Cavustepe, Van Province (Turkey) (AFP) – Mehmet Kusman did not spend very long at school, but he traced the ancient inscriptions chiselled into the black basalt rock and read: "Before me there was nothing. But by the power of the god Haldi I founded this city."
Kusman, 86, has dedicated his life to the fortress of Cavustepe in eastern Turkey, and to learning the language of the vanished kingdom of Urartu, to honour its forgotten gods and rulers.Brisk of step and sharp of mind despite his years and the hot winds that whip the castle, he stood at the foundations of a temple dedicated to Haldi, the warrior god of gods. Kusman wore a cap bought in Los Angeles on which he has written "USA 2009" in the cuneiform script typical of the region's ancient civilisations.Kusman was hired as a labourer on the Cavustepe excavations after his military service in the 1960s and there encountered his first stele."The inscription was very beautiful," he told AFP. But the head of the dig discouraged him from learning this "very difficult" script, which borrowed its cuneiform alphabet from Assyrian.
Mehmet Kusman guides tourists around the ancient Urartu fortress of Cavustepe near Van in eastern Turkey © Ozan KOSE / AFP
