The Urartians, founded in Eastern Anatolia during the Iron Age, are one of the most important states that shaped the history of Anatolia. They became the most powerful state in the peripheral region by dominating the kingdoms and cities. Despite challenging geography, rebellious vassals, and constant pressure from the Assyrian empire, the Urartians were able to establish and sustain a state of great power. This study explores the methods of warfare, strategy, and tactics the Urartians used to achieve their success.
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Urartu Ordusu Savaş Meydanında: Strateji ve Taktikler
Demir Çağı’nda Doğu Anadolu’da kurulan Urartular, Anadolu tarihini şekillendiren en önemli devletlerden biridir. Bölgedeki krallıklara ve şehirlere hükmederek çevrenin en güçlü devleti haline gelmişlerdir. Zorlu coğrafyaya, isyana meyilli vasallara ve bölgeyi sürekli baskı altında tutmaya çalışan Asur imparatorluğuna rağmen böylesine büyük güce sahip bir devlet kurmayı ve sürdürmeyi başarmışlardır. Bu çalışmanın temel sorusu Urartuların hangi savaş yöntemleri, strateji ve taktikleri kullanarak bunu başardıklarıdır.
Alp, Sedat, Hitit Çağında Anadolu: Çiviyazılı ve Hiyeroglif Yazılı Kaynaklar, Tübitak, Ankara 2000. google scholar
Anisimov, V., Y., Anisimov, “Some Problems of Command and Control of Missile Forces and Artillery”, Military Thought, LI (1997), p. 50-59. google scholar
Arrian, Alexander the Great: The Anabasis and the Indica, trans. Martin Hammond, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013. google scholar
Baugh, Sue, “Proxy War, Armed Conflict, Britannica”, Encyclop&dia Britannica, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/topic/proxy-war. google scholar
Bradford, Alfred S., War: Antiquity and its Legacy, Greenwood, Westport 2015. google scholar
Bryce, Trevor, The World of the Neo-Hittite Kingdoms: A Political and Military History, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012. google scholar
Cambridge Dictionary, “Pitched Battle”, @CambridgeWords, 27.03.2024, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/ dictionary/english/pitched-battle. google scholar
Çilingiroğlu, Altan, Urartu Tarihi, Ege Üniversitesi, İzmir 1994. google scholar
“CUT (Corpus of Urartian Texts)”, Upenn.edu, 2024, https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/ecut/pager/. google scholar
Dezsö, Tamas, “The Battle of Mount Waush, 714 BC - Like a Furious Arrow”, Ancient Warfare, XIV/6 (2021), p. 26-35. google scholar
__________, The Assyrian Army I, Budapest Eötvös University Press, Budapest 2012. google scholar
__________, The Assyrian Army III, Elte Eötvös University Press, Budapest 2022. google scholar
Erdkamp, Paul, “Polybius, Livy and the Fabian Strategy”, Ancient Society, XXXIII (1992), p. 127-47. google scholar
Fagan, Garrett, “I Fell upon Him like a Furious Arrow”: Toward a Reconstruction of the Assyrian Tactical System”, New Perspectives on Ancient Warfare, ed. Garrett Fagan, Matthew Trundle, Brill, Leiden 2010, p. 81-100. google scholar
Fuchs, Andreas, “Assyria and the East: Western Iran and Elam”, A Companion to Assyria, ed. Eckart Frahm, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken 2017, p. 259-67. google scholar
George, Andrew, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Penguin Books, London 2000. google scholar
Grayson, Albert Kirk, The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia Assyrian Periods II (RIMA), University of Toronto Press, Toronto 2002. google scholar
———, The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Assyrian Periods III (RIMA), University of Toronto Press, Toronto 2002. google scholar
Hart, B. H. Liddell, Strategy: The Indirect Approach, Pentagon Press, New Delhi 2012. google scholar
Hawkins, John David, Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions, W. De Gruyter, New York 2000. google scholar
Herodotus, The Persian Wars, ed. A Godley, Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1994. google scholar
Hoffner, Harry, “Proclamation of Anitta of Kussar”, The Context of Scripture., ed. William Wolfgang Hallo, Brill, Leiden 2003, p. 182-84. google scholar
Keegan, John, A History of Warfare, Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1993. google scholar
Kılıç, Murat, Anadolu’da Savaş Stratejileri, Doruk, İstabul 2023. google scholar
———, “Hannibal’in Savaş Taktiklerine Genel Bir Bakış”, Erzurum Teknik Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 3/5 (2018), p. 25-60. google scholar
King, Leonard William, D. Litt, Bronze Reliefs from the Gates of Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, B.C. 860-825, Order of The Trustees, London 1915. google scholar
Kitchen, K. A., “The Battle of Qadesh - The Poem, Or Literary Record”, The Context of Scripture., ed. William Wolfgang Hallo, Brill, Leiden, 2003, p. 32-38. google scholar
Konijnendijk, Roel, “Playing Dice for the Polis: Pitched Battle in Greek Military Thought”, TAPA, CLI/1 (2021), p. 1-33. google scholar
Köroğlu, Kemalettin, “Conflict and Interaction in the Iron Age: The Origins of Urartian-Assyrian Relations”, European Journal of Archaeology, XVIII/1 (2015), p. 111-127. google scholar
Lazenby, J F, Hannibal’s War: A Military History of the Second Punic War, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman 1998. google scholar
Lipinski, Edward, The Aramaeans: Their AncientHistory, Culture, Religion, Peeters, Leuven; Sterling 2000. google scholar
Livy, Hannibal’s War, ed. Dexter Hoyos, OUP Oxford, New York 2009. google scholar
Livy Titus, Hannibal’s War, trans. John Yardley, B. D. Hoyos, Oxford University Press, New York 2006. google scholar
Luckenbill, Daniel David, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia (ARAB), Chicago University Press, Chicago 1927. google scholar
Malik, J. Mohan, “The Evolution of Strategic Thoughts”, Contemporary Security and Strategy, ed. Craig A. Syder, Routlegde 1999, p. 13-52. google scholar
Miller, Jared L, Royal Hittite Instructions and Related Administrative Texts, Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta 2013. google scholar
Overtoom, Nikolaus Leo, Reign of Arrows: The Rise of The Parthian Empire in The Hellenistic Middle East, Oxford University Press, New York 2020. google scholar
Parker, Geoffrey, The Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare, Cambridge University Press, New York 2022. google scholar
Payne, Margaret, Urartu Çiviyazılı Belgeler Katalogu, Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yayınları, İstanbul 2006. google scholar
Polybius, The General History of Polybius, trans. M Hampton, W. Baxter, J. Parker; London, Oxford 1823. google scholar
———, The Histories of Polybius, trans. Evelyn S. Shuckburgh, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2012. google scholar
Radner, Karen, “Between A Rock and a Hard Place: Muşaşir, Kumme, Ukku and Subria - the buffer states between Assyria and Urartu”, Biainili-Urartu: The Proceedings of the Symposium Held in Munich 12-14 October 2007 = Tagungsbericht desMünchner Symposiums 12.-14. Oktober 2007, ed. U. Hellwag vd., Peeters, Leuven 2012, p. 243-64. google scholar
Reilly, Henry J., “Blitzkrieg”, Foreign Affairs, XVIII/2 (1940), p. 254-265. google scholar
“RINAP”, Upenn.edu, 2024, https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/corpus. google scholar
Rosenberger, Veit, “The Gallic Disaster”, The Classical World, XCVI/4 (2003), p. 365-373. google scholar
Saggs, Henry W. F., “Assyrian Warfare in the Sargonid Period”, Iraq, XXV/2 (1963), p. 145-54. google scholar
———, “The Nimrud Letters Part IV”, Iraq, C. 20, 2 (1958), p. 182-212. google scholar
Salvini, Mirjo, Urartu Tarihi ve Kültürü, trans. Belgin Aksoy, Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yayınları, İstanbul 2006. google scholar
Schulman, Alan R., “The N'rn at the Battle of Kadesh”, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, C. 1 (1962), p. 47-52. google scholar
Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Allandale Online Publishing, Leicester 2000. google scholar
“The Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period (RINAP)”, oracc.museum.upenn.edu, (20.03.2021), http://oracc.org/rinap/. google scholar
Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, trans. J. M. Dent, E. P. Dutton, New York 1910. google scholar
Topaloğlu, Yasin, “Erzurum Kalelerinde Kullanılan Kiklopik Duvar Tekniği”, GSED, 31 (2013), p. 195-222. google scholar
Westenholz, Joan Goodnick, Legends of the Kings ofAkkade: The Texts, Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake 1997. google scholar
Yıldırım, Ercüment, “Carrhae Yenilgisi ve Roma’nın Doğu Politikasına Etkileri”, Selçuk Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 29 (2013), p. 261-72. google scholar
Zimansky, Paul, “Urartu Krallığı ve Topografya”, Urartu: Savas ve Estetik, ed. Filiz Özdem, Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanat, İstanbul 2003, p. 75-85. google scholar
Çiğdem, S., & Kılıç, M. (2025). The Urartian Army on the Battlefield: Strategy and Tactics. Tarih Dergisi(85), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.26650/iutd.1496808
AMA
Çiğdem S, Kılıç M. The Urartian Army on the Battlefield: Strategy and Tactics. Tarih Dergisi. Mart 2025;(85):1-24. doi:10.26650/iutd.1496808
Chicago
Çiğdem, Süleyman, ve Murat Kılıç. “The Urartian Army on the Battlefield: Strategy and Tactics”. Tarih Dergisi, sy. 85 (Mart 2025): 1-24. https://doi.org/10.26650/iutd.1496808.
EndNote
Çiğdem S, Kılıç M (01 Mart 2025) The Urartian Army on the Battlefield: Strategy and Tactics. Tarih Dergisi 85 1–24.
IEEE
S. Çiğdem ve M. Kılıç, “The Urartian Army on the Battlefield: Strategy and Tactics”, Tarih Dergisi, sy. 85, ss. 1–24, Mart2025, doi: 10.26650/iutd.1496808.
ISNAD
Çiğdem, Süleyman - Kılıç, Murat. “The Urartian Army on the Battlefield: Strategy and Tactics”. Tarih Dergisi 85 (Mart2025), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.26650/iutd.1496808.
JAMA
Çiğdem S, Kılıç M. The Urartian Army on the Battlefield: Strategy and Tactics. Tarih Dergisi. 2025;:1–24.
MLA
Çiğdem, Süleyman ve Murat Kılıç. “The Urartian Army on the Battlefield: Strategy and Tactics”. Tarih Dergisi, sy. 85, 2025, ss. 1-24, doi:10.26650/iutd.1496808.
Vancouver
Çiğdem S, Kılıç M. The Urartian Army on the Battlefield: Strategy and Tactics. Tarih Dergisi. 2025(85):1-24.