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230 ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
Khaldia, the god’s country, and its capital was Khaldina, the
god’s city. They had a remarkably complete theocratic
constitution. Tushpa (the Assyrian Turuspa), afterwards
called Van, by Lake Van, was the capital, apparently founded
about the year 830 ; and King Sardur I (II) erected a castle
near it on the isolated craggy hill overlooking the plain. On
the steep face of the rock he and subsequent kings had long
inscriptions hewn, telling of themselves and their deeds.
Numerous inscriptions of various kings have also been found
elsewhere in the country. Sardur I (II) still calls himself
" king of Nairi " in an inscription in the Assyrian language,
as does also his successor Ispuinis in one inscription (in Khal
dian), though in another he is entitled " King of Biaina,"
the nåme of the country which was afterwards corrupted to
’Van." The Khaldian kings who succeeded him simply
call themselves kings of Biaina.
The inscriptions are in Assyrian cuneiform script. The
earliest—those of King Sardur—are in the Assyrian language,
but the later inscriptions are in Khaldian, with one or two
in both languages. The Khaldian language, which is little
known, but has been partially deciphered in the last few
decades,1 was neither Arian nor Semitic ; it was related to
the language of the Mitanni.* Like the latter, the Khaldians
and possibly also the Protokhetiti, may have belonged to the
group of Subari, and they came from Asia Minor (Cappadocia).
It would seem that the Mitanni founded the Assyrian empire ;
at any rate the first known rulers of Assyria had Mitannic
names.3 As already mentioned (p. 85), the Khaldian lan
guage seems to have certain features resembling Georgian.
Lehmann-Haupt holds that there may have been Indo-Euro
pean blood in the ruling classes among the Khaldians.
The kings of Biania became so formidable that for a time
1 The honour of interpreting the language is shared by Stanislaus Guyard,
Professor A. H. Sayce of Oxford, Professor D. H. Muller, Dr. Valdemar Belck,
and Professor Lehmann-Haupt. The two last have made important finds
which have more than doubled the number of known Khaldic inscriptions.
1 It has been suggested that the nåme Mi/anm may be explained as consisting
of the Georgian mt’a + the suffix ant, meaning mountain people. Cf. C. G.
v. Wesenclonk, Ueber georgisches Heidentum, p. 34, Leipzig, 1924.
3 Cf. Lehmann-Haupt in L. M. Hartmann, Welgeschicbte, vol. i part i,
pp. 104, 145.
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