Urns found in Çavuştepe Castle under examination

VAN

Forty-five Urartian-era urns (the vessels in which the ashes of the dead were put) have been unearthed in the necropolis of Çavuştepe Castle, located in the Gürpınar district of the eastern province of Van.

The urns that have been found during the excavations in the castle, built by the Urartian King Sarduri II in 750 B.C., and the necropolis in its northern part, provide new information about the burial customs and lifestyle of the Urartians.

Speaking to the state-run Anadolu Agency, the head of the excavations, Professor Rafet Çavuşoğlu, said that they carry out excavations every year in the necropolis of Çavuştepe Castle, which was unearthed in 2017.

Stating that the urns, an important burial tradition in the Urartians, will be examined, Çavuşoğlu said: “The most important find of the excavations this year is the urns. After the corpse was burned, it was put in an urn with all the remaining bone tissue and ashes and buried next to the grave. We have found 45 urns so far.”

Noting that the studies gave new information about the Urartian period, Çavuşoğlu said: “Holes were made on the surfaces of these urns for the soul to enter and leave the urns. We can officially call this place an urn field. From the material, we can easily say that these were used 2,750 years ago in the Urartian period. We will examine the urns in detail in a laboratory. The results will provide us with important information.”