Uruatri ( other proposed variants Uruarti ) is mentioned for the first time circa 1275bc during the Shalmaneser's campaign toward lake Van.

 Uruatri ( other proposed variants Uruarti ) is mentioned for the first time circa 1275bc during the Shalmaneser's campaign toward lake Van.

According the Bryce's Routledge handbook Uruatri was a geographic term denoting eight lands in lake Van bassein with dozens of cities.

In this list, two of terms were probably mentioned in Hittite texts as lands being part of Azzi. It is Himua and Uatgun. If true that is quite remarkable. [link in the comments]

Another term Zingun has been proposed to be linked with Urartian Ziuquni. Which was in lake Van bassein also. And another land called Luha looks intriguingly close to city Luhiuni that was in land Erkua around mount Ararat.

Another interesting thing is that at last four lands end with -gun. Was this a real suffix or just a corrupted form of Urartian -kuni/-quni like in Ziuquni?

Unfortunately no personal names are mentioned.

The most interesting thing is that three centuries later Urartians themselves never used the term Urartu even when they were writing about their country in Assyrian. They were using terms Biaina, Nairi and at two occasion they used KUR URI to mention their land.

Here an important question emerges. If Urartian never used the term Uruatri/Urartu who was using them? Who coined it? 

And why Assyrians decided to differentiate Uruatri/Urartu from other Nairi lands despite the fact that Urartian themselves were feeling themselves as part of Nairi.

 Maybe Assyrians noticed an ethnic difference from Nairians. Or maybe not.

 Any idea?

#Urartu

I updated the story of R1b-V1636

 I updated the story of R1b-V1636. This lineage along side of small number J1-s was almost certainly involved in the introduction of Caucasian genes in to Eneolithic Steppe reaching Volga region. Before Khvalynsk and Sredni Stog the Caucasian shift was absent from Steppe while in EBA the homogenized Caucasian shift became the main signature of Yamna and CWC.

Offcourse the data is still insufficient to make definitive judgements about the PIE homeland but wherever it was it couldn't be very far from Caucasus. At last if we rely on those Steppic migrations.

From linguistic point of view this situation nicely supports the Ranko Matasovic's paper.

----

Areal Typology of Proto-Indo-European: The Case for Caucasian Connections

Abstract

This paper re-examines the evidence for early contacts between Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and the languages of the Caucasus. Although we were not able to find certain proofs of lexical borrowing between PIE and North Caucasian, there are a few undeniable areal-typological parallels in phonology and grammar. Some features generally attributed to PIE are not found in the majority of languages of North and Northeastern Eurasia, while they are common, or universally present, in the languages of the Caucasus (especially North Caucasus). Those features include the high consonant-to-vowel ratio, tonal accent, number suppletion in personal pronouns, the presence of gender and the morphological optative and, possibly, the presence of glottalized consonants and ergativity.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-968X.2012.01309.x

Few comments on this maps.

Few comments on this maps. 

The author of this maps Guido Garducci has no single peer reviewed paper. More ever I couldn't find any paper authored by him the last time I checked this subject.

So most of his claims should be taken with caution.

Nevertheless he decided to write a book on Iron Age pottery in historic Armenia. And proposed a name Nairi ware.

What he calls "Nairi ware" is usually labeled "grooved ware" in academic papers. 

The grooved ware spread all over historic Armenia immediately after the late Bronze Collapse in 1200 bc. In many places grooved ware people created new settlements. 

 Scholars usually place the origin of this type pottery in the East or North of historic Armenia, were more older specimens of grooved ware are found.

Veli Sevin linked it with Mushki specifically mentioning that it was an IE tribe. The timing is very good for Mushki theory. Graducci is also mentioning Mushki in relation to grooved ware.

Despite this Sevin's opinion was criticized for giving exclusivity to IE Mushkis and an alternative theory was proposed that it was Uruatri people pottery. This theory also has good timing but has other problems because Uruatri was initially a small polity. Interestingly the grooved ware was present in Urartu but the distinctive Urartian red elite pottery is not directly related to it. 

And finally it must be noted that Lchashen culture was relying on grooved ware at last since 1500 bc till the arrival of Urartu at 800 bc. Here the link of ethnicity with a pottery is very secure.

 So finally who were those people spreading the groove ware at Early Iron Age (1200bc) all over historic Armenia? 

Almost certainly not the Nairi because the term Nairi is mentioned before the 1200 bc. But offcourse they settled in the lands of Nairi also and became part of it.

In other peripheral regions also the grooved ware people were assimilated by the neighbouring Luwian , Semitic cultures.

The life in Middle Bronze Age Armenia portrayed on a goblet.

 The life in Middle Bronze Age Armenia portrayed on a goblet. According Pavel Avetisyan it is during this period that we see the first apparition of such concepts as kings and states on the territory of modern Armenia.

Prior that we see mostly feminine figurines (mother goddess?) from Kur-Araxian layers.

More details about the silver goblet from Karashamb.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goblet_(22nd_-_21st_centuries_BC,_Karashamb)

Similar goblet was found also from Trialeti , Georgia. See the comment.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=854454654741605&id=439331399587268

Saspeirs or Syspiritis. Two similar terms with different evolution.

Saspeirs and Syspiritis from Greek sources are frequently linked with historic Sper ( modern town Ispir in Erzerum province ). However the scrupulous analysis of ancient texts shows that the two terms can't have the same location.

The location of Saspeir/Saspiri is described as  a placed between Colchians and Medes by Herodotus, who by the way is the  only source who use that form. Based on that location it is virtually impossible to imagine a location in modern Ispir for Saspeir. In another post where we provide multiple arguments for a theory which places Saspeir in eastern Georgia and possibly the origin of the term Iberia. The intermediate terms attested between Saspeir and Iberia are the Sapirs and Apeirs.

While Syspiritis location is explicitly mentioned near the Acilisene (modern Erzincan) which means that its connection with Sper/Ispir is secure. 

The transformation of Syspiratis to Sper requires an explanation. 

One explanation to this shift is based on the idea that the initial sy/su- is a some kind Kartvelian plurial prefix. However the known Georgian suffix is sa- and not su-

Well there can be another explanation to this shift. The Armenian language transformed the IE sibilants *s to h and then removed most of them.  This is not specific to Armenian but has occurred in Greek and Iranian languages also. For example the European number six became hex in Greek while the Sanskrit sauma ( a drink ) became hauma in Iranian. In Iranian there was also secondary tendency to transform s into x.

 Based on known phonetic shifts the term Syspir will sound in Armenian something like susper then will shift into husper. The second [s] will not become a [h] because it had consonant like p ( also t ) after him. This is a well known rule in Armenian.

 But this form husper also will not last long and the initial hu- will drop and only Sper will remain. This dropping of initial laryngeals h is also well known.

 Is there an evidence to prove this theory? Well there is. Strabo mentions a place known as Hyspiratis. Scholars believe that it is the same as the Syspiritis (=Sper). So why would Strabo use two different forms to denote a same place in the same text. Maybe he made an error. But maybe not. The difference between two mentions is the date. Syspiritis is mentioned when discussing old Jason's Argonauts period while the form Hyspiratis is mentioned in the younger context of Alexander Macedonian conquests. In most likelihood between this periods local Armenian speakers had transformed the term into Husper which is reflected in the Strabo's texts.

 

PS I discussed this subject with Martirosyan and he concurred with the plausibility of this theory. In fact it was suggested by him also. Simply I wasn't aware of that.

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239%3Abook%3D11%3Achapter%3D14#note14

You may wonder what kind of material culture Ṣiluquni (modern Syunik) and partly Urtekhi had in Iron Age ( 1200-500 bc ).

 You may wonder what kind of material culture Ṣiluquni (modern Syunik) and partly Urtekhi had in Iron Age ( 1200-500 bc ). 

Here are the artefacts from Keren site ( near Kapan ) in Artsakh republic. Today this site is under Azerbaijani control.

Those artefacts are quite distinct. Not similar to anything we had from other parts of Armenia. 

It would be interesting to compare them to Khojaly site's. But I have no enough knowledge on this subject.

Armen Petrosyan has more Armenian etymologies from Etiuni onomastics

 Armen Petrosyan has more Armenian etymologies from Etiuni onomastics. Notice Urartians were in most likelihood omitting the laryngeal [h]. 

Toponyms

Išteluani is equal to medieval Astelan. Where the root Astel is from the word star (աստղ). Native Armenian root.

Apuni is compared to historic Hawnuni, where the root Hawn can have two different Armenian etymologies. One meaning bird the other grandfather.

Erkua or Erikua is compared to Armenian word two (երկու) which is the same meaning as later attested Masis.

He also proposes Armenian  etymologies for the Abiliani ( historic Abelean ) , Uelikuni ( historic Gelakuni ) and the name for river Hrazdan attested as Ildarunia

Personal names

Qapurini is compared to old Armenian word kap'ur meaning great. Origin uncertain.

Nidini is compared to the word net meaning arrow. 

He discuss the Aluani where the root Alu means good , kind , nice in old Armenian . And it is still used in western Armenian frequently in the form aluor/alvor. Pronounced as aghvor.

He discuss off course Diucini. And the son of Saka (Sagaputara in Salvini ) which is not an Armenian name strictu sensu but goes in line with Khorenatsi reports. Other possible names Cinalib, Tata, Murini.

Theonyms 

Aniqu is a goddess of Aza land in Etiuni. It can be compared to Armenian term han meaning grandmother. With extra diminutive suffix.

#Etiuni

https://www.academia.edu/35086087/%D4%B7%D5%A9%D5%AB%D5%B8%D6%82%D5%B6%D5%AB%D5%B6_%D5%B0%D5%A1%D5%B5%D5%B8%D6%81_%D6%85%D6%80%D6%80%D5%A1%D5%B6_%D4%B3%D5%AB%D5%BF%D5%A1%D5%AF%D5%A1%D5%B6_%D5%B0%D5%B8%D5%A4%D5%BE%D5%A1%D5%AE%D5%B6%D5%A5%D6%80%D5%AB_%D5%AA%D5%B8%D5%B2%D5%B8%D5%BE%D5%A1%D5%AE%D5%B8%D6%82_%D5%B6%D5%BE%D5%AB%D6%80%D5%BE%D5%A1%D5%AE_%D4%B3%D6%80%D5%AB%D5%A3%D5%B8%D6%80_%D5%82%D5%A1%D6%83%D5%A1%D5%B6%D6%81%D5%B5%D5%A1%D5%B6%D5%AB_%D5%AE%D5%B6%D5%B6%D5%A4%D5%B5%D5%A1%D5%B6_130_%D5%A1%D5%B4%D5%B5%D5%A1%D5%AF%D5%AB%D5%B6_%D4%B5%D6%80%D5%A5%D6%82%D5%A1%D5%B6_2018_%D5%A7%D5%BB_299_330_Etiuni_cradle_of_Armenians