Categories: News

Smuggled Armenian Artifacts Discovered in Hungary

In February 2016, the Hungarian police published materials on the smuggling of ancient artifacts brought by a Turkish truck driver to Lithuania.

Among the artifacts were ancient Sumerian, Persian, Assyrian, and also Armenian items of the period of the Kingdom of Van (Urartu). Dating back at 900 BC, the artifacts included a helmet, small bells, and a riding horse, which probably come from the grave of a high-ranking military officer of the Kingdom of Van.

Smuggled artifacts were discovered last year during a routine inspection of a truck driven by a Turkish citizen. The investigation is said to have been completed, and the Turkish driver has been charged with stealing and smuggling.

The period of the Kingdom of Van was the Iron Age of Armenia. The ancient Armenian state is best known for its outstanding examples of ancient art. At the zenith of its fame, the Kingdom of Van had a profound cultural influence on its neighbors, reaching Asia and Europe.

The Kingdom of Van was known among different nations and states under different names. In the trilingual inscription of Behistun of Darius the Great (520 BC) in Babylonian and Assyrian languages, the Kingdom of Van was called Urartu, in ancient Parthian (Persian) – Armani, in Elamite – Armina.

From the ancient Hittite cuneiform sources, it is also known that the Hittites called the Kingdom of Van Hayasa. In the Bible, Armenia is called the Ararat Kingdom.

Ókori kincseket csempészett a kamionos

Vigen Avetisyan

Recent Posts

The Priestess of the Kingdom of Van: A 9th-Century BC Bronze Figurine in the British Museum

Five angles of one small bronze figure — and what emerges is not an abstract…

6 days ago

The Winged Sun and the Armenian Tiara: Royal Symbolism of the Orontid (Yervanduni) Kingdom of Commagene, 163 BC – 72 AD

Introduction Among the successor states that emerged from the fragmentation of the Achaemenid-derived Orontid (Armenian:…

1 week ago

A Bronze Age Vessel from Gardman: Solar Symbolism, the Sun-Cross, and the Sacred Landscape of Ancient Armenia

Article based on the explanations and interpretive observations of Angela Terian, with additional archaeological and…

1 week ago

Rewriting the Caucasus: A Documented Look at Azerbaijan’s Historical Revisionism Regarding Armenia

Lenin: Soviet nationalities policy, Azerbaijan SSR founded 1920, Stalin: Constitution and census fix the ethnonym…

2 weeks ago

A Painted Wall from Ancient Armenia: The New Erebuni Fresco and the Urartian-Armenian Continuity

An unprecedented find on Arin Berd hill On 23 July 2026, the French Embassy in…

2 weeks ago

The Date Khorenatsi Gave for Armenia’s Founding — Now Backed by Genetics

For more than fifteen centuries, one line from Movses Khorenatsi's History of the Armenians has…

2 weeks ago