armenian highland
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Author(s):  
Aram Kosyan

The cuneiform Hittite texts of the XV-XIV centuries BC contain important information dealing with at least two different population movements happened along the Upper Euphrates region. First of these is fixed in the treaty signed between the Hittite king Tudḫaliyaš II (second part of the XV century BC) and Šunaššura, king of Kizzuwatna. The second migration took place later, during the reign of Tudḫaliyaš III. This second migration is of interest since in that population movement was involved a great number of people from different parts of Asia Minor. The study of several Hittite prayers compiled during the reign of Arnuwandaš I allow to assume that this second migration is definitely connected with continuous famine, hunger, plague and attacks of neighboring countries which could force the population of several regions to migrate first to Išuwa and from there to Ḫayaša.


Author(s):  
Ashot Piliposyan ◽  
Armine Hayrapetyan

The Ancient Near Eastern powerful states in the mid II millennium BC were not only directing and supervising the military-political, trading-economic, and sociocultural processes, but were also trying to obtain their dominance and control in the region. This was the reason that two conflicting groups gradually polarized in the region, where each state, despite its interests concerning the redistribution of spheres of influence in the ancient Near East, had to ally a more convenient political formation, given the current political situation and its capacities. As a result, the Hittite New Kingdom, Arzawa and Wilusa appeared to be in one of the groups, and the New Kingdom of Egypt, Kassite Babylonia and Mitanni were in the other one. The inter-state relations of these powers included both military-political and diplomatic rivalry, and a controlled system of well-organized transit trading and cultural relations. At the same time, each of the groups sought to urge other small early state organizations and tribal unions of the region to get involved in the alliance, contributing to the realization of prospective political plans with their capacities of raw materials, production of specific items and human resources. This was the situation also with the part of the early state organization of the Armenian Highland. Meanwhile, both the written sources and the archaeological excavations in general, testify the anti-Hittite orientation of the early state organizations of the Armenian Highland and their tending towards Egypt-Mitanni-Kassite Babylonia alliance.


Author(s):  
A.Yu. Khudaverdyan ◽  
A.A. Yengibaryan ◽  
R.Sh. Matevosyan ◽  
N.G. Alekhanyan ◽  
A.A. Khachatryan

The paper is concerned with the analysis of osteometrical data from the antique populations of the Armenian Highlands, i.e. anthropological materials of burials dated to the 1st–3rd c. AD. We analyse the differences in an-thropological characteristics between urban and rural population of Armenia in antiquity. In total, 78 individuals of both sexes have been examined using traditional osteological methods. The study involved visual examination of the skeletons, images, descriptions and radiography. For the intergroup comparison, canonical analysis based on the averaged intergroup correlation matrix was used [Deryabin, 1983]. Visually, bones of the villagers appear to be more massive and quite elevated. Men, buried in rural areas differ from those from urban environments in smaller longitudinal dimensions of humerus, radius and ulna, and in larger icircumference of humerus, ulna and femur. Analysis of the data shows that the studied groups carry some features characteristic for populations adapted to high-altitude environments. Intergroup analysis suggests that the closest to the urban male groups would be the Maeotian population from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov. The female part of the urban com-munity is close to the population of the first centuries AD from Gurmiron. Male villagers show similar features to those of Scythians of Ukraine (Scythian Neapolis); villagers are morphologically close to groups of Sarmatian cultures of the Lower Volga Region. Indirectly, this observation confirms the fact of stable, continuous migration flow into the territory of the Armenian Highlands. There is a certain agreement in the differentiation pattern of the ancient Armenian Highland population from the osteometric and craniometrics data. The osteometric data can be a rather important source of information for reconstruction of biological affinities of human populations.


Author(s):  
Е. А. Меkhamadiev ◽  

Greek sources, which tell us about a military-political history of Byzantium in the 7th century, mainly the famous “Chronographia” of Theophanes the Confessor, usually contain little evidence on relations between the Empire and local countries of South Caucasus and Armenian highland. But, having based on the Arabic-speaking historians al-Baladhuri and al-Ya‘qubi, who lived both in the 9th century, and also on the evidence of some little-studied Greek texts, i.e. a letter of Anastasius Apocrisiarius and the works of Theodoros Spoudaios, the author tries to discover a role of the Byzantine army of Armeniakoi within these interrelations. The army, which was located in the provinces of Cappadocia, Paphlagonia and Hellenopontus, was established in the mid-650s. It was predominantly composed of the former bodyguards of powerful Armenian nakharars (chiefs of local Armenian noble families). Time after time, depending on geopolitical situation in the region, a central power of Byzantium moved and located the regular units of the army in Lazika, i.e. within modern West Georgia. Moreover, the author traces that one of the noble Armenian nakharars named Nerseh Kamsarakan, who headed a powerful family of Artsruni, occupied the official office of the strategos of the Armeniakoi by 688. The army commanded by Nerseh Kamsarakan reconquered the princedom of Armenia from the Arabs in 686–688; therefore, as a result, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian II appointed Nerseh Kamsarakan as the Great Prince of Armenian princedom and located regular troops of the army of Armeniakoi on these lands.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 100-109
Author(s):  
Armen Ye. Petrosyan ◽  

In Old Armenian, saws means ‘proud, luxurious, great,’ ‘some (bright) color,’ and saws and sawsi mean ‘oriental plane tree’. The word has no etymology. Hurrian has the word šauša [sausa] ‘big, great’ and the theonym Šauša / Šauška for the local version of the great goddess Ištar. The article undertakes to find a single etymon looking for the clue in comparative mythology. It is known that Anušavan, one of the ancient Armenian mythical patriarchs, was referred to as Sawsanuēr which can be interpreted as “The gift of plane trees” (with a reference to the cult of the plane trees of Armawir, the earliest capital of Armenia). According to mythology, Anushavan’s father and grandfather were related to Šamiram (Greek Semiramis), the queen of the city of Nineveh (capital of Assyria) that is seen as a historicized version of the local goddess Šauš(k)a otherwise called “Ishtar of Nineveh.” The Armenian saws ‘great, magnificent’ quite correlates with this name as a loan from the Hurrian šauša ‘great,’ with a regular apocope. The plane trees were probably symbols of the goddess. Thus, it is natural to assume that the dendronym saws / sawsi (the second form with the Indo-European suffix *-iyā, characteristic of Armenian dendronyms, cf. the genitive plural form sawseac‘) is of Hurrian origin. The first meaning of the Hurrian word ‘great, magnificent’ subsequently turned into theonym and then to the Armenian dendronym, the name of the largest and most luxurious tree in the Armenian Highland and adjacent territories.


2021 ◽  
pp. 226-246
Author(s):  
Benik Vardanyan

An object type characterized as a shoulder strap was found in archaeological sites of the Armenian Highland and the South Caucasus. They served as a strap from which weapons (blade or sword) were mounted. Their purpose was to ensure quick accessibility to the weapon during combats. In ancient societies, shoulder straps symbolized the privileged status of the military aristocracy. The emergence and depiction of the straps on the inventory coincide with a transformation in the social landscape on the one hand and with the early state formation processes on the other hand. Social changes led to the formation of a militarized class of the privileged who, as part of their military uniform, possessed also the shoulder strap. This is evidenced by the multiple images of warrior-predecessors in the form of statuettes-standards and sculptures of the Bronze and Iron Age, as well as on bronze and clay vessels, which show the development of the form and function of the lash.


2021 ◽  
pp. 114-125
Author(s):  
Robert Ghazaryan ◽  
Ruslan Tsakanyan

Sumerian cuneiform texts contain information about ancient Armenia and adjacent countries, although scarce, but at the same time very valuable. According to the mentioned sources, in the III millennium BC in the south of the Armenian Highland, and in adjacent territories, existed the country of Subur/Subir (in Akkadian - Subartu or Shubartu). According to the existing information, in addition to the texts from Fara, the country of Subartu is also mentioned in the inscription of the king Lugal-Anne-Mundu from the Sumerian city of Adab. This is the first time that the Sumerian text cited in the article has been presented in Armenian with Latin transliteration.


2020 ◽  
Vol 173 (1) ◽  
pp. 158-167
Author(s):  
Alla A. Movsesian ◽  
Rusan A. Mkrtchyan ◽  
Hasmik G. Simonyan

Author(s):  
A.Yu. Khudaverdyan ◽  
A.A. Hovhanisyan ◽  
A.A. Yengibaryan ◽  
R.Sh. Matevosyan ◽  
G.G. Qocharyan ◽  
...  

Article is devoted to studying of bone remains from antique burial grounds from the territory of the Armenian Highland. Anthropological materials of burials consist of 322 skeletons and dated I–III c. AD. The article analyzes the differences in anthropological characteristics of urban and rural population of Armenia of Antiquity period. The work is based on classical craniometric and statistical research methods. Artificial cranial deformationare and unintended deformation of a cradle-type found among urban and rural populations. As an intragroup analysis showed, the main differences between male urban and rural population across the size of the width of the frontal bone and face. If the villagers face orthognatic, angle of horizontal profiling at the top level enters the category of averages, in urban women face mezognatik, the angle of horizontal profiling is characterized by small values. Intergroup analysis showed, closest to urban male groups it turned out the tribes of Chernyakhov culture and the population of the Middle East. A male part of the villagers shows intimacy with Scythians of Crimea, Ukraine and Transnistria. The female part of the towns’ people is close with the Scythians of Ukraine and Crim; villagers are morphologically similar to the carriers of the Middle Sarmatian cultures of the Don region, with a population of the first centuries AD from Tanais, European and Asian Bosporus. Morphological analogies with the population of Northern Turkmenistan (Tumek-Kichidzhik), Western Ukraine (Chernyakhov culture), Middle Dnieper and Moldova (Scythians) were also revealed. This circumstance confirms the fact of sustainable, constant migration flow to the territory of the Armenian Highlands.


2019 ◽  
Vol 575 ◽  
pp. 513-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Brittingham ◽  
Zarmandukht Petrosyan ◽  
Joseph C. Hepburn ◽  
Michael P. Richards ◽  
Michael T. Hren ◽  
...  

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