Origin of the Armenians

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Haik, the legendary ancestor of the Armenians.

The origin of the Armenians is not decisively certain and has been explained by several scholarly theories.

1 Traditional Armenian explanation
2 Contemporary Greek Theories
3 Modern Scholarly Theories
4 References

[edit] Traditional Armenian explanation

The earliest surviving Armenian writings about their own origin explain that the Armenian people are descendants of Japheth, a son of Noah. As Mt. Ararat, which was historically in the kingdom of Armenia, is held to be the site on which Noah's ark landed, his family settled in Armenia, and later moved to Babylon. Haik, a descendant of Japheth who is said to have been the leader of the Armenian people, rebelled against the Babylonians and returned to the lands of Armenia. This legendary account reflects the Christian beliefs of the Armenians after 301 AD, as they favored an explanation of their origins that gave them a prominent place in the history of the Bible.

[edit] Contemporary Greek Theories

Some ancient Greeks believed the Armenians to be descendants of Armenus the Thessalian, one of the argonauts. However, the historian Herodotus wrote that the Armenians originated in Thrace, moved into Phrygia, and finally settled in the lands of Armenia. Strabo wrote that the Armenians were descended from people who migrated from Phrygia in the west and the Zagros region to the south.

[edit] Modern Scholarly Theories

A popular scholarly theory, which was unchallenged until the 1980s, posits that the Armenians were an Indo-European group that migrated with proto-Iranians from the Aral Sea or with Phrygians from the Balkans after the collapse of the Hittite empire. Another recent theory is that the Armenians were among the original inhabitants of the area, given the apparent uniqueness of Armenian in the Indo-European language family and its similarity to the language of the Hurrians, a group of people indigenous to the area. This theory tends to be more popular with Armenian scholars, whereas the theory that the Armenians have origins in Thrace and Phrygia is more accepted among Western scholars.