In the mid-9th century BC, one of the most powerful states of the Ancient Near East, known as Urartu from Assyrian inscriptions, came down to the historic scene in the Armenian Highland. The Urartians called their country Biainili. It is mentioned as the Araratian Kingdom in the Bible.

Artefacts found, bear witness to a highly developed civilization of ancient Eastern type with a solid state system, literature, original ritual-religious system, prospering towns, crafts and arts. Urartu collapsed in the struggle against the Medians, Babylonians and Scythians in 585 BC. After the decline of the Urartian statehood, the kingdom of the Armenian Yervandids (Orontids) was formed on the same territory.