History of Armenia

The history of Armenia and Armenians is very ancient and can go back at least 2000 BC. Archaeologists say the Shulaveri-Shomu culture of the central Transcaucasus region, and Armenia today, as the earliest known prehistoric culture in the area, carbon-dated to around 6000 - 4000 BC. But, a newer discovered tomb has been dated to 9000 BC. Another early culture in the Armenian Highlands and surrounding areas—the Kura-Araxes culture is in the period of ca. 4000 - 2200 BC, and is believed to have to go into the Trialeti culture (ca. 2200 - 1500 BC), and meaning Armenians are one of the oldest Indo-European subgroups.

Tigranes the Great's Empire

Urartu

Urartu was an ancient kingdom in the Armenian Highlands.

Some experts say that the Armenians started as a mixture of the different peoples to move through the area in history: The Hurrians, Urarteans, Luvians and Mushki. This last group, also knowns as Phrygians may have brought their Indo-European language to Armenia. The Armenian language today is Indo-European, but shows a lot of influence from the earlier languages, especially Urartean. [1]

Ancient period
Main articles: Kingdom of Armenia (Antiquity) and Arsacid Dynasty of Armenia

The Armenians had friendly relations with the Parthian empire.[2] The fighting between the Roman Empire and Parthia was centered in Armenia. Armenia was in between Parthian and the Roman Empire. The Armenians had already played a role in the early history of the Roman-Parthian relations. Tigranes put military and political relations with Rome and Parthia on an international legal foundation.[3] The Parthians were allies to Armenians in many times. Many Parthian noble families had moved out and they went to Armenia. [4][5]

References
  1. “Armenians” in Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture or EIEC, edited by J. P. Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams, published in 1997 by Fitzroy Dearborn.
  2. The New Englander - Page 524 by William Lathrop Kingsley
  3. Armenian Perspectives - Page 282 by Nicholas Awde
  4. King of Kings by Gevork Nazaryan
  5. Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt Page 913 by Wolfgang Haase, Hildegard Temporini

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