The social structure and bureaucracy in the Urartian Period

The Urartian Kingdom has carried out a cultural and political transformation with a settled character in the wide and difficult geography it dominates. The centers where this transformation is clearly observed are the royal cities and provincial centers where systematic archaeological excavations were made. These cities, which are understood to form the central structure in Urartu, are settlements with large populations and hosting economic activities on royal scales. This situation necessitated the use of writing, depending on the social and bureaucratic needs that developed over time. Written documents that emerged as a result of such needs enable us to obtain important information about the administrative and social structure of these cities and Urartu. However, our knowledge about these human groups, which can be defined through various social roles, has reached our day not only through written sources but also through archaeological data. Written and archaeological data point to the existence of an organized military structure behind the success of the Urartian political authority, which has existed for about 200 years. The sources that give information on this subject, on the other hand, explain that the army consists mainly of chariots, cavalry and infantry. These military classes in the Urartian army can be evaluated in two main headings according to their position: the members of the central army in the royal cities and the provincial units collected from the provinces. At the same time, the provincial forces protect the borders of the Urartian country in the region they are in, while the royal cities in the safer interior have a mostly periodic military structure. Another condition for understanding the Urartian society and state structure is to understand the direct relationship between relocation and social structure, which is one of the most important tools in the formation of the kingdom structure that emerged without a leader in the region. When the amount of deportations reaching hundreds of thousands in written sources is evaluated in detail, it will be possible to understand the social structure on which the kingdom was built much more clearly.