The project of the restoration and reconstruction
of Urartian wall paintings

The history of the collection of wall paintings from Erebuni at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

Urartu (the Kingdom of Van) is an ancient state of Transcaucasia (IX – VI centuries BCE), which united the territories of the Armenian Highlands to the south and southwest of Lake Sevan. In the first half of the first millennium BCE, the kingdom of Urartu occupied one of the leading positions among the powerful states of the ancient Near East. Urartu flourished during the reign of Argishti I (786–764 BCE) and Sarduri II (764–735 BCE). After the successful conquest of the Ararat Valley, Argishti I founded the fortified city of Erebuni in 782 BCE. This citadel served as an important center of power and royal residence at the northern borders of the Urartian kingdom.

The Erebuni fortress is the monument of Urartian culture, and the oldest archaeological core of the modern capital of Armenia – Yerevan. The archaeological excavations at the Arin-Berd hill began in 1952 by the joint expedition of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR and the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts under the general scientific supervision of B. Piotrovskiy. As a result of the exploration of the hill, archaeologists uncovered the ruins of Urartian buildings and fortified walls. With the earlier find of cuneiform inscription of king Argishti I, it was possible to identify the discovered monuments at Arin-Berd with the fortified Urartian city of Erebuni. During the two decades of excavation (1952–1973), archaeologists revealed the rich architectural complex of temples and palace buildings. It is noteworthy that even after the fall of the kingdom of Urartu, life in Erebuni did not stop. In the Achaemenid era (VI–IV centuries BCE), the former Urartian fortress was rebuilt into the administrative center of the Satrapy of Armenia with the Achaemenid palace-apadana and the Persian fire temple that was built on the site of the temples of the god Ḫaldi and the so-called Susi temple.

Initially, the palace and temples at Erebuni were richly decorated with wall painting, individual fragments of which were discovered by archaeologists. Despite their partial state of preservation, the murals from Erebuni have significant artistic and historical value. Most of the discovered fragments of wall painting date back to the Urartian period. It is possible that some murals could have been painted later, in the Achaemenid period, which is especially important for researching the development of the local wall painting school of ancient Armenia during the VIII–IV centuries BCE. The surviving fragments of the Erebuni murals come from the gateway portico of the citadel, the palace of Argishti I, the temples of the gods Ḫaldi and Ivarsha (the Susi temple). Unfortunately, the mural decoration was found in fragments of plaster with the remains of the painting, and the fragments of the murals that collapsed on the front side were preserved as prints. Nevertheless, considering the age (more than 2800 years), the discovered fragments allow us not only to study the specificities of Urartian wall painting, but also to reconstruct the mural scenes.

The paints were applied dry (secco) over a thin white layer of primer, which covered a rough coating with an admixture of fine straw, applied directly to the walls of sun-dried bricks. The bright colour of the paints consisted of blue, red, green, ocher and black. They were obtained from natural and artificial pigments. Saturated colour tones were achieved by applying a second layer of paint. The palette of murals from Erebuni is based on the combination of blue and red colours, which determined the overall colouristic structure of the scenes. The technique of wall paintings consisted of two stages: marks were drawn on the walls by lines with a ruler, compasses, and then figures and ornamental motifs were depicted in the resulting grids. Wall paintings at Erebuni, therefore, adhered to the well-designed system of proportionality, which was also associated with the laws of architectural proportions.

The compositions of wall paintings from Erebuni can be divided into two groups: cult and secular scenes. The first group includes images of ceremonial processions of the gods, figures of sacred animals and the tree of life (temples of Ḫaldi and Susi, the Argishti’s palace – the small and large columned halls). According to its style, strict manner of execution and canonicity, this group belongs to the royal art of Urartu, which transforms the samples of Assyrian murals of the 9th – 8th centuries BCE from Nimrud and Til Barsip. The second group of wall paintings consists of scenes of hunting, animal husbandry and agriculture (mainly from the large columned hall). The style of these murals is characterized by a freer manner of execution, and the drawing has a greater artistic individuality. It is possible that the second group could relate to the wall painting of the Achaemenid period (5th – 4th centuries BCE), which relied, among other cultures, on the rich Urartian artistic heritage.

The collection of the Department of the Ancient Near East at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts consists of 31 fragments of murals from Erebuni. Along with the collections of the Erebuni Museum and the History Museum of Armenia, the Pushkin State Museum has a remarkable collection of Urartian wall paintings.