Was Ḫaldi the Triumph Fire God of the Urartians?

Fire held a special place and enjoyed respect and holiness among ancient people. We can trace the holiness of fire among various ancient nations, but this is less-studied in the case of Urartians. Usually there was a deity with the function of “Fire Deity” among ancient people, but this is not the case for Urartians. This is strange, as Urartians lived in a cold environment and therefore one can safely assume that fire must have had significant importance for them.There is no explicit reference regarding the importance of fire or a specific Fire Deity in Urartian royal inscriptions, but it is possible to trace the function of the Fire Deity in Urartian texts with respect to the most important Urartian god Ḫaldi.This paper is an attempt to study some pieces of evidence, such as a depiction of Ḫaldi on a shield from the archaeological site of Anzaf and fireplaces at the site of Ayanis to show that a fire was lit for Ḫaldi and this could be called the “Triumph Fire”. Also Ḫaldi, himself, may have been the Fire Deity and had the characteristics of the Triumph Fire such as ever-burning, relation with Triumph God, burning in temples and maybe even in demanding sacrifice and offerings.