Urartian Walls, Pasargadae's Throne Hill & Hampi's Nub Patterns with Santo Bartez — Part 3 of 7 | Classics Rotation

Nikkiana Jones, Exploring the Fringe · Oct 10, 2026 · 18m

Santo Bartez takes the host from Armenia to Iran and India, showing nubs on rough walls built from older precision blocks, on a huge unfinished platform near the tomb of Cyrus the Great, and in patterned rows on a Hampi temple. If you want the site-by-site part of the conversation, this is where he argues that the nub idea survived as it passed between builders.

At the hilltop fortress Santo calls Teishebaini in Armenia, tied to the Urartian kingdom and dated to about 650 BC, he describes crude polygonal walls that still keep their nubs, and blocks with sharp right-angle cuts that he believes…