Remarks on Eriahi

 Remarks on Eriahi

Some names attested in Etiuni can be found in later Armenian sources. Well known examples are the Welikuni/Welikuhi and Silukuni known in Armenian as Gelakuni and Cluk ( Ծղուկ) with regular w>g shift.

But instead Eriahi we find Shirak, which in most likelihood is a later Arsacid era term. Since Kapantsian theories has been proposed that Eriahi could be of Indo-Iranian origin based on their name similarity to Aria. However ancient DNA from Shirak region is not particularly supportive of this theory. We have dozens of ancient DNA from various sites in Shirak and none of them can be securely linked to Indo-Iranians. Eriahi seems to be a regular Etiuni tribe similar to other Etiuni tribes.

So was it's name lost? Maybe yes but most probably no. Eriahi's root is the Eria which could also have been pronounced as [eræ] according the Urartian orthographic rules. Or even as [aræ]. This would be quite close to the name of patriarch Ara. Many toponyms are linked to patriarch Ara. Aragats, the Ara mountain, Ara's field etc. However this theory has one important flaw. It's the geography. Most toponyms related to Ara are found in Araratian plain and only Aragats overlaps with Shirak. This can be solved if we imagine that they had larger settlement area or moved over time.

An update to the previous posting.

 Thanks to the vigilance of our members Tigran Sg and others I checked once more all available data about the J2-Z6065>P81 and here an update to the previous posting.

In the Lazaridis et al. 2024 preprint a new Maykop sample was published. The paper itself didn't provided much details about it's subclade and I assumed that there is no enough coverage. However after the paper was published in Nature this year and files became available it's subclade is now known and it's J2-Z6065>P81 according the FTDNA. Another reason that I missed it is that the Chinese website YTree places P81 in very different place of J2 which further confused me.

Anyway a J2-P81 being a Maykop lineage makes sense. It's found in modern North West Caucasus also in Ukraine. It's remarkable that it's parallel branch was found in Bronze Age Anatolia in Ovaoren. This is a strong indication that both branches were initially related to Chaff faced ware communities in historic Armenia. One branch moved to north to become a Maykopian lineage and another to Anatolia to be potentially a Hittite-Luwian lineage. According Yfull both branches have a common ancestor at 8400 years ago which coincide with the formation of Shilaveri Neolithic culture.

Returning to the J2-P81 from the Alan period, we can now be sure that it had local origin. At last from Bronze Age and Eneolithic.

Comments on migrations over Caucasus

 Comments on migrations over Caucasus

Ancient DNA permitted to uncover migrations over Caucasus in deep past. Some were expected and some unexpected. Despite this we still know very little about more recent migrations.

The small number of data we have give us the possibility to predict two younger migrations.

The first one is the rise of Koban culture in North Caucasus which apparently was triggered by influences from south western regions of Caucasus around 1400+1200BCE.. More specifically the Colchian archaeological culture in Western Georgia. Scholars were suspecting this for long time and there were proposals to unite Koban and Colchian cultures. However a migration from south do not mean that all Koban culture was exclusively southern. It had a population of local origin also. Thus in most likelihood it was multiethnic, while the southern component seems to be Kartvelian. Later at 600BCE Scythians conquered Koban culture and Iranian Alans started to form there. Scythians also crossed Caucasus. But till now we don't have any ancient sample from South Caucasus that can be linked securely to Scythians.

The second possible migration over Caucasus started from more southern regions. Apparently from historic Armenia. Based on data from east Georgia it started in Late Antiquity at 1-4 century AD and was associated with the increase of Anatolian ancestry. Now we have ancient DNA from so called Alan period in North Caucasus and quite surprisingly they have Y DNA that in most likelihood originated in historic Armenia. [[ Read the update: For instance the J2-Z6065>P81. We can't fully rule out it's old presence but the current data do not give evidence of that. ]] Also two cases of L584. From Damgaard 2018 one medieval sample from North Caucasus Saltovo Mayaki was quite Near Eastern shifted.. At this stage we don't know what caused this migration and what was the ethnic composition of those migrants. But the few data from north Caucasian Early Medieval period suggests that the migration didn't stopped in East Georgia and continued further north also.

Links in the comments.

An important update about the J2-P81

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/196TcXY17b/

An excerpt from De Martino's paper.

 An excerpt from De Martino's paper. It seems more scholars adhere to the idea that the name of Mitanni kingdom (archaic form being Maitani) is derived from a person's or a clan name who were the founders of that kingdom. De Martino do not mention it but there is evidence supporting this claim from Upper Euphrates. A certain Mita from Pahhuwa (near Hayasa) who was living in 15th century BC rebelled against Hittites.

This mean that a name Mita indeed existed in that period. However we should not jump to rapid conclusions that the founders of Mitanni came from the Upper Euphrates. This Mita from Pahhuwa could well have an Indo-Iranian origin and moved there from south. Fournet proposed an Aryan etymology of that name.

But other scholars express scepticism that the first legendary ruler Mita/Maita who is not directly mentioned has an Indo-Iranian name. The same is true for the second ruler attested once the Kirta. Starting from his son all kings have Aryan names.

Additionally the Greek period term Matiene could be the legacy of the Mitanni. Apparently in antiquity there were still groups identifying themselves with Mitanni that collapsed around 1200BCE. What languages they were speaking is hard to say.