An Urartian Belt in the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Origins of the Parthian Shot

Abstract

This article discusses three joining fragments of an Urartian bronze belt in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, an outlier in the museum’s predominantly Greco-Roman holdings. Based on its composition and style, the belt probably dates to the second half of the eighth century bce. The iconography includes images of the “Parthian shot,” in which a mounted archer turns in the saddle to fire behind him. Although associated with the Parthians (ca. 247 bce–224 CE), it is clear that this tactic originated in Urartu in the ninth century BCE and was depicted in Assyrian, Urartian, Phoenician, Greek, and Persian art prior to the foundation of the Parthian Empire.