The origin of the Armenians is a topic concerned with 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. The earliest known reference to a geopolitical entity where Armenians originated from is dated to the 13th century BC as Uruatri in Old Assyrian. Historians and Armenologists have speculated about the earlier origin of the Armenian people, but no consensus has been achieved as of yet. 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. Analyses of mitochondrial ancient DNA of skeletons from Armenia spanning 7,800 years, including DNA from Neolithic, Bronze Age, Urartian, classical and medieval Armenian skeletons, have revealed that modern Armenians have the least genetic distance to them compared to neighboring peoples such as Turks and Azerbaijani Turks, but followed closely by Georgians. Armenians are also one of the genetic isolates of West Asia. 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, the complete mitochondrial genomes of 52 ancient skeletons from present-day Armenia 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). PeriodSamplesNeolithic3Chalcolithic1Kura–Araxes6Trialeti–Vanadzor5Lchashen–Metsamor29Urartu4Classical / Medieval4Modern211 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, 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 West Asia, Europe, and the Caucasus.
The genetic landscape in West Asia 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 West Asia, such as Greek Cypriots, Mizrahi Jews, and Middle Eastern Christian communities. This suggests that they may derive from a people who inhabited the West Asia during the Neolithic expansion of West Asian farmers into Europe beginning around 8,000 years ago.
An earlier study from 2011 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.
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.
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, 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 West Asia 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.
Recent genetic and linguistic research has suggested that Armenian, along with Greek and Albanian, are connected to the Yamnaya culture of the Pontic–Caspian steppe and Caucasus, whereas all other existent branches of Indo-European were mediated through Corded Ware culture.
Modern genetic structure West Asia'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. +Most common haplogroups in ArmeniansY-DNA (male)mtDNA (female)R1b1 H J2 U G J J1 HV E1b1b1 T T K I2 N L I R1a X Q1 W R2a R FV AFC
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.J. D. Hawkins. Building Inscriptions of Carchemish: The Long Wall of Sculpture and Great Staircase. Anatolian Studies Vol. 22. British Institute of Ankara. (1972). p. 109. A.E. Redgate. Reviewed Work: The Pre-History of the Armenians by Gabriel Soultanian. Cambridge University Press. (2007). p. 175. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Vol. 70, No. 1 (2007), pp. 175.
Behistun Inscription
The earliest record of what can unambiguously be identified as Armenian dates back to the trilingual Behistun Inscription, authored sometime after 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: +Attestation of "Armenia" and "Armenians" in the Behistun InscriptionOld PersianElamiteBabylonian AkkadianCountryPeopleCountryPeopleCountryPeopleCuneiform𐎠𐎼𐎷𐎡𐎴𐎠𐎼𐎷𐎡𐎴𐎹Transliterationa-r-mi-i-n(a)a-r-mi-i-n-y(a)ḫar-mi-nu-iaḫar-mi-nu-ia-ipKURú-ra-áš-ṭuLUú-ra-áš-ṭa-a-aTranslationArmeniaArmeniansArmeniaArmeniansUrartuUrartians The inscriptions chronicle Darius the Great's battles and conquests during the first Persian Empire. Multiple Armenian people were mentioned in them:
Dadarsi (or Dādṛšiš/Dadrshish), a satrap and commander who served Darius and quelled rebellions, including several in Armenia. Arakha (or Araḫa), 126th king of Babylon who rebelled against Darius (he claimed to be Nebuchadnezzar IV son of Nabonidus). Khaldita (or Ḫaldita), the supposed biological father of Arakha. Various other unnamed Armenian rebels, hosts, armies, and leaders who rejected Darius' authority in Armenia.
In the Babylonian Akkadian version, these people are referred to as Urartians.
Hecataeus The earliest known attestation in the Greek language is from a fragment attributed to Greek historian Hecataeus of Miletus, which in some sources is dated to prior to the Behistun Inscription. In it, he mentions the Chalybes people in Pontus, past the Thermōdōn River, with Armenians as their southern neighbors:
Xerxes I Xerxes I was king of Achaemenid Persia following the reign of his father, Darius the Great, who authored the Behistun Inscription. Xerxes authored an inscription in the Achaemenid province of Armenia sometime between 486 and 465 BC, located in modern-day Van, Turkey. The inscription is also written three languages — in Old Persian, Elamite, and in the Babylonian dialect of Akkadian — and is the last known encounter of the name Urartu/Urashtu in reference to the Armenia.
Herodotus Herodotus mentions the Armenian people multiple times in his book The Histories:Herodotus also lists the ethnic groups in the Persian army, and claims that Armenians are settlers from Phrygia. However, this is an etiological tag added by the ethnographer responsible for the list who felt an obligation to explain where each of the ethnic groups came from — the ancient Armenians themselves seem to have no knowledge of their ancestors' migration from Phrygia.
This passage has often been cited to explain the origin of the Armenians and the introduction of the Proto-Armenian language into the South Caucasus region. However, the latest studies in linguistics show that the Armenian language is as close to Indo-Iranian as it is to Graeco-Phrygian. Additionally, archaeological research does not indicate a movement of people from Europe into Armenia, nor do the latest studies in genetics, with the latest study rejecting the narrative altogether.
Xenophon