Origin of the Armenians

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The origin of the Armenians is a topic about the emergence of the Armenian people and the country called Armenia. The earliest universally accepted reference to the people and the country dates back to the 6th century BC Behistun Inscription, followed by several Greek fragments and books.^[1] The earliest known reference to a geopolitical entity where Armenians originated from is dated to the 13th century BC as Uruatri in Old Assyrian.^[2] Historians and Armenologists have speculated about the earlier origin of the Armenian people, but no consensus has been achieved as of yet. Linguistically, Armenians have been speaking an Indo-European language for as long as it has been attested since the 5th century AD, and genetic studies show that Armenian people are indigenous to historical Armenia, showing little to no signs of admixture since around the 13th century BC.

Genetic origins[]

Recent studies have shown that Armenians are indigenous to the Armenian Highlands and form a distinct genetic isolate in the region.^[3] Analyses of mitochondrial ancient DNA of skeletons from Armenia and Artsakh spanning 7,800 years, including DNA from Neolithic, Bronze Age, Urartian, classical and medieval Armenian skeletons,^[4] have revealed that modern Armenians have the least genetic distance to them compared to neighbouring peoples. Armenians are also one of the genetic isolates of the Near East who share affinity with the Neolithic farmers who expanded into Europe beginning around 8,000 years ago. There are signs of considerable genetic admixture in Armenians between 3000 BC and 2000 BC but they subside to insignificant levels since 1200 BC, remaining stable until today.

Analysis of ancient DNA[]

In a study published in 2017,^[4] the complete mitochondrial genomes of 52 ancient skeletons from present-day Armenia and Artsakh spanning 7,800 years were analyzed and combined with 206 mitochondrial genomes of modern Armenians and previously published data of seven neighboring populations (482 people).

Coalescence-based analyses suggest that the population size in the region rapidly increased after the Last Glacial Maximum around 18,000 years ago. During the Bronze and Iron ages, many complex societies emerged from distinctive cultures such as Kura-Araxes, Trialeti-Vanadzor, Sevan-Artsakh, Karmir-Berd, Karmir-Vank, Lchashen-Metsamor, and Urartian. No changes in the female gene pool could be documented, supporting a cultural diffusion model in the region (the spread of cultural items—such as ideas, styles, religions, technologies, languages—between individuals, whether within a single culture or from one culture to another).

The study sampled 44 ancient human skeletons according to established aDNA guidelines from a total of 19 archaeological sites in Armenia and Artsakh. Based on contextual dating of artifacts, their ages are estimated to be between 300 and 7,800 years old, which covers seven well-defined cultural transitions.

The study shows that modern Armenians have the lowest genetic distance between the ancient individuals in this dataset—followed closely by Georgians—compared to other populations such as Turks, Persians, and Azerbaijanis.

Affinity with Neolithic farmers[]

According to a study published in 2015,^[5] in which a genome-wide variation in 173 Armenians was analyzed and compared to 78 other worldwide populations, Armenians form a distinct genetic cluster linking the Near East, Europe, and the Caucasus.

The genetic landscape in the Near East had more affinity to Neolithic Europe than the present populations do. Armenians seem to share a similar affinity to those Neolithic farmers as do other genetic isolates in the Near East, such as Greek Cypriots, Mizrahi Jews, and Middle Eastern Christian communities. Twenty-nine percent (29%) of Armenian ancestry seems to originate from an ancestral population that is best represented by Neolithic Europeans. This suggests that they may derive from a people who inhabited the Near East during the Neolithic expansion of Near Eastern farmers into Europe beginning around 8,000 years ago.

An earlier study from 2011^[6] has also shown a prevalence of Neolithic paternal chromosomes associated with the Agricultural Revolution. Collectively, they constitute 77% of the observed paternal lineages in the Armenian Plateau – 58% in Sason and an average of 84% in Ararat Valley, Gardman and Lake Van.

Admixture during the Bronze Age[]

Bronze Age demographic processes had a major impact on the genetics of populations in the Armenian Highlands. Armenians appear to originate from a mixture of diverse populations occurring from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. This period coincides with the Kura-Araxes culture, the appearance of Hittites in Anatolia, major population migrations after the domestication of the horse, and the appearance of chariots. It also coincides with the legendary foundation of the Armenian nation in 2492 BC. According to the A genetic atlas of human admixture history published by Hellenthal et al. in 2014, admixture is not inferred or is uncertain.^[7]

Up until recently, it was hypothesized that the Armenian people migrated from the Balkans into the Armenian Highlands, based on a passage by Herodotus in the 5th century BC claiming a kinship between Armenians and Phrygians. However, the results of a 2020 study on Armenian genetics "strongly reject" this long-standing narrative, and shows that Armenians are genetically distinct from the ancient populations of the Balkans.^[8]

As was concluded in earlier studies, the 2020 study reaffirms the pattern of genetic affinity between modern Armenians and the ancient inhabitants of the Armenian Highlands since the Chalcolithic. It reveals a "strikingly high" level of regional genetic continuity for over 6,000 years with only one detectable input from a mysterious Sardinian-like people during or just after the middle to late Bronze Age. Modern Sardinians, having the highest genetic affinity to early European farmers who migrated into Europe from Anatolia and introduced farming around 8,000 years ago,^[9] have 38–44% of ancestry from an Iranian, Steppe, and North-African-related source. However, no detectable signs of input from sources similar to Anatolian farmers or Iranians were detected that may have altered the gene pool of the population of the Armenian Highlands. The input plausibly came by northwards migrations from the Middle East rather than the isolated island of Sardinia, but no conclusions have been made about the identity of the migrating peoples as of yet, nor whether the cause was cultural or climatic.

Starting from around 1200 BC, during the Late Bronze Age collapse, around the time when the Nairi tribal confederation and Urartu begin appearing in historical records, signs of admixture decrease to insignificant levels until today. It seems that widespread destruction and abandonment of major cities and trade routes caused the Armenians' isolation from their surroundings, and their adoption of a distinct culture and identity early on in their history genetically isolated them from major admixture throughout the following millennia.

Modern genetic structure[]

The Near East's genetic landscape appears to have been continuously changing since the Bronze Age. There is a sub-Saharan African gene flow around 850 years ago in Syrians, Palestinians, and Jordanians consistent with previous reports of recent gene flow from Africans to Levantine populations after the Arab expansions. There is also an East Asian ancestry in Turks from admixture occurring around 800 years ago coinciding with the arrival of the Seljuk Turks to Anatolia from their homelands near the Aral sea. The introduction of these populations doesn't seem to have affected Armenians significantly. Around 500 years ago, a genetic structure within the population appears to have developed, which coincides with a period when the Armenian people were divided between the Ottoman Empire and the successive Iranian empires.

Earliest attestations[]

Armenia and the Armenians were attested multiple times at the end of the Iron Age and the onset of Classical Antiquity.

Possible mention in Luwian inscriptions[]

Armenians (as "Hai") were possibly mentioned in the 10th century BC Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions from Carchemish.^[12][13]

Behistun Inscription[]

An Armenian tribute bearer (Behistun Inscription)

The earliest record of what can unambiguously be identified as Armenian dates back to the trilingual Behistun Inscription,^[14] authored sometime after c. 522 BC, in reference to a country and the people associated with it. The following table breaks down the attestation in the three languages it was written in: