博客

Nestled among the sun-scorched ruins of the Cavustepe fortress in eastern Turkey, 86-year-old Mehmet Kusman has built a life mission few would dare take on: keeping the long-lost language of the ancient Urartu kingdom alive, despite never completing formal education.

Running his fingers over cuneiform inscriptions carved into solid black basalt, Kusman deciphers lines written nearly 3,000 years ago: *”Before me there was nothing. But by the power of the god Haldi I founded this city.”* For six decades, he has devoted himself to this forgotten Iron Age civilization, its forgotten deities, and its lost written language.

Kusman’s connection to Urartu began in the 1960s, shortly after he finished military service. Hired as an unskilled laborer for the initial archaeological excavations at Cavustepe, he stumbled across his first ancient stone stele and was immediately captivated by the elegant, unfamiliar script. When the excavation’s lead archaeologist warned him the cuneiform writing system adapted from Assyrian was far too complex for an untrained man to learn, the brush-off only fueled his determination. *”His telling me ‘No’ hurt me,”* Kusman recalled to AFP. *”I became relentless, thinking: ‘In my lifetime, I will learn it.’”*

With no academic training or formal linguistic guidance, Kusman set out to teach himself the language. He spent years traveling across the historic territory of Urartu, which once spanned parts of modern eastern Turkey, Iran, and Armenia, copying every inscription he found at excavation sites. In just three years, he had memorized the full Urartu cuneiform alphabet, though mastering the limited surviving vocabulary took far longer: it took 22 years for him to commit 650 known Urartu words to memory.

Today, the silver-haired guardian is a local legend, who refers to himself as one of only seven people in Turkey who can work with the Urartu language. Academics across Turkey have mixed assessments of his claims, but nearly all praise his unwavering passion for bringing Urartu to public attention.

To contextualize Urartu’s place in history, Istanbul University ancient history professor Erkan Konyar explains the kingdom was one of the most dominant powers in the ancient Near East between the 9th and 7th centuries BCE. Emerging after the early Mesopotamian kingdoms of Sumer, Babylon, and Assyria, Urartu unified scattered mountain tribal communities under a centralized government, building sophisticated fortresses, cities, irrigation systems, and large-scale food storage infrastructure. Konyar, a leading specialist on Urartu’s original capital Tuspa, notes that even after retiring from his official role at Cavustepe in 2005, Kusman has never left the site.

“For 60 years, he has lived amid the excavations and introduced thousands of visitors to the history of Urartu,” Konyar said. Still, he pushes back on Kusman’s claim to speak the language: the full pronunciation of Urartu has been lost to history, and only around 100 words have their meanings confirmed with certainty. Unlike modern living languages, Urartu was only used for official inscriptions, not everyday conversation, even during the kingdom’s peak. Mehemet Isikli, head of the Department of Near Eastern Archaeology at Ataturk University, echoed this clarification, noting Kusman’s work is public outreach, not formal academic research.

“I admire him,” Isikli said. “He has worked hard and brought Urartian culture to light. Mehmet Kusman provides a sort of publicity for Urartu, but it has nothing to do with academic work: he knows only a few alphabetical signs, or a few letters, and some very, very general information about them.”

Undeterred by academic skepticism, Kusman remains proud of his work guarding the Cavustepe site and welcoming guests from his small stone hut at the excavation entrance. Calling himself a literal descendant of the Urartu people, he says his life’s work proves the civilization has not been entirely lost to time. His passion has even taken him across the globe: he has lectured five times in the United States, as well as in Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium, and is now planning a trip to Japan to share his love for Urartu with new audiences.

As ongoing excavations like the one at the Ayanis fortress, 22 miles north of Lake Van, continue to uncover new clues about how the Urartu kingdom collapsed (recent research points to a massive earthquake as a key contributing factor), Kusman remains the public face of the civilization for visitors and casual enthusiasts. Standing to greet a new group of tourists at Cavustepe, he declared, *”They disappeared, but look, they are not all dead.”*

A shocking act of unprovoked violence has left an 82-year-old man seriously injured in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, prompting Victoria Police to issue an urgent public appeal for information to track down the teenage attacker. The entire incident, which left the elderly victim with significant facial bruising and deep lacerations, was triggered by nothing more than a polite request for the young rider to slow down on a popular shared recreational trail.

The assault unfolded on July 6 along the Blind Creek Trail, a well-used walking and cycling route stretching between Bond Street and Lewis Road in Ferntree Gully. According to official statements from Victoria Police, the senior citizen had called out politely to the teenager, asking him to reduce his speed as he rode along the trail. What followed was a sudden and brutal escalation of aggression.

Investigators outline that the teen first launched into a verbal tirade against the elderly man, before throwing repeated punches directly at his face and head. The repeated blows knocked the victim off his feet, sending him crashing to the ground. When the 82-year-old managed to regain his footing, the attacker struck him again, knocking him to the ground for a second time. In an added display of disrespect and aggression, the teen then pulled out a device to photograph the injured man as he lay helpless on the trail.

Witnesses at the scene eventually stepped in to help the victim get back on his feet, while the teenage offender fled the area on his distinctive orange and black electric scooter. In a further disturbing turn of events, the attacker returned just a short time later and struck the elderly man for a third time, hitting him from behind on nearby Rankin Road.

Emergency services transported the victim to a local hospital for treatment. While his injuries are not considered life-threatening, they have still left the 82-year-old facing a painful recovery period. As of the latest update, no charges have been filed, and the offender remains at large.

Victoria Police has now released a public image of the person they wish to question in connection with the attack, alongside a detailed description of the suspect. He is believed to be between 16 and 18 years old, with a slim build and blond hair. At the time of the assault, he was wearing dark clothing and a motorcycle helmet.

Law enforcement is calling on any member of the public who may have been in the area on the day of the incident, who captured relevant footage from CCTV or dashcam, or who holds any other information that could help identify the teen to come forward immediately. Anyone with details can contact Crime Stoppers anonymously on 1800 333 000, or submit a confidential report through the official Crime Stoppers Victoria website at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au.

A high-stakes emergency incident that unfolded just days before Christmas in suburban Adelaide has concluded with a sentencing that will see the man at the center of the scare walk free from custody in less than a fortnight. On December 23, concerned members of the public in Clovelly Park, a residential neighborhood roughly 7 kilometers south of Adelaide’s central business district, called police after spotting 39-year-old Tristan Atkins slumped unconscious in a running vehicle. What started as a standard welfare check quickly escalated into a major bomb response when officers discovered two homemade explosive devices stowed inside the car.

The discovery sparked particular anxiety across the region, coming only days after the fatal terror attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach that put Australian law enforcement on high alert for further violence. Atkins, who was homeless and sleeping in his vehicle at the time of the incident, was taken into custody immediately and charged with two offenses: possessing materials for explosive manufacturing and taking preperatory steps to build an explosive device. He entered guilty pleas at an earlier court hearing, and his sentencing was handed down Monday at South Australia’s District Court.

While the court did not hear a detailed account of why Atkins had the devices in his possession, prosecutors confirmed his intentions were not classified as malicious or terror-related. According to Judge Nicolas Alexandrides, who presided over the sentencing, Atkins told authorities he had acquired the components to build sparkler bombs, which he claimed he believed were comparable to legal consumer fireworks. Judge Alexandrides noted that Atkins had stored the components in his car only after collecting them from a recently vacated rental property, and that he failed to grasp how dangerous the unregulated devices actually were.
“The explanation you provided for possessing these materials is inadequate, and it does nothing to reduce the risk or potential harm that came from keeping them in your vehicle,” the judge stated in his remarks. “While these devices were unlikely to cause death, they were fully capable of inflicting catastrophic permanent injury, including the loss of a hand or arm.”

In total, Atkins was sentenced to 11 months and eight days in prison, with a non-parole period of eight months. Because the sentence was backdated to the date of his arrest on December 23, Atkins has already served the vast majority of his sentence behind bars. He will become eligible for release from custody in just two weeks. The incident triggered a massive emergency response at the time, including the deployment of specialist bomb disposal units and increased police patrols through the Clovelly Park residential area, with the devices found stowed on the passenger seat and inside the driver’s side door compartment. The court also acknowledged that Atkins had been experiencing significant personal hardship in the period leading up to the incident, which contributed to him living out of his vehicle.