Touring Turkey / Van:

"... it was our first time visiting that Urartian city (9th century BC). We were walking all the way up to the altar where the king used to accept donations... beautiful view... overlooking at the entire valley.
There was this spot - like an openning, we stopped to rest a little bit, each of us trying to find a place to sit on the ground. We heard a sound... like a pufff... a crack... something was broken. A friend, without noticing, stepped on a pottery cup covered by eath, broke it by mistake. We found seeds in the cup which made our hands dirty, made jokes about the seeds and threw them back again.
Many years later, finally realizing what we did, I was back at the same location.... The 3000 years old pottery cup, along with 30-40 others unearthened, was still at its original place. The seeds, however, were gone... wheat seeds, 3000 years old !
I still wash my hands, dirty, dirty... they are ..."

" ... Recently, we learned that those pottery cups, in fact, are not 3000 years but they are 7000 years old.
The location we visited was the storage of the city... and here, you find first examples of organized agriculture under the control of a local authority ... "

The city mentioned in the paragraphs above is Tushba (Tushpa); the capital city of Urartian Kingdom from 9th century to 7th century BC.

Tushba today, is just side by side with Van. Around Van, there are many other ancient ruins related with Urartians... where ever you go or dig, you find something about Urartians.
On the way up to Van (Tushba) Castle, there is an inscription that is still visible today, stating that those huge blocks of stones of 30-40 tons where brought from a mine 12 miles away from the castle.

These are the people who ruled this land for only 200 years and yet, obviously, they were the greatest constructors of their times.