The end of the Kura-Araxes culture and the emergence of new kurgan cultures.

 The end of the Kura-Araxes culture and the emergence of new kurgan cultures. Here I present a short summary of the papers by Ruben Badalyan et al. (2024) and Pavel Avetisyan & R. Badalyan. The two papers are based solely on archaeological data, with no discussion of paleogenetics. The first paper deals mainly with the end of the Kura-Araxes (KA) culture, while the second focuses on Middle Bronze Age cultures.

Key points

The depopulation of KA sites started earlier, around the 27th–26th centuries BC, than the appearance of the new Middle Bronze Age cultures.
The appearance of new cultures in the Kura-Araxes region was rather a consequence than a cause of this depopulation.
The depopulation was not complete but there was a 15-20 fold drop in settlement numbers. The last period of KA coexisted with Early Kurgans.
In most cases (though not all), traces of burning and fire in KA settlements were not caused by invaders, but had internal causes — either spontaneous or deliberately carried out by the inhabitants themselves (ritualistic or sanitary?). After the fires, the settlements were rebuilt. A similar tradition also existed in the Balkans.
KA sites in the Upper Euphrates and Tigris regions did not experience the same depopulation. On the contrary, they developed into urban centers with active trade connections to Mesopotamia.
The earliest manifestations of the new kurgan cultures begin around 2550 BC in the Kur River basin. The Kur basin appears to have been the core region of this new culture. This date fits very well with the chronology calculated by Lazaridis et al. (2022) (my comment).
Early kurgan culture was not homogeneous. It had two variants: the Martqopi variant and the Bedeni variant. Martqopi shares more features with the preceding Kura-Araxes culture, while Bedeni shares very few. Trialeti seems to have been closer to Martqopi. Bedeni used tin bronze, whereas KA and Martqopi relied mainly on arsenical bronze. Tin-bronze technology originated in Europe.
Early kurgan sites are not frequent in the Republic of Armenia and appear only after 2450 BC. No early kurgan burials have been found south of the Araxes River.
After 2200 BC, the Trialeti-Vanadzor culture expanded throughout the Kura-Araxes basin and south of the Araxes. It had two types of pottery: monochrome pottery with dot decoration and painted pottery. The painted type apparently emerged in the south and became the predominant type in the regions south of the Araxes River.
The painted type expanded from south to north and remained rare in Georgia. In the territory of modern Armenia, painted pottery constituted about fifty percent of the pottery assemblage in Trialeti-Vanadzor culture layers, and it was the dominant type south of the Araxes River.
After 1900 BC, new cultures derived from the Trialeti-Vanadzor culture formed on top of the TVC horizon. These included the Karmirvank (Van-Urmia) culture, the Sevan-Artsakh (Uzerlik) culture, and the Karmirberd culture.

My next post will be about the comparison of available paleogenetic data with this vision based on archaeology.

The King Pharnavaz (Փառնավազ)

In Armenian historical tradition, the post-Urartian period — which, incidentally, is also the post-Assyrian period — is marked by the emergence of new elites.

In Movses Khorenatsi’s history, the first crowned king of Armenia (after Assyrian rule) was Paruyr Skayordi. He was an ally of the Medes and, according to Khorenatsi, participated in the destruction of the Assyrian Empire. However, the historian Sebeos reports a different story about the same period [1]. He mentions a certain Pharnavaz who was loyal to the Babylonians and was recognized by Babylon as king of Armenia. Afterward, this Pharnavaz and his descendants controlled lands in the southwestern regions of historical Armenia (Ałdznikʿ and Tsopkʿ).

The Assyrian Empire was destroyed by an alliance of Babylon and the Medes in 614–609 BC. After this, Babylonian sources report three additional campaigns in northern Mesopotamia in which the lands of Urartu are mentioned as targets of attack and plunder. It is quite possible that, after the annihilation of Assyrian political influence, Babylon had interactions with rulers located in the southern parts of historical Armenia and recognized one of the local rulers as king. Thus, the reports of the Babylonian Chronicles fit well with Sebeos’s account of Pharnavaz.

The name Pharnavaz is absent from Urartian texts; however, Assyrian texts mention a certain tribe, the Parnaki, dwelling in a region north or east of Assyria, in the northern Zagros. A derivation of the personal name Pharnavaz from the Parnaki tribe is quite plausible and is supported by historical parallels found in Anatolia, where the satrapal Pharnacid dynasty bore both the names Pharnaces and Pharnabazus. The term Pharnavaz itself is composed of two Iranian words: *farna* (“glory,” “splendor”) and *bāzu* (“arm”), which, according to Armenian phonetic rules, could have developed into Pʿarnawaz (Փառնաւազ).

Assuming that Sebeos’s story has a real historical background, we can reconstruct the following chronology of events:

**8th–7th century BC.** A minor Iranian tribe, not directly affiliated with the Medes or Persians, was dwelling near historical Armenia. They are mentioned by the Assyrians. In the Armenian patriarchal list, the name Pʿarnak is also present in ancient times.

**At the end of the 7th century BC.** The destruction of Assyria and the extreme weakening of the Biainean dynasty triggered migrations and the emergence of new elites. The Parnaki tribe most probably settled in the southwestern regions of Armenia, had occasion to interact with the Babylonians, and became part of the local ruling class. It was assimilated by the Armenians, and the memory of King Pharnavaz became part of Armenian historical tradition. 

Another Pharnavaz is also important in Georgian historic tradition. He is the king of Iberia around ~300BC and the founder of Pharnavazid dynasty. I will dedicate a separate post about the possible relation of this two Pharnavaz' and the position of Pharnacid dynasty of Anatolia in all this.

During the same post Assyrian period, or slightly earlier, Paruyr Skayordi was probably ruling in the eastern regions of historical Armenia — in or around the territory of the modern Republic. In that location, Paruyr Skayordi would have had occasion to interact with the Medes, and this memory was recorded by Khorenatsi. It must be noted that Khorenatsi also mentions Pharnavaz as a “grandson” of Paruyr Skayordi, but gives no further information about him. The Urartian cuneiform texts referring to the lands of Išqigulu and to Sagaputra (“son of Saka”) as king may also be interpreted as evidence for a Skayordi domain in the eastern regions.

In conclusion, the end of the Assyrian Empire was also a period of weakening for the Biainean dynasty and of political fragmentation in the Armenian Highlands. New elites appeared, possibly some of Iranian origin, and were assimilated into the Armenian-Urartian cultural milieu. Slightly later, the Orontid (Eruanduni) dynasty emerged and unified the country.

References

[1] Tsakanyan, R., The Versions of Khorenatsi and Sebeos on the Fall of Assyria, VEM, 2017, № 4(60), pp. 230-239, in Arm.

See also

• A tribe Parnaki is attested in Iron Age Assyrian texts

In Palyan & Peltekian 2025 paper about Mushki we proposed a theory that the name of Mushki was the source of Paleobalkanic word *musk meaning mule.

 
This word is present in Albanian, some Romanian dialects and Slavic languages.

We didn't go deep in details to provide more arguments for this theory. Just mentioned archaeological and paleogenetic data arguing for Anatolian and western parts of historic Armenia as the homeland of mules. Mule is a mixture of donkey and horse. Current genetic data favors northeast Africa as the homeland of domesticated donkey while Yamnaya as the homeland of domesticated horses. The meeting point of this two domesticated animals might be somewhere between this two locations and Armenia with Anatolia are excellent candidates where donesticated donkey and horse had occasion to meet each other to create mule. Later humans must have noticed the usefulness of mule and started to breed it deliberately.

Here I provide another argument from Bible. In Ezekiel 27:14 speaking about Phoenician city Tyre there is a verse saying that they buy mules from Beth Togarmah which means House of Torgom usually associated with western Armenia (see the map).

"From Beth-togarmah they exchanged horses, war horses, and mules for your merchandise."

This is another argument that western parts of Armenia and Anatolia were an important mule production territories. Thus it is quite plausible that the name of Mushki who were active in Anatolia became the source of this animal name in Balkans. Even more speculative, its even possible that the Latin derived word mulus < *musclos is also related to Mushki but this latter theory is more harder to prove.

PS the map has multiple doubious claims. It is used to give an approximate idea of location of some biblical terms.

Memory of ancient people preserved in Armenian language.

 Memory of ancient people preserved in Armenian language.

Armenians during their long history had interaction with various neighbouring people and tribes. Those people had different cultures, mentality and physical phenotypes. Some Armenian simple words are derived from the name of this people. Lets see them. I will start from most recent to more olders.

The word part'ev ( պարթև) in Armenian means tall, athletic, stately figure. The term is derived from the name of Parthians.

The word xuž /xužan (խուժան) meaning hooligan, wild, barbaric derived from the name of Khuzestan in Iran. The name Khuzh/khuz is the Persian distorted name of the Elamite term Susa. Most probably it do not reflect a direct Armenian Elamite contacts but rather is intermediated by the Persian.

The word xalt (խաղտ) means rude, tough, hard. Most probably derived from the name of Chaldes people living in the northwestern regions of historic Armenia. This land name is first attested in Urartian as Halitu. In Armenian period Khaltik is a region near Black sea coast corresponding roughly to modern Rize province. This shift of location probably reflects a migration in antique period. Jahukyan thinks the term is not related to ethnic group but is derived from IE.

The word korč ( կորճ ) meaning crooked, rough, uneven. According Acharyan the term is derived from Korchayk lands in southern parts of historic Armenia. Those regions were inhabited by the carduchi or kordvaci people from which the land name Korchayk is derived. Jahukyan has differen opinion on this word.

The word xor (խոռ) is rare attestation. Means stingy, avaricious. Most probably derived from the name of Hurrians. The name of the patriarch Khor son of Hayk is also derived from the Hurrians name. Possibly reflects the fact that Hurrians were more involved in trading and money lending activities.

There are other possible examples like hska/skai but its possible link to Saka people is less secure.

Our knowledge of the last period of the Urartian kingdom and the period immediately preceding the incorporation of Armenia into the Achaemenid Empire is very limited

 Our knowledge of the last period of the Urartian kingdom and the period immediately preceding the incorporation of Armenia into the Achaemenid Empire is very limited. After the destruction of the Assyrian Empire and the downfall of the Biainean dynasty, there are only a few mentions of Urartu in Babylonian sources (around 610 BC) and one mention in the Bible (Jeremiah's prophecy around 590 BC).

It is possible that there is another mention in Babylonian sources that provides valuable information about the political status of Urartu lands in 547 BC.

For more than a century, scholars have debated the name of the country mentioned in Babylonian texts dated to 547 BC. Initially, many assumed that the text referred to the conquest of Lydia by Cyrus the Great. However, in recent years, Rollinger and others have provided additional arguments for reading it as Urashtu (Urartu) instead of Lydia. The text is damaged, and the name of the country is practically unreadable—only the first syllable is barely visible. But Rollinger argues for the reading Urashtu based on multiple other arguments unrelated to the cuneiform text itself.

The text states that Cyrus crossed the Tigris near the city of Arbil (modern Erbil) and then conquered and defeated the king of a certain land with an unreadable name. In my opinion, his arguments are quite strong. You can read them in his papers (links are in the comments).

Assuming that this Babylonian text refers to Urartu, it would mean that Urartu still had a king in 547 BC. However, this king was almost certainly not from the Biainean dynasty, which must have lost control of the country around 600 BC. This unnamed king could have been from the Orontid (Yervanduni/Aruand) dynasty. Rollinger does not discuss Xenophon's *Cyropaedia*, as scholars generally consider it a fictitious story. Despite this, I believe that even a fictional narrative could be based on real historical events. In the *Cyropaedia*, when Cyrus conquers Armenia, it is indeed ruled by a king (whose name is not mentioned), but the two princes are named Tigran and Shavarsh. This suggests that the rulers of Armenia around 550 BC were not from the Biainean dynasty but from a new one known as the Orontid.

In the *Cyropaedia*, Armenia is portrayed as a semi-independent kingdom paying tribute to the Medes. In the real world, Cyrus conquered Media around 550 BC, so it makes sense that he would then turn his attention to Armenia afterward.

In sum, it is quite likely that after the end of the Biainean dynasty, the new rulers of Armenia retained control over most of the lands that had been part of Urartu. It is possible that these new rulers continued to use Tushpa (Van) as their residence before it was conquered by the Persians. It is remarkable that Darius planned to inscribe a victorious inscription near Tosp/Van, which for some reason was only completed by his son Xerxes. The presence of this inscription near Van underscores the importance of the conquest of Urartu / Armenia—an event that was most likely also recorded by the Babylonians.

PS the possible road of Cyrus the Great while moving deeper in Urartu

Genetic history of H2-P96

Based on the current stage of our knowledge, the homeland of H2-P96 was in the "core area" of the Fertile Crescent. From the region near modern Urfa - Diyarbekir, it expanded in different directions, carried by the early Neolithic farmers. H2-P96 has been found in ancient Anatolia and Europe, in the Levant and Egypt, and in South Caucasian Neolithic sites. Currently, there is no evidence that H2 moved eastward to Central Asia or South Asia.

This may sound counterintuitive, but the story of H2 is unrelated to H1, which is prominent in South Asia and India. The common ancestor of H2 and H1 lived 45,000 years ago, during the out-of-Africa dispersal wave. The ancestor of H2 remained in West Asia, while the ancestor of H1 appears to have been present in India since the Upper Paleolithic period. Currently, there is no evidence that H1 was related to the Zagros Neolithic farmers.

The three main directions of the Neolithic spread of H2 are somewhat similar to the story of T1a1. Due to poor resolution of many academic papers its impossible currently to reconstruct the story of H2 and its subclades with hugher precision.  That is why we will use just the generic P96 level. Which by the way has a TMRCA more than 16.000 yeaes.

• Anatolia and Europe: H2 moved into Europe from Anatolia with the early farmers. Despite some rumours of H2 presence in Paleolithic Europe—which still require solid confirmation—it is obvious that virtually all H2 found in early Neolithic cultures of Europe came from Anatolia.

• Levant and Africa: H2 was found in the PPNB period of the Levant. From there, it moved to Egypt. An ancient priest's mummy DNA analysis revealed H2 Y-DNA.

• Historic Armenia and the Caucasus: H2 was found at the Shulaveri culture site of Aruchlo in Georgia. It reached the Caucasus via historic Armenia. H2 is quite diverse among modern Armenians. Overall, H2 is rare in modern populations, except in a few cases. One such case is among Armenians, where it is found at non-trace (low but noticeable) levels.

A paper about the first Aramaic inscription uncovered in historic Sophene (Ծոփք), modern Tunceli province in Turkey.

 A paper about the first Aramaic inscription uncovered in historic Sophene (Ծոփք), modern Tunceli province in Turkey.

The funerary stone mentions a name starting with Mithrab- possibly the king Mithrobarzanes of Sophene. Also it refers to house of Arwand (Oront) and another name possibly pronounced as Arzaha.

Whatever was the real meaning of this inscription, it is the first hard testimony that the rulers of Sophene were considering themselves affiliated to Orontid dynasty. Orontids also ruled Armenia and Commagene in antique period.

See the comments for links