Origin Of Armenians
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Study Backs 5th-Century Historian's Date for Founding of Armenia
By NICHOLAS WADE March 10, 2015 NY Times
Movses Khorenatsi, a historian in the fifth century, wrote that his native
Armenia had been established in 2492 B.C., a date usually regarded as
legendary though he claimed to have traveled to Babylon and consulted
ancient records. But either he made a lucky guess or he really did gain
access to useful data, because a new genomic analysis suggests that his
date is entirely plausible.
Geneticists have scanned the genomes of 173 Armenians from Armenia and Lebanon and compared them with those of 78 other populations from around the world. They found that the Armenians are a mix of ancient populations whose descendants now live in Sardinia, Central Asia and several other regions. This formative mixture occurred from 3000 to 2000 B.C., the geneticists calculated, coincident with Movses Khorenatsi's date for the founding of Armenia.
Toward the end of the Bronze Age, when the mixture was in process, there was considerable movement of peoples brought about by increased trade, warfare and population growth. After 1200 B.C., the Bronze Age civilizations of the eastern Mediterranean suddenly collapsed, an event that seems to have brought about the isolation of Armenians from other populations. No significant mixing with other peoples after that date can be detected in the genomes of living Armenians, the geneticists said.
The isolation was probably sustained by the many characteristic aspects of Armenian culture. Armenians have a distinctive language and alphabet, and the Armenian Apostolic Church was the first branch of Christianity to become established as a state religion, in A.D. 301, anticipating that by the Roman empire in A.D. 380.
The researchers also see a signal of genetic divergence that developed about 500 years ago between western and eastern Armenians. The date corresponds to the onset of wars between the Ottoman and Safavid dynasties and the division of the Armenian population between the Turkish and Persian empires.
`This DNA study confirms in general outline much of what we know about Armenian history,' said Hovann Simonian, a historian of Armenia affiliated with the University of Southern California.
The geneticists' team, led by Marc Haber and Chris Tyler-Smith of the Sanger Institute, near Cambridge in England, see long-isolated populations like that of the Armenians as a means of reconstructing population history.
Armenians share 29 percent of their DNA ancestry with Otzi, a man whose 5,300-year-old mummy emerged in 1991 from a melting Alpine glacier. Other genetically isolated populations of the Near East, like Cypriots, Sephardic Jews and Lebanese Christians, also share a lot of ancestry with the Iceman, whereas other Near Easterners, like Turks, Syrians and Palestinians, share less. This indicates that the Armenians and other isolated populations are closer than present-day inhabitants of the Near East to the Neolithic farmers who brought agriculture to Europe about 8,000 years ago.
The geneticists' paper [1] was posted last month on bioRxiv[2], a digital library for publishing scientific articles before they appear in journals. Dr. Tyler-Smith, the senior author of the genetics team, said he could not discuss their results for fear of jeopardizing publication in a journal that he did not name.
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Ancient Origin of Armenians
People have inhabited the Armenian Highlands since the Stone Age. The earliest possible record identified with Armenians, is from Armenic Sumerian records from around 2700 BC, in which the Armenians are referred to as the sons of Haya, after the regional god of the Armenian Highlands. Another early record from Akkadian inscriptions dated to 2300 BC, which mentions Armani together with Ibla, as territories conquered by Naram-Sin. Thutmose III of Egypt, also mentions the people of Ermenen in 1446 BC, and says in their land "heaven rests upon its four pillars" (Thutmose was the first Pharoah to cross the Euphrates to reach the Armenian Highlands).[1] Even to this day Kurds and Turks refer to Armenians by Ermeni. The first major state in the region was the kingdom of Ararat, which appeared around Lake Van in the thirteenth century B.C. and reached its peak in the ninth century B.C.
Movses Khorenatsi
Hayk Nahapet (Armenian: Հայկ; also known as Haig; transliterated as Haik) is the legendary patriarch and founder of the Armenian nation. He is said to have settled at the foot of Mount Ararat, traveled to assist in building the Tower of Babel, and, after his return, defeated the Babylonian king Bel (believed by some researchers to be Nimrod) on August 11, 2492 BC (Navasard) near the mountains of Lake Van, in the southwestern part of historic Armenia (present-day eastern Turkey). His story is told in the History of Armenia attributed to the Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi (410 to 490 AD).
Etymology
The name of the patriarch, Հայկ Hayk is the Armenian name for "Armenia". Հայք Hayk’ is the nominative plural in Classical Armenian of հայ (hay), the Armenian term for "Armenian." Hayk is connected to hay (հայ) and hayer (հայեր, the nominative plural in Modern Armenian), the self-designation of the Armenians.
Hayk would then be an aitiological founding figure, like e.g. Asshur for the Assyrians, Indra for the Indians, etc. One of Hayk's most famous scions, Aram, settled in Eastern Armenia from the Mitanni kingdom (Western Armenia), when Sargon II mentions a king of part of Armenia who bore the (Armenian-Indo-Iranian) name Bagatadi ("Theodore").
A connection was made in Armenian historiography of the Soviet era, with Hayasa mentioned in Hittite inscriptions.
The Armenian word haykakan (Armenian: հայկական, meaning "that which pertains to Armenians") finds its stem in this progenitor.
the name Hay -- pronounced HIGH, the name that the Armenian people call themselves after their deity of the Divine Essence, it is interesting to note here that the only ancient people, besides the Armenians, that called Armenians -- Hay[asa], were the Hittites, it is highly probable that the Indo-European Hittites were also Armenian in origin
Genealogy
Movses gave Hayk's genealogy as follows: Japhet, Gomer & Tiras, Torgom, Hayk, and his descendants as Armanak, Aramais, Amasya, Gegham, Harma, Aram and Ara Geghetsik. Hayk was also the founder of the Haykazuni Dynasty. Some of the prominent Armenian royal houses such as the Bagratuni, Khorkhoruni, Bznuni, Syuni, Vahevuni, Manavazian, Arran among others, had traced their genealogy to Hayk Nahapet. According to Juansher Hayk "..was prince of the seven brothers and stood in service to the giant Nimrod (Nebrovt') who first ruled the entire world as king."
Hayk and King Bel
In Movses Khorenatsi's account, Hayk son of Torgom had a child named Armanak while he was living in Babylon. After the arrogant Titanid Bel made himself king over all, Hayk emigrated to the region near Mount Ararat with an extended household of at least 300 and settled there, founding a village he named Haykashen. On the way he had left a detachment in another settlement with his grandson Kadmos. Bel sent one of his sons to entreat him to return, but was refused. Bel decided to march against him with a massive force, but Hayk was warned ahead of time by Kadmos of his pending approach. He assembled his own army along the shore of Lake Van and told them that they must defeat and kill Bel, or die trying to do so, rather than become his slaves. In his writings Movses states that:
“Hayk was a handsome, friendly man, with curly hair, sparkling eyes, and strong arms. He was a man of giant stature, a mighty archer and fearless warrior. Hayk and his people, from the time of their forefathers Noah and Japheth, had migrated south toward the warmer lands near Babylon. In that land there ruled a wicked giant, Bel. Bel tried to impose his tyranny upon Hayk’s people. But proud Hayk refused to submit to Bel. As soon as his son Aramaneak was born, Hayk rose up, and led his people back to the land of his forefathers, the land of Ararat. At the foot of the mountains, he built his home, Haykashen.”
The Battle of Giants and Defeat of Bel
Hayk defeats Bel with an arrow
Hayk and his men soon discovered Bel's army positioned in a mountain pass (Moses of Chorene located the site as Dastakert), with the king in the vanguard.
At Dyutsaznamart (Armenian: Դյուցազնամարտ, "Battle of Giants"), near Julamerk southeast of Lake Van, on August 11, 2492 BC (according to the Armenian traditional chronology) or 2107 BC (according to "The Chronological table" of Mikael Chamchian), Hayk slew Bel with a nearly impossible shot using a long bow, sending the king's forces into disarray.
The hill where Bel with his warriors fell, Hayk named Gerezmank meaning "tombs". He embalmed the corpse of Bel and ordered it to be taken to Hark where it was to be buried in a high place in the view of the wives and sons of the king.
Soon after, Hayk established the fortress of Haykaberd at the battle site and the town of Haykashen in the Armenian province of Taron (modern-day Turkey). He named the region of the battle Hayk, and the site of the battle Hayots Dzor.
Comparative mythology
Further information: culture hero
The figure slain by Hayk's arrow is variously given as Bel or Nimrod. Hayk is also the name of the Orion constellation in the Armenian translation of the Bible. Hayk is identified with the Sun-God Orion. Just as Hayk fled from Babylon because of Bel, whom he eventually killed, so Zeus had escaped to the mountains of the Caucasus, later to return to Sicily and hurl fatal arrows into the bodies of his titanic foes.
Khorenatsi’s theory that the Armenians descended from Torgom (Togarmah) is consistent and derived from, Biblical references to the House of Togarmah, a land known for its horses in the extreme north. Armenia would have been the north hinterlands for the Mesopotamian world of the Old Testament, and the Armenian Highlands were renowned for horse breeding and horsemanship throughout ancient times. [2]
Quotes
"The original Armenians must have been very adventurous. Their brothers, i.e. the other Indo-European tribes, went towards north or south, towards more fertile areas in Europe and India, while some decided to stay in Persia. But these Armenians went even further, in the heart of these impassable mountain regions and climbed as high as they could.” [3]
"The Hurrians had a history of their own. Assyrian and Sumerian sources dating from the end of the third millenium B.C. supply our first information about this nation, people, and the land of Hurri, South of Caucasus. We also know that they come from the region of Lake Van in Eastern Anatolia, and are referred to as Horrittes by the Bible. Still, later in the ninth-seventh centuries N.C. the highland of Armenia were inhabited by a people who were related to the Hurrians and whose country bore the name Urartu, the Biblical Ararat" [4]
