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 speaking of them. Thus 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. 

 

One explanation to this shift is based on the idea that the initial sa- is a Kartvelian plurial prefix. This theory has one serious problem.

Well there can be another explanation to this shift. The Armenian language was quite intolerant to IE sibilants *s. They have undergone various changes, and today virtually nothing is left from initial sibilants. 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.

In Greek and Iranian those shifts occured in early periods while in Armenian the exact date is unknown. But it is quite possible that it occurred in post Urartian period.

 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 Steabo'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

The story of R1a-M417

 The story of R1a-M417

The branch M417 is by far the most frequent type of R1a in the world. Thanks to the ancient DNA we know that it expanded with Corded Ware culture. The calculated age (TMRCA) of R1a-M417 is 5500 years. It is close to the Corded Ware culture (CWC) formation age ~ 4900 years ago. CWC was a pastoralist culture which rapidly expanded all over North Europe. In North East Europe it introduced food producing for the first time. Replacing completely local foragers.

Genome wide it was derived from Yamna but over time acquired extra European farmers ancestry ( from GAC culture ) . Mostly via female lines. Which made them more blond and light skin than was Yamna.

So here is the short story of main subclades of R1a-M417. It has three branches

L664 - Today it is a rare lineage in Central and North West Europe. But was more frequent in CWC Central Europe. Absent in Armenia.

------

Z283 - This is the most frequent type of R1a in Europe. It reaches especiay high levels among Balto - Slavic and Germanic speakers. It has three subclades.

> - Z284 is mostly found in Scandinavia and Northern Germanic speakers. It was widespread in Battle Axe variant of CWC in Scandinavia

>- Z280 is widespread in East and Central Europe and Balkanes. It was found in Baltic CWC. 

>- M458 Similar distribution to Z280 but more pronounced in Poland. In most likelihood it's origins are in Middle Dnieper region. Both are Balto- Slavic markers.

------

Z93 - The oldest case is found in eastern CWC called Fatyanovo - Balanovo. From there it moved to East and South were Sintashta/Andronovo emerged 4200 years ago. Sintashta is famous by it's spooked chariots. An invention usually atribuated to Indo-Iranians.

From there one branch known as R1a-L657 rapidly moved to India where it had a dramatic expansion immediately after the end of Harappan civilisation.

While the Z2124 remained in Central Asia and started to expand in various directions. In East it reached Mongolia where it introduced food production for the first time. Local East Asian foragers who learned the technics of pastoralism from R1a later expanded on its own. And became known as Turkic and Mongolian tribes.

Other branches of R1a Z93 moved to west reaching even Balkanes. They were known as Srubna culture (~1800 bc ). Later in IA another wave reexpanded from modern Kazakhstan who became known as Scythians. And another as Sarmatians And finally some of R1a Z2124 moved to Near East in LBA/IA period. 

Z93 is the most frequent type of R1a in Armenia.

Let's post in this thread links on useful dictionaries

 Let's post in this thread links on useful dictionaries.

In English.

Here is the Etymological dictionary of inherited vocabulary by H. Martirosyan.

https://web.archive.org/web/20191024005234/https://www.bulgari-istoria-2010.com/Rechnici/Etymological%20Dictionary%20of%20the%20Armenian%20Inherited%20Lexicon.pdf

An interesting video about medieval Armenian traders in India and an English captain Kidd.

 An interesting video about medieval Armenian traders in India and an English captain Kidd.

The video mentions about the Armenian traders in Philippines.

We have a Y DNA from Philippines with recent common ancestor with Armenians. So chances are quite high that this Philippine and Chinese people had an Armenian patrilineal ancestor.

https://www.yfull.com/tree/R-Y30217/

https://youtu.be/zK-_z1QT3T8

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zK-_z1QT3T8&feature=youtu.be