It was probably Rusas I who erected the buildings on Toprak Kala, the
hill to the east of Van, traces of which remain to the present day. He
built a palace and a temple, and around them he constructed a new city
with a reservoir to supply it with water, possibly because the slopes
of Toprak Kala rendered it easier of defence than the city in the
plain (beneath the rock and citadel) which had fallen an easy prey to
Tiglath-pileser III. The site of the temple on Toprak Kala has been
excavated by the trustees of the British Museum, and our knowledge of
Vannic art is derived from the shields and helmets of bronze and small
bronze figures and fittings which were recovered from this building. One
of the shields brought to the British Museum from the Toprak Kala, where
it originally hung with others on the temple walls, bears the name of
Argistis II, who was the son and successor of Rusas I, and who attempted
to give trouble to the Assyrians by stirring the inhabitants of the land
of Kummukh (Kommagene) to revolt against Sargon. His son, Rusas II,
was the contemporary of Esarhaddon, and from some recently discovered
rock-inscriptions we learn that he extended the limits of his kingdom on
the west and secured victories against Mushki (Meshech) to the southeast
of the Halys and against the Hittites in Northern Syria.
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