The Diversity of Cursing Formulae in the Urartian Royal Inscriptions through Time

To ensure protection from harm and adversaries, the endings of various Urartian royal inscriptions incorporated the cursing formulae. These formulae had similarities and differences in a king’s reign or in comparison with the other kings’. This paper aims to discover the diversity of these formulae and to compare them in the reigns of different Urartian kings. The formulae have changed and sometimes developed through the reign of new kings, and the details of the formulae changed through time. Additionally, the role of the three supreme gods of Urartu in these formulae is significant; however, they were not the only gods mentioned. Furthermore, cursing towards the decedents of the enemy was expressed. Cursing the enemy “under the sun” is a challenging expression in the formulae. It may be related to the function of the Urartian Sun God as the “Judge” who punishes the destroyer. Recording DUTU instead of Šiwini, Sun God, and DIM instead of Teišeba, Weather God, could be due to the significance of Ḫaldi. This could also be due to the fact that the Sumerian variants of sun and weather gods’ names were commonly used, or possibly those names ended up being taboos.