According to the 12th-century historian Vardan Areveltsi, the original name of Van city was Yervandavan.

 According to the 12th-century historian Vardan Areveltsi, the original name of Van city was Yervandavan. Historically, however, the city was first called Tushpa, likely pronounced as Tosp, which later named the surrounding Tosp canton where Van is located. Interestingly, Greek and Roman sources don’t unambiguously mention “Van,” though “Tosp” is well-documented.

Vardan’s claim may have rational roots: a nearby canton was named Yervandunik’ ("land of Yervanduni"), which was also found in the Araratian plain, representing hereditary lands of the Yervanduni dynasty. Tosp thus became their capital, possibly leading to a new name. After Yervanduni’s decline, the city’s name evolved from the local parallel Biaina term (pronounced as Vayn) into Van.

Tosp was the royal city of Biaina dynasty (term used by Grekyan), or better known as Urartu’s rulers. Based on king names the Yervanduni and Biaina dynasties were distinct groups. A power shift from the Biaina to Yervanduni dynasties occurred at some point, though details remain unclear due to a lack of records. Archaeology and paleogenetics in Tosp/Van may eventually clarify this dynastic shift, often mistakenly seen as a transition from Urartu to Armenia

While we are waiting for the publication of new ancient DNA paper about Caucasus with more than 100 samples here are some preliminary remarks.

 While we are waiting for the publication of new ancient DNA paper about Caucasus with more than 100 samples here are some preliminary remarks.

All 6 Y dna from the site Guinchi in Dagestan (Shamil region) are J1. Some with good quality are BY100. Which is the branch popular in northeastern Caucasus.

They are apparently from Kura-Araxes culture period. They have medium level steppe ancestry which they obviously got from the preceding Chalcolithic period.

This further strengthen the theory that Nakh-Dagestani speakers descend from the Kura-Araxes culture that expanded in northeast of Caucasus after the 3500BC. We can say that this is not anymore a theory but a proven fact.

Linguistically the age of Proto-NEC is close to that date. The moderate presence of steppe ancestry also explains why modern Daghestani people have steppe ancestry. This is because they had it from the start.

Nevertheless modern levels of steppe ancestry are twice higher than in Early Bronze Age. Which means that modern Daghestani people got extra steppe ancestry later also. The prime candidate is obviously the Catacomb culture which moved to south Caucasus after the 2500BC. Another source of steppe ancestry are the later Iranic and Turkic nomadic incursions in that region.

Despite this advance still some questions remain unsolved. Nakh branch has less steppe compared to Daghestani people. They are also predominantly J2. Which could mean that Nakh people region had an extra influx from south which plausibly introduced that J2.

The origins of Lezgin branch remains unsolved. Whether they moved from north to south or descend directly from the Kura-Araxes people who survived on the southern slopes of Great Caucasian range is unknown.

We can now say with certitude that Udi people linguistically related to Lezgin group are a genetic outlier in NEC family. They have too much Armenian Highlands farmer related ancestry which they most probably got from Armenians. Given their Christian faith was the same as Armenians.

And finally. Despite the close connection of NEC family with Kura-Araxes there is no evidence that the whole Kura-Araxes horizon was speaking NEC related languages

A list of Assyrian cuneiform texts where the term Muški is mentioned.

 A list of Assyrian cuneiform texts where the term Muški is mentioned. The oldest one is dated at the first quarter of 12th century BC. Hittite empire's last king Šuppiluliuma II ascended to the throne at 1207BC which means that there is virtually no time window for Mushki to start from Balkans, cross the whole Anatolia and reach Alzi region (near Sassun) to be attested by Assyrians. Even skipping the time window issue such a sprint running migration is nonsensical from the economic and political perspective.

In conclusion even without ancient DNA the Muški's original homeland in Balkans was untenable. It's now impossible with the advent of genetics.

The source Karen Radner's review