Update on J1-Z1842 and Kura-Araxes culture.

 Update on J1-Z1842 and Kura-Araxes culture.

The recent Agdzhoyan et al. paper about Dagestani people added some long waited details to the structure of the J1-Z1842 and its distribution.

We learned that beside ZS3114 and CTS1460 there is a third important branch in Z1842, which is very specific to Dagestan. Its ZS3042 which is absent in Armenians and apparently very rare in South Caucasus. In Yfull many Dargins and Kaitags are present in that branch.

Another important information is the branch ZS3114 which is more frequent in Lezgins than other Dagestani people. It has a more southern distribution. In Armenians its found almost exclusively among eastern Armenians. If the language of Lezgi speakers is related to this ZS3114 branch then this can support some linguistic theories making Lezgi-Udi group as the first split in Nakh-Dagestani family.

All this data forces us to rethink the origin of J1-Z1842 and place its locus of differentiation close to Eastern Caucasus range.

However I still dont think that the expansion of Z1842 started from the northeast of Caucasus. There are many arguments against such a theory. But one the most strongest is the autosomes of oldest Z1842 ancient DNA. They all have significantly lower levels of steppe ancestry than Areni cave preceding them. Its very hard to imagine that Z1842 lived for thousand years in the north and did not acquired substantial steppe ancestry.

What this data tell us is another possibility. The branch specific to Dagestan the ZS3042 could have diverged earlier with Chalcolithic culture Sioni - Ginchi (5000-4000bc). Ginchi is a site on north Caucasus with similar pottery as in Sioni (Georgia). As for the parallel CTS1460 which has a great diversity in South Caucasus/Near East and was found in multiple ancient Kura֊Araxes sites is a genuine Kura-Araxes lineage. Its TMRCA in Yfull also more realistically fits to the spread of Kura-Araxes culture.

And finally about the origins of KA culture itself. Recent claims of KA pottery in Chalcolithic levels of Areni, Ovčular tepesi in Nakhichevan and in some sites in Turkey combined with the fact the extra CHG/J1 ancestry in KA samples was from more eastern regions means that the formation of KA culture and its later spread are not necessarily done by the same population. So there must be two distinct KA with probably two distinct autosome profiles.

Alternatively the extra CHG could still be from unsampled forest mountain regions of Lori and Tavush. They could harbor a hunter gatherer (Aknashen like) enclave different from Areni and Shulaveri culture. But even with this scenario the contradiction is not solved.

According Passerini et al. the oldest KA was in lowlands with collective kurgan burials. Only starting from 3300BC highland KA with permanent settlements emerged. This later KA that we can call KA 2 can have a different locus (left side of Kur river?) and population (CHG rich) than the first one. KA 1 in the other side can be more related to Areni type population. This hypothesis obviously require confirmation by ancient DNA

The patriarch Phawos (Փաւոս)

Khorenatsi lists multiple kings/patriarchs for a short period that fits into the end of Urartu and the rise of Orontid (Eruanduni) Armenia. This can be interpreted as an argument for the complexity of that period.

We have already seen one of patriarchs of that period. The Pharnawaz who seems to be a real person related to Parnaki tribe. Another patriarch of that period is Phawos pronounced as P'awos. His name is written in various forms in different texts but the canonic form is Phawos (Փաւոս).

Finding an ancient tribe or person related to him seems impossible. But the more close look on ancient provinces of Armenia gives a remarkable result.

Strabo in his Geography mentions a certain province Phauene in Armenia. Few paragraphs later he mentions Phaunitis between Basoropeda (Vaspurakan) and Caspiane (Paytakaran). 

There is also Phauenê,⁠ a province of Armenia, and Comisenê, and Orchistenê, which last furnishes the most cavalry. Chorzenê and Cambysenê are the most northerly ...

....

(Artaxias and Zariadres) enlarged their kingdoms by cutting off for themselves parts of the surrounding nations, — I mean by cutting off Caspianê and Phaunitis and Basoropeda from the country of the Medes;

If we remove the Greek suffixes usually added to foreign toponyms we get the root Phau/Phaun. This root is virtually identic to the possible root Phaw- in the name of patriarch Phawos. We can deduce that the name of Phawos is derived from an old tribe that lived probably somewhere in Syunik/Artsakh and/or south of Araxes also in the adjacent northern regions of Iran. 

This hypothetic Phaw-os tribe gived his name to that region but overtime the name was lost.  Some scholars has proposed that the name Phauene is preserved in Pharisos of Artsakh (north of Mrav range) while Hewsen suggested that Phaun-itis is a corrupted form Siwnik/Syunik. Both proposals are problematic from linguistic perspective, even though in one manuscript the name of Phawos was written as Pharos.

Keeping aside whether the name survived to medieval period or not, there is another interesting name in ancient texts. The tribe Pausikae was living next of Caspians (Paytakaran) in 11th satrapy according Herodotus.  If we consider -ikae as a Greek suffix or a particle from the language of Pausikae we get the root Paus- in a region where later Strabo mentions Phaun-itis. This is a strong argument that such a tribe lived in that region.

Finally the ultimate origin of Pausikae/Phawos is obviously unknown. Some scholars suggested an Iranian origin for Pausikae based on a vague similarity of name with some Central Asian tribes. If -ik is a suffix from their language then they could be both Armenic and Iranian. And finally if -os was a suffix from their language then this links them to the wider Gutian group where such a suffix is found in names. My own opinion is that Phawos more likely is descending from the R1b tribes present in that region. They became part of wider Armenian identity while some others were probably absorbed in Iranians.

The king Urnayr (Ուռնայր)

 The king Urnayr (Ուռնայր)

Urnayr was an Arsacid king of Albania. Historic tradition claims that he was baptised by Gregory the Illuminator. Another Urnayr was contemporary of king Pap (around 370 AD). However not all scholars agree that there was two different Urnayrs.

Its remarkable that the name Urnayr has a typical Armenian form. Norayr (new man), Hrayr (fire man), Zhirayr (lively/active man) are such examples. Indeed Ačaryan gives an Armenian etymology for Urn-ayr meaning hammer man.

Ironically if we count the proportion of Armenian names among Arsacids ruling Armenia we will have a lower proportion than in Albania. Alongside the toponym Getaru this is another example of a name with transparent Armenian etymology. Prior the genetics it was virtually impossible to understand why we have Armenian terms in Albanian onomastic. But today there is no puzzle about that. Armenians and Proto-Armenians had a long presence all over Kur river basin since Bronze Age, even though its not granted that this particular name has old origins there.