashurbanipal ruled in 668-633 BC, which means that he was the contemporary of Rusa and his son.
It looks like the list of Urartu’s monarchs is being interrupted to this extent.
And despite this, taking into account the eight Urartian decorated inscriptions about the King Rusa Eremenahi (son of Erimena), the Urartologists had to place this Rusa in the end of the Urartian kings’ list as the 11th ruler of the Urartu's decline period, but now it turns out that it is a misunderstanding.
Here, as we can see, two kings bearing the name Rusa meet each other, one is called Hay in his country of Pa…, and the other is called Rusaše Erimenahiniše (Rusa, son of Erimena), the father of Rusa III in the inscriptions of the sculptured Bronze Collection. Putting these two testimonies side by side, we reveal a surprising fact that has not been seen so far - it is the son of Erimena, Rusa, who stands in front of us in the face of Rusa the Hay, a contemporary of Esarhaddon. It follows from the above mentioned that the transliteration Erimena (= hay) should be identical with the the tribal name of armeni mentioned in the records of Menua and Argishti I, which is being intentionally read as Urmeni and thus one tries to conceal the existence of Armenian ethnos in the Armenian Highland until the end of the VI century BC. Meanwhile, in the Babylonian and more ancient Akkadian cuneiform inscriptions contain only Armi, Armani, Armanum.
Some other geographical data could be referred to which undeniably confirm the identity of two different kings bearing the name Rusa; we will refer to those arguments on another occasion.
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