Remarks on Eriahi

Remarks on Eriahi

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

However, instead of Eriahi we find the name Shirak, which is most likely a later term from the Arsacid era. Since the time of Kapantsian, theories have been proposed that Eriahi could be of Indo-Iranian origin, based on the similarity of the name to Aria. However, ancient DNA from the Shirak region does not particularly support this theory. We now have dozens of ancient DNA samples from various sites in Shirak, and none of them can be securely linked to Indo-Iranian populations. Eriahi appears to have been a regular Etiuni tribe, similar to the other tribes of Etiuni.

So, was its name lost? Possibly yes, but most likely not. The root of Eriahi is Eria, which could also have been pronounced as [eræ] according to Urartian orthographic conventions, or even as [aræ]. This pronunciation would be quite close to the name of the patriarch Ara.

Many toponyms are associated with the patriarch Ara: Aragats, Mount Ara, Ara’s Field, and others. However, this theory has one significant difficulty — geography. Most of the toponyms related to Ara are located in the Araratian Plain, and only Aragats overlaps with Shirak. This issue could be explained if we assume that the tribe once occupied a larger settlement area or that its population moved over time.