The ark first came aground on the mountain of Ararat, in Armenia, a sacred spot to this day; and here God made His covenant with Noah, renewing His first blessing to Adam, permitting the use of animal food; promising that the course of nature should never be disturbed again till the end of all things, and making the glorious tints of the rainbow, which are produced by sunlight upon water, stand as the pledge of this assurance. Of man He required abstinence from eating the blood of animals, and from shedding the blood of man, putting, as it were, a mark of sacredness upon life-blood, so as to lead the mind on to the Blood hereafter to be shed.

- The Chosen People, 1859

Grogh translates from Armenian as “writer” or “scribe” (sometimes identified with Armenian deity of literature Tir) was a spirit in ancient Armenian mythology.  Grogh was the most punctual writer. As soon as a human was born, Grogh would write the newborn into the book of life, and on the forehead he imprinted the newborn’s faith – chakatagir, predetermining the given lifespan. He keenly observed everyone and entered all the sins and good deeds into his special folio, to read them during the final judgment.

If the agony of dying lasted a long time and the soul could not part with the body easily, it was common to take the pillow from beneath the head of the dying person and open wide all the windows and doors, so Grogh could enter freely into the home and take the soul into his bosom and leave.

Just as the Russians curse ‘k chorty’ meaning ‘to the devil’ and English ‘to hell with you’, Armenians curse by sending to Grogh: “Grogh kez tani!” (meaning “scribe take you!”) or “Groghu tsots” (“in embrace of the scribe”). Many centuries past and the word “Grogh” became to simply mean ‘writer’.

Source: Аrmen Meryzhanyan

On the map below, Portuguese cartographer Fernao Vaz Dourado depicts Armenia Minor and Armenia Major stretching across Black and Caspian seas, occupying the territories that are now known as Georgia, Azerbaijan and most of eastern Turkey, including Mount Ararat.

Map of Near East – Fernão Vaz Dourado 1570. Nautical chart of Portuguese cartographer Fernão Vaz Dourado (c. 1520 – c. 1580), part of a nautical atlas drawn in 1570 and now kept in the Huntington Library, San Marino, USA.

Description: ArmeniaMaior, Colchis, Iberia, Albania
Date: 1655 A.D.
Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France
Author: Jan L’Huilier (17th century) – Engraver: Nicolas Sanson (1600–1667)

Some more maps of ancient Armenia

Title: Tabula Asiae III [Black & Caspian Sea Region]

Map Maker: Sebastian Munster

Place / Date: Basle / 1542
Description:  Excellent example of Munster’s Ptolemaic map of the region between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea extending south to include all of Armenia Maior and part of Armenia Minoris.

Munster’s map shows Noahs Arc in the Caspian Sea, believed to have come to rest in a mountain in Armenia according to the map. Shows Armenia Maior, Iberia, Albania, Colchis, Porte Albanie, the Euphratis River, the Tigris, Assyriae, and many other place names in the cradle of civilization.  The map is unchanged from the 1540 edition.

Munster’s Geographia was a cartographic landmark, including not only Ptolemaic maps, but also a number of landmark modern maps, including the first separate maps of the 4 continents, the first map of England and the earliest obtainable map of Scandinavia. Munster dominated cartographic publication during the mid-16th Century. Munster is generally regarded as one of the three most important map makers of the 16th Century, along with Ortelius and Mercator. Munster was a linguist and mathematician, who initially taught Hebrew in Heidelberg. He issued his first mapping of Germany in 1529, after which he issued a call geographical information about Germany to scholars throughout the country. The response was better than hoped for, and included substantial foreign material, which supplied him with up to date, if not necessarily accurate maps for the issuance of his Geographia in 1540.

Map of Armenia Major, Colchis, Iberia, Albania,-1535-1400

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Description:  Jacob d’Angelo after Claudius Ptolemaeus, “Cosmographia Claudii Ptolomaei Alexandrini”
Date: 1467

1467 Jacob d’Angelo after Ptolemy, Cosmographia

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Description: Tabula Asiae III, Armenia, Iberia, Colchis, etc…
Date: 1579
Author: Gerardus Mercator (1512–1594)

Tabula Asiae III, map of Armenia Major, Colchis, Iberia, Albania -1579

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Description:  Tabula Asiae III: Armenia major, Colchis, Iberia, Albania
Date: 1535
Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France
Author:  Michel Servet (1511-1553).

Asiae Tabula III Colchis, Iberia, Albania, Armenia, 1535

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Title: Tercia Asiae Tabula (Armenia, etc.) (with early manuscript additions)

Map Maker: Martin Waldseemuller

Place / Date: Lorraine / 1513

Description: A striking example of Waldseemuller’s map of the region between the Black and Caspian Seas, centered on Armenia.

The first modern atlas, prepared by Martin Waldseemuller using the translation of Mathias Ringmann.  This is one of the most important editions of Ptolemy, containing many new regional maps.  Twenty new maps based on contemporary knowledge were included by Waldseemuller, in addition to the traditional twenty-seven Ptolemaic maps derived from the 1482 Ulm edition.

Martin Waldseemuller and his associate Mathias Ringmann, prepared this edition of Ptolemy, partly at the expense of Duke Rene of Lorraine.  It was brought to completion by Jacobus Eszler and Georgius Ubelin.  The atlas contains the first map in an atlas entirely devoted to America (Tabula terre nove), often called the “Admiral’s map” after Columbus. The map of Lotharingia (the first map of the Duchy of Lorrain), printed in black, red and olive, is one the earliest examples of color-printing. This edition was reprinted in 1520 using the same woodcut blocks.

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Title: Tabula Tertia Asiae [Title on Verso - Armenia and Caspian Region]

Map Maker: Laurent Fries

Place / Date: Lyon / 1541

Description: Marvelous map of Armenia and the regions between the Balck Sea, Caspian Sea and the Caucus Mountains.

One of the earliest obtainable maps of the region and one of the most strikingly engraved. Latin Text on the verso.

Tabula Tertia Asiae 1541

Stunning short film, a visual poem, true form of cinematic art in my humble opinion. Directed by Dessil Basmadjian based on a poem of Garik Basmadjian.

Freedom fighter, statesman and political thinker General Garegin Nzhdeh (1886-1955) was one of the pivotal figures in the Armenian quest for an independent Armenian nation and a revolutionary leader in Armenia, Bulgaria and Russia.

Bellow the text that was used in the video including parts that didn’t made it into the video and a selection of maps of terrestrial Paradise:

The Biblical account of the garden of Eden has for long preoccupied the minds and imaginations of theologians, believers and countless adventurers of the past. Many have attempted to identify the location of the garden and put forward theories ranging from the underground, the north pole and even the surface of the moon. However if the location of the terrestrial paradise is to be understood according to scriptures, there is only one place that fits the description. That place is historic Armenia.

The Bible mentions a spring in the Garden which parts into four major rivers, including Tigris and the Euphrates. Tigris and Euphrates both have their headwaters in the area surrounding Mt. Ararat in historic Armenia. Many Biblical scholars have therefore placed the garden of Eden in Armenia. They have argued that posterity of Seth and Noah’s ark have remained close to Eden. Thus the birthplace of mankind is also the place of rebirth. These accounts are supported by ancient believes of the people of Mesopotamia, who often considered the Armenian Highlands to be the dwellings of the Gods (Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, 1894).

In his memoirs Lord Byron writes:

“If the Scriptures are rightly understood, it was in Armenia that Paradise was placed. – Armenia, which has paid as dearly as the descendants of Adam for that fleeting participation of its soil in the happiness of him who was created from its dust. It was in Armenia that the flood first abated, and the dove alighted. But with the disappearance of Paradise itself may be dated almost the unhappiness of the country ; for though long a powerful kingdom, it was scarcely ever an independent one, and the satraps of Persia and the pachas of Turkey have alike desolated the region where God created man in his own image.”  – Armenian exercises and poetry, 1886

• Lord Byron (1886) Armenian exercises and poetry

That Armenia was once considered the location of terrestrial Paradise can be attested from old maps and theological records. See blow for the maps.

Alessandro Scafi (2007) in his work “Finishing the unfinished: Paradise in Fausto da Longiano’s vernacular translation of Piccolomini’s Cosmographia (1544), describes Fausto and his thoughts on the location of terrestrial Eden. He writes:

“As a possible location, Fausto (1544) proposed Armenia, a region which in the sixteenth century included the area between the upper Euphrates and Lake Urmia, the Black Sea and the Syrian desert. The identity of two of the four rivers named in Genesis, the Tigris and the Euphrates, was uncontroversial, and both rivers were known to rise in Armenia. The more problematic Gihon and Pishon could be identified amongst the local rivers (for Fausto, the Araxes and the Cyrus).”

• Alessandro Scafi (2007), Finishing the unfinished: Paradise in Fausto da Longiano’s vernacular translation of Piccolomini’s Cosmographia (1544)

Joseph E. Duncan (1972) likewise recounts:

“Both Pererius and Lapide had suggested Armenia as logical location for Eden and paradise. Johann Vorstius, maintaining that Scripture clearly stated that the great river arose in Eden itself, also contended that Eden and paradise must be in Armenia.

One of the most complete of the earlier arguments for an Armenian paradise was offered by Carver in a tract publication in 1666… He found the site of Eden in Armenia Major, on the south side of Mount Taurus. He speculated that paradise might have been transformed into a nitrous lake which Pliny had said was located in this area.”

• Joseph E. Duncan (1972) Milton’s Earthly Paradise: A Historical Study of Eden, Univ Of Minnesota Press; Minnesota Archive Editions edition (July 6, 1972)

17th century French scholar Joseph Pitton de Tournefort writes:

“And if we may suppose the Terrestrial Paradise to have been a place of considerable extent, and to have retained some of its beauties, notwithstanding the alterations made in the Earth at the Flood, and since that time; I don’t know a finer spot to which to assign this wonderful place, than the Country of the Three-Churches (Echmiadzin-Armenia), about twenty French leagues distant from the Heads of Euphrates and Araxes, and near as many from the Phasis.” – A Voyage Into the Levant (1741)

In their Encyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical literature (1894), John McClintock and James Strong recount nine principal theories of the proposed location of earthly paradise. Armenia is considered the most likely location of Eden.

“The opinion which fixes Eden in Armenia we have placed first, because it is that which has obtained most general support, and seems nearest the truth. (See No. vi.) For if we may suppose that, while Cain moved to the East (Gen. iv, IG), the posterity of Seth remained in the neighborhood of the primeval seat of mankind, and that Noah’s ark rested not very far from the place of his former abode, then Mount Ararat in Armenia becomes a connecting point between the antediluvian and post-diluvian worlds (Gen. viii, 4)”

Eden is shortly described as follows:

“Eden was a tract of country, and that in the most eligible part of it was the Paradise, the garden of all delights, in which the Creator was pleased to place his new and pre-eminent creature, with the inferior beings for his sustenance and solace.”

• John McClintock & James Strong (1894) Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature.

“As nearly as we can gather from the Scriptural description, Eden was a tract of country, the finest imaginable, laying probably between the 35th and the 40th degree of N. latitude, of such moderate elevation, and 80 adjusted, with respect to mountain ranges, and watersheds, and forests, as to preserve the most agreeable and salubrious conditions of temperature and all atmospheric changes. Its surface must therefore have been constantly diversified by hill and plain. In the finest part of this land of Eden, the Creator had formed an enclosure, probably by rocks, and forests, and rivers, and had filled it with every product of nature conducive to use and happiness. Due moisture, of both the ground and the air, was preserved by the streamlets from the nearest hills, and the rivulets from the more distant; and such streamlets and rivulets, collected according to the levels of the surrounding country (“it proceeded from Eden”) flowed off afterwards in four larger streams, each of which thus became the source of a great river.

Here, then, in the south of Armenia, after the explication we have given, it may seem the most suitable to look for the object of our exploration, the site of Paradise.”

• John McClintock & James Strong (1894) Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature.

That the Biblical rivers cannot be identified with Nile (as some would claim) is described as follows:

“That the Hiddekel (this name is said to be still in use among the tribes who live upon its banks—Col.Chesney, Erp. to Tigris and Euphrates, i, 13) is the Tigris, and the Phrath the Euphrates, has never been denied, except by those who assume that the whole narrative is a myth which originated elsewhere, and was adapted by the Hebrews to their own geographical notions. As the former is the name of the great river by which Daniel sat (Dan. x, 4), and the latter is the term uniformly applied to the Euphrates in the Old Testament, there seems no reason to suppose that the appellations in Gen. ii, 14 are to be understood in any other than the ordinary sense. One circumstance in the description is worthy of observation. Of the four rivers, one, the Euphrates, is mentioned by name only, as if that were sufficient to identify it. The other three are defined according to their geographical positions, and it is fair to conclude that they were therefore rivers with which the Hebrews were less intimately acquainted. If this be the case, it is scarcely possible to imagine that the Gihon, or, as some say, the Pison, is the Nile, for that must have been even more familiar to the Israelites than the Euphrates, and have stood as little in need of a definition.”

• John McClintock & James Strong (1894) Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature.

That Eden is described in a post-deluvian manner as opposed to the Lutherian idea of geography being altered due to the flood is explained as follows:

“Nor will it do to suppose that in former ages great changes had taken place, which have so disguised the rivers in question that their course, connection, and identity are not now traceable ; for two of the rivers, at least, remain to this day essentially the same as in all historic times, and the whole narrative of Moses is evidently adapted to the geography as it existed in his own day, being constantly couched in the present tense, and in terms of well-known reference as landmarks.

Luther, rejecting the forced interpretations on which the theories of his time were based, gave it as his opinion that the garden remained under the guardianship of angels till the time of the Deluge, and that its site was known to the descendants of Adam ; but that by the flood all traces of it were obliterated. But, as before remarked, the narrative is so worded as to convey the idea that the countries and rivers spoken of were still existing in the time of the historian. It has been suggested that the description of the garden of Eden is part of an inspired antediluvian document (Morren, Rosenmiiller’s Geogr. i, 92). The conjecture is beyond criticism ; it is equally incapable of proof or disproof, and has not much probability to recommend it. The effects of the flood in changing the face of countries, and altering the relations of land and water, are too little known at present to allow any inferences to be drawn from them.”

• John McClintock & James Strong (1894) Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature.

In his memoirs “Armenia, travels and studies” famous Brit  H. F. B. Lynch writes:

“What attracted me to Armenia? One inducement was curiosity : what lay beyond those mountains, drawn in a wide half-circle along the margin of the Mesopotamian plains? The sources of the great rivers which carried me southwards, a lake with the dimensions of an inland sea, the mountain of the Ark, the fabled seat of Paradise.”

• Armenia, travels and studies H. F. B. Lynch (1901)

During her travels in Armenia, missionary Maria A. West wrote:

“This is the Christian Crusade of the nineteenth century ; far exceeding in moral sublimity that of the olden time, when the kings of the earth banded themselves together to rescue the Holy Land from the hand of the Turk ! How wonderful that the Great Commission, the Master s last Command, uttered in this very land, more than eighteen hundred years ago, should have been caught up, and re-echoed in the New World, by a nation not yet a century old ! That scores of its sons and daughters should carry the “ glad tidings” from the Caspian and Black Seas on the north, beyond the Mediterranean on the south : In the country of Eden, and Ararat, the cradle of the human race.”

• Maria a. West (1875), Romance of Missions: or, Inside Views of Life and Labor, Land of Ararat.

“A lovely lake, like that of Galilee, sleeps within their embrace; a branch of the Euphrates curves its gleaming arm around this wondrous mosaic of emerald and agate, carnelian and onyx, with the golden sunlight resting upon embowered villages, of which we count twenty-five without, and fifty with the aid of a glass, their beaten paths crossing and recrossing the plain, in every direction.

• Maria a. West (1875), Romance of Missions: or, Inside Views of Life and Labor, Land of Ararat.

And this lost Paradise, so long trodden under foot by the Destroyer, “her hedges broken down, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her, wasted by the boar out of the wood, and devoured by the wild beast of the field:” -This vineyard, planted “eastward” -by God s “right hand” -at the opening of man’s history – (“a river went out to water it;” and from thence it was parted and became four heads ; and the fourth river is “Euphrates:”) -This long-deserted Garden is to be “regained” for the “second Adam,” and made to “blossom as the rose;” to “ blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing ; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon ; and the REDEEMED shall walk there.”

• Maria a. West (1875), Romance of Missions: or, Inside Views of Life and Labor, Land of Ararat.

Our national birthday of freedom finds us on these distant heights in the land which was the cradle of the human race the land of Ararat, the country, if not the Garden of Eden, where we may suppose our first parents wandered after their expulsion from Paradise, and obtained their bread by the sweat of their brow. And we, their self-exiled children, are striving to undo the mischief which their disobedience brought on these fair plains, and among these smiling valleys and rugged mountains.

• Maria a. West (1875), Romance of Missions: or, Inside Views of Life and Labor, Land of Ararat.

The Armenian language belongs to the Indo-Germanic family, enriched with many Sanscrit words, but having no affinity to the Semitic, or any of the more modern tongues. The people claim that it was the language of paradise, and will be the language of the heavenly world.

• Maria a. West (1875), Romance of Missions: or, Inside Views of Life and Labor, Land of Ararat.

Selection of antique maps of terrestrial Paradise:

A Map of the Terrestrial Paradise, Emmanuel Bowwen (1780)

Fine map of the Middle East, including the Holy Land, Cyprus, Iran and Irak, etc.
Philippe Buache was one of the most active proponents of the so-called “school of theoretical cartography” active in mid-18th century France. Published by Dezauche and engraved by Marie F. Duval.

Paradis Terrestre by Desbrulins, F. 1700-1799 source Bibliothèque nationale de France

Eden in Armenia 8th century world map from Turin

Eden in Armenia 8th century world map from Turin

A General Map for Information about the History of the Saints, Phillippe Buache, Published in 1783 in Paris.

Map of the Earthly Paradise by Moyse, 1724 Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France

Map of the Earthly Paradise by Moyse, 1724 Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France

Antique map of the Paradise, Huet Stark-man, 1725 ‘Kaarte van Het Aardsche Paradys’

Athanasius Kircher, 1675 Topographia Paradisi terrestris juxta mentem et conjecturas

L’Arménie, jardin d’Eden, page de l’Atlas de cartographie historique de l’Arménie, Jacques Khanzadian, copie de carte ancienne, 1675

Map from the atlas Theatre of the World by Abraham Ortelius featuring Eden in Armenia. Antwerp, 1601

Овальная карта мира Беата (776 г.) из «Атласа истории географических открытий и исследований». Москва, 1959

Увеличенный фрагмент той же карты, с подписью «Armenia regio».

The Manchester (a.k.a. Altamira) Beatus mappamundi, ca. 1175,
The Manchester (a.k.a. Altamira) Beatus mappamundi, ca. 1175, John Rylands Library, MS. Lat. 8, fols. 43v-44, Manchester, England

The world map from the Saint-Sever Beatus painted c. 1050 A.D. as an illustration to Beatus’s work at the Abbey of Saint-Sever in Aquitaine

Carte Du Paradis Terrestre Suivant le Systeme de l Auteur et Execute par P. Starck-man

The map Tabula Paradisi Terrestris justa Systema Auctoris incisa a P. Stark-Man was printed late in the 18th century, probably around 1775.

Topographia Paradisi terrestris juxta mentem et conjecturas authoris, Kircher, Athanasius 1675

Antique map of the Garden of Eden by Calmet – 1789

Moxon’s Paradise of the Garden of Eden with the Countries circumjacent inhabited by the Patriarchs, printed in 1690

The Terrestrial Paradise (c.1780) by Louis Brion de la Tour from the ‘Histoire Universelle depuis le Commencement du Monde’

Ecclesiastical map of the first ages of the world, by S. Robert Vangondy 1762

Ancient Armenian drawing of what resembles the story of Adam and Eve.

A 1766 portrait of Rousseau wearing an Armenian costume by Allan Ramsay.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a social philosopher, moralist, writer, and composer of the 18th-century. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological, and educational thought. His ‘Discourse on the Origin of Inequality’ and his ‘On the Social Contract’ are cornerstones in modern political and social thought.

Rousseau was a successful composer of music, who wrote seven operas as well as music in other forms, and made contributions to music as a theorist. During the period of the French Revolution, Rousseau was the most popular of the philosophes among members of the Jacobin Club. Rousseau was interred as a national hero in the Panthéon in Paris, in 1794, 16 years after his death.

This sympathetic portrait of Rousseau in Armenian costume was painted by the highly talented Scottish artist Allan Ramsay. He is wears the fur hat and fur trimmed jacket of his favorite Armenian costume. This attire had aroused the great curiosity of London society following Rousseau’s arrival in Britain in 1766. Ramsay painted this portrait as a gift for his close friend David Hume, Rousseau’s host in London.

The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III

The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III is a black limestone Neo-Assyrian bas-relief sculpture from Nimrud, commemorating the deeds of King Shalmaneser III (reigned 858-824 BC). The archaeologist Henry Layard discovered this black limestone obelisk in 1846 during his excavations of the site of Kalhu, the ancient Assyrian capital. It was erected as a public monument in 825 BC at a time of civil war. The relief sculptures glorify the achievements of King Shalmaneser III (reigned 858-824 BC) and his chief minister.

One description on the obelisk describes conquest of an Armenian city Arzashkun. The description (35-44) goes as follows:

In the third year of my reign, Ahuni, son of Adini, was frightened before my mighty weapons and retreated from Til-barzip, his royal city. I crossed the Euphrates. I seized for myself the city of Ana-Assur-utir-asbat, which lies on the other side of the Euphrates, on the Sagur river, which the Hittite people called Pitru. When I returned, I entered the passes of the land of Alzi; the lands of Alzi, Suhni, Daiaeni, Tumme, Arzashkunu, the royal city of Arame, the Armenian (king), Gilzânu, and Hubushkia (I conquered).

Source: http://www.cristoraul.com/ENGLISH/readinghall/UniversalHistory/THE_OLD_WORLD/Black-Obelisk-of-Shalmaneser_II.html

Arzashkun was the capital of the Armenian kingdom of Van in the 9th century BC, before Sarduri I moved it to Tushpa in 832 BC. According to historians Arzashkun is the Assyrian form of an Armenian name ending in -ka formed from a proper name Arzash, which recalls the name Arsene, Arsissa, applied by the ancients to part of Lake Van. Arzashkun might represent the Ardzik of the Armenian historians, west of Malasgert.

Source: History of Egypt – Page 91 by G. Maspero

King Aram with His Child Ara the Handsome, by Rubik Kocharian, 2014

Armenia was well known to classical Greek and Roman writers who on occasion made personal journeys to Armenia describing some of its countryside, villages and cities. Many of which are today only remembered through their records. Pliny the Elder for example recounts a few in his work “The Natural History” (6.10):

“The more famous towns in Lesser Armenia are Cæsarea, Aza, and Nicopolis;  in the Greater Arsamosata, which lies near the Euphrates, Carcathiocerta upon the Tigris, Tigranocerta which stands on an elevated site, and, on a plain adjoining the river Araxes, Artaxata… Claudius Cæsar makes the length (of the country Armenia), from Dascusa to the borders of the Caspian Sea, thirteen hundred miles, and the breadth, from Tigranocerta to Iberia, half that distance. It is a well-known fact, that this country is divided into prefectures, called “Strategies,” some of which singly formed a kingdom in former times; they are one hundred and twenty in number, with barbarous and uncouth names.”

Ptolemy gives a list of Armenian towns, some of which are not recorded in other sources, and their site remains unknown. The towns which are best known in connection with the writers of Greece and Rome are: Artaxata or Artaxiasata; Tigranocerta; Theodosiopolis; Carcathiocerta; Armosata; Artageira; Naxuana; Morunida; Buana; Bizabda and Amida.

Let us examine some of these cities in more detail:

Arsamosata

Armenian Kingdom of Sophene Arsames II ca. 230BC

Arsamosata (Արշամշատ, Arshamshat) was a city in Armenian Sophene near the Euphrates. It was founded by King Arsames I of the Orontid Dynasty in the 3rd century BC. Polybius provides our earliest extant evidence for Arsamosata in western Armenia (Sophene). According to him Antiochos III encamped before Armosata, which was located near the “Fair Plain,” between the Euphrates and the Tigris. Polybius also says that Xerxes was the king of the city. This Xerxes (Armenian: Shawarsh) is the son of Arsames, who founded Arsamosata. Pliny said it was one of the important cities of Greater Armenia, and Tacitus described it as a fortress. Ptolomy said it was located in the region between the Euphrates and the Tigris.  In the Middle Ages it was called Ashmushat. The city has been identified with the modern Kharput (Elazığ). T. A. Sinclair has located Arsamosata at the site of Haraba near Kharput. Much of that site now lies submerged under the waters due to the construction of the Keban Dam.

Artashat (Artaxata)

Location of anicent Artashat, Armenia. Khor Virap and Ararat-Landscape

Founded by King Artashes I in 176 BC, Artashat served as the capital of the Kingdom of Armenia from 185 BC until 120 AD, and was known as the “Vostan Hayots” or “court” or “seal of the Armenians.” The story of the foundation is given by the Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi of the fifth century:

“Artashes traveled to the location of the confluence of the Yeraskh and Metsamor [rivers] and taking a liking to the position of the hills [adjacent to Mount Ararat], he chose it as the location of his new city, naming it after himself.”

According to the accounts given by Greek historians Plutarch and Strabo, Artashat is said to have been chosen on the advice of the Carthaginian general Hannibal. However, modern historians argue that there is no direct evidence to support the above mentioned passage. Some sources have also indicated that Artashes built his city upon the remains of an old Araratian settlement.

Strabo and Plutarch describe Artashat as a large and beautiful city and the royal residence (basileion) of the country. Plutarch also mentions that it was the royal residence of Tigranes. A focal point of sophisticated culture, Armenia’s first theater was built here. Movses Khorenatsi mentions numerous pagan statues of the gods and goddesses of Anahit, Artemis and Tir were brought from the religious center of Bagaran and other regions to the city.

Artashes also built a citadel (which was later named Khor Virap and gained prominence as the location where Gregory the Illuminator was to be imprisoned by Trdat the Great) and added other fortifications, including a moat. The city’s strategic position in Araks valley on the silk road, soon made Artashat a center of bustling economic activity and thriving international trade, linking Persia and Mesopotamia with the Caucasus and Asia Minor. Its economic wealth can be gauged in the numerous bathhouses, markets, workshops administrative buildings that sprang up during the reign of Artashes I. The city had its own treasury and customs. The amphitheater of Artashat was built during the reign of king Artavazd II (55-34 BC). The remains of the huge walls surrounding the city built by King Artashes I could be found in the area.

Artemita

Lake Van

A rather mysterious and forgotten city in ancient Armenia. Ptolomy twice mentions an Artemita in Armenia (5.13.21, 8.19.13). These are the only extant ancient attestations for Artemita. M. L. Chaumont has suggested it was located on the southern shores of Lake Van at the site of the town of Edremit. Horatio Southgate (1840) in his book “Narrative of a Tour Through Armenia, Kurdistan, Persia and Mesopotamia” also identifies Artemita with the village Erdremit:

“The name of this village (Erdremid) seems to have escaped entirely the notice of geographers, probably from the fact, that the few travelers who have passed this way did not stop here, but ended their day’s journey in Van. It was only the accident of sickness which induced me to make it my resting-place for a night. I think there can be little doubt that is the site of the ancient city of Artemita.”

Today there is a village in the Armavir Province of Armenia known as Artamet.

Epiphaneia on the Tigris

Tigris river near Diyarbakir

Another fairly unknown ancient Armenian city was recorded by a Greek author Stephanos. Stephanos is our sole extant source for an Epiphaneia on the Tigris. He adds that originally it had been called “Arkesikerta” and that it had been founded by Arkesios. A number of sources mention that Antiochos IV Epiphanes conducted a campaign against the Armenian king Artaxias probably in 165 B.C. We can therefore safely assume that the settlement was subsequently renamed by Antiochos IV.

M. L. Chaumont suggested one of two possible locations for Epiphaneia: Egil or Diyarbakir (modern Amida), both in southeastern Turkey.

Carcathiocerta

Ancient ruins at Eğil near the river Tigris

Carcathiocerta was a city in Armenian Sophene near the Tigris, identified with the modern city of Eğil. It was the first capital of Sophene until Arsames I founded the new capital Arshamshat around 230 BCE. 

Not much has been recorded about the city but Strabo in his Geography, calls it “The royal city of Sophene”.

Tigranocerta

Tigranakert of Artsakh

Tigranocerta was the capital of the Armenian Kingdom. It bore the name of Tigranes the Great, who founded the city in the first century BC. The name of the city means “made by Tigran”, and was possibly located near present-day Silvan or nearby Arzan (Arzn, in the Armenian province of Arzanene or Aghdznik), east of Diyarbakır modern day Turkey. It was one of four cities in historic Armenia named Tigranakert. The others were located in Nakhichevan, Artsakh and Utik.

The city’s markets were filled with traders and merchants doing business from all over the ancient world. Tigranocerta quickly became a very important commercial, as well as cultural center of the Near East. The magnificent theater that was established by the Emperor, of which he was an avid devotee, conducted dramas and comedies mostly played by Greek as well as Armenian actors. Plutarch wrote that Tigranocerta was “a rich and beautiful city where every common man and every man of rank studied to adorn it.” Tigranes had divided Greater Armenia – the nucleus of the Empire – into four major strategic regions or viceroyalties.

A Roman force under Lucius Lucullus besieged the city in the summer of 69 B.C. but was unable to swiftly overrun it. Tigranocerta was still an unfinished city when Lucullus laid siege to it in the late summer of 69. The city was heavily fortified and according to the Greek historian Appian, had thick and towering walls that stood 25 meters high, providing a formidable defense against a prolonged siege. The Roman siege engines that were employed at Tigranocerta were effectively repelled by the defenders by the use of naphtha, making Tigranocerta, according to one scholar, the site of “perhaps the world’s first use of chemical warfare.” After a lengthy siege the gates to Tigranocerta were sabotaged and opened by the foreign inhabitants of the city. Lucullus entered the city and sacked Tigranocerta. After the plunder, which included the destruction of statues and temples, the city was set ablaze. An abundant quantity of gold and silver was carried off to Rome as war booty. Lucullus took most of the gold and silver from the melted-down statues, pots, cups and other valuable metals and precious stones. The newly established theater building was also destroyed in the fire. Nonetheless Tigranes managed to escape north into Armenian Highlands.

In the summer of 68 BC Lucullus again marched against Tigranes the Great and crossed the Anti-Taurus range heading for the old Armenian capital Artaxata. Once again Tigranes was provoked to attack and in a major battle at the Arsanias River Lucullus was heavily defeated by the Armenian army. Soon he left this campaign and when winter came on early in the Armenian Highland, his troops mutinied, refusing to go further, and he was forced to withdraw southwards back into Arzenene. From there he proceeded back down through Gordyene into old Assyria. During the winter of 68-67 B.C. at Nisibis, his authority over his army was more seriously undermined as mutiny spread in the legions with the troops refusing to obey Lucullus’ commands. After these defeats Lucullus was thoroughly discredited in the eyes of his soldiers, as well as the senate.

The Roman senate sent Pompey to succeed Lucullus in the eastern campaign. Tigranocerta was retaken briefly by Rome, but given back to Tigranes as a means for consolidating peace. Pompey was inclined to make peace with the 75 year old King and Tigranes continued to rule Armenia as an ally of Rome until his death. As Cicero amply describes in his work For Sestius:

“Tigranes—who was himself an enemy of the Roman people, and who received our most active enemy in his territories, who struggled against us, who fought pitched battles with us, and who compelled us to combat almost for our very existence and supremacy—is a king to this day, and has obtained by his entreaties the name of a friend and ally, which he had previously forfeited by his hostile and warlike conduct.”

During the Ottoman period, Armenians referred to the city of Diyarbekir as Dikranagerd (Western Armenian pronunciation of Tigranakert).

Karin/Theodosiopolis/Erzurum

View of modern Erzurum, East Turkey.

The city of Erzurum was founded by the Armenian royal dynasty. In ancient times, Erzurum existed under the Armenian name of Karin. During the reigns of the Artaxiad and Arsacid kings of Armenia, Karin served as the capital of the eponymous canton of Karin, mentioned in Strabo’s Geography (12.3)  as a large district named Carana. After the partition of Armenia between the Eastern Roman Empire and Sassanid Persia in 387 AD, the city passed into the hands of the Romans. They renamed it to Theodosiopolis, in honour of the Emperor Theodosius the Younger in A. D. 416. It was for a long time subject to the Byzantine emperors, who considered it the most important fortress of Armenia. As the chief military stronghold along the eastern border of the empire, Theodosiopolis held a highly important strategic location and was fiercely contested in wars between the Byzantines and Persians. About the middle of the 11th century it received the name of Arze-el-Rum, contracted into Arzrum or Erzrum. It owed its name to the circumstance, that when the city of Arzek was taken by the Seljuk Turks, A. D. 1049, its Armenian, Syrian, and other Christian inhabitants moved to Theodosiopolis, and gave it the name of their former abode. Which from its long subjection to the Romans had received the epithet of Rúm.

Sources:

• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0137:book%3D6&force=y
• Getzel M. Cohen (2013), The Hellenistic Settlements in the East from Armenia and Mesopotamia to Bactria and India
• Strabo (1st. c. BC.) Geographica
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artashat
• Horatio Southgate (1840), Narrative of a Tour Through Armenia, Kurdistan, Persia and Mesopotamia: With an Introduction, and Occasional Observations Upon the Condition of Mohammedanism and Christianity in Those Countries, Volume 2
• Gevork Nazaryan, Armenian Highland
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodosiopolis_(Armenia)
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0239:book=12:chapter=3
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0020:text=Sest.:chapter=27
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcathiocerta
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigranocerta

Hey guys check out an awesome new blog about Armenian history and culture that I recently discovered. Make sure to like it!

http://armenianhighland.tumblr.com/

Aratta is a mountainous land that appears in Sumerian myths  identified by various scholars with Ararat (Ayrarat) of historical Armenia.[1][2][3][4][5] Aratta was considered a holy site (home to the goddess Inanna, analogue of Anahit) [6][7][8] famous for metallurgy, stone masonry, gold production, silver and their precious blue Azurite stones. Since the antiquity Armenia was known for the best quality of these mineral stones which are called Lapis Armenus, also known as Armenian stone in natural history. Lapis Armenus is a variety of precious blue Azurite stone, nearly identical to the Azurite known as lapis lazuli, occasionally used interchangeably [9][10] but distinguished by a finer structure sometimes containing greenish tints. The 1816 Encyclopedia Perthensis notes that Armenian stone “was anciently brought from Armenia to Europe”. Emanuel Mendes da Costa (1757) describes it having: “an elegant bright or clear blue color, sometimes of a deeper sometimes of a paler blue, and also sometimes with a greenish cast.”[11] The blue of Azurite is exceptionally deep and clear, and for that reason the mineral has tended to be associated since antiquity with the deep blue color of low-humidity desert and winter skies. Lapis Armenus was highly esteemed in antiquity, and attempts have been made to recreate it artificially. Sumerian king Enmerkar (ca. 2100 BC) in the epic “Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta” prays to the deity Inanna asking her to bring him precious materials from Aratta, including Azurite blue stones called “za-gin” in Sumerian epics.[12]

“My sister, let Aratta fashion gold and silver skilfully on my behalf for Unug. Let them cut the flawless [za-gin] (Azurite) from the blocks”… “Let the people of Aratta bring down for me the mountain stones from their mountain, build the great shrine for me, erect the great abode for me…”

John Hill (1748) in his work on minerals gives a historic account of the Armenian stone, describing it as follows:

“A glorious color for painting, and was in the highest esteem as such among the ancients. Theophrastus has recorded it, p. 130. that it was a thing judged worthy of a place in the Egyptian annals, which of their kings had the honor of inventing the factitious kind : and that it was a substance of that value, that presents were made to great persons of it ; and that the Phoenicians paid their tribute in it.”[13]

To some Greek writers it was also known as ‘kuanos’ (κυανός: “deep blue,” root of English cyan) and in Latin ‘caeruleum nativum’ (native blue or sky blue) usually mixed with green elements (called Chrysocolla).[13] Theophrastus (c. 315 BC) confirms that “the native kuanos” (or Lapis Armenus) has in it “Chrysocolla,” which, to the ancients, was a green oxide of copper.[14] Referring to the Armenian stone Pliny the Elder (1st c. AD) in his Natural History describes its preparation as follows:

“When chrysocolla has been thus dyed, painters call it “orobitis,” and distinguish two kinds of it, the cleansed orobitis, which is kept for making lomentum, and the liquid, the balls being dissolved for use by evaporation. Both these kinds are prepared in Cyprus, but the most esteemed is that made in Armenia, the next best being that of Macedonia: it is Spain, however, that produces the most. The great point of its excellence consists in its producing exactly the tint of corn when in a state of the freshest verdure. Before now, we have seen, at the spectacles exhibited by the Emperor Nero, the arena of the Circus entirely sanded with chrysocolla, when the prince himself, clad in a dress of the same colour, was about to exhibit as a charioteer.”[15]

The classical author Vitruvius (1st century BC) lists the Armenian stone by the name of Armenium and Pliny (77AD) lists this among his ‘florid’ colours (at a massive 300 sesterces per pound).[16]  In the 1759 book “The Modern Part of an Universal History” the authors mention Lapis Armenus whose veins “naturally represent flowers, trees, mountains and rivers.” And from it tables and other ornaments are being made.[17] Theophilus (1847) in his work also mentions its ornamental usage:

“The deep blue, “Lapis Armenus” or cyanus, is even now cut for ornaments ; some of this so closely resembles sapphirus or lapis lazuli that it is only by the test of fire, which destroys the blue colour of the native carbonate of copper, the two are to be distinguished.”[14]

The Azurite Lapis Armenus is often found in association with another copper carbonate; the Malachite [18] also known as the green lapis lazuli (also identified with the Latin Chrysocolla).[19] The Sumerian epic “Lugalbanda and the Anzud bird” mentions this Malachite in Arrata:

“Aratta’s battlements are of green lapis lazuli, its walls and its towering brickwork are bright red, their brick clay is made of tinstone dug out in the mountains where the cypress grows.” [20]

Classical historians would still remember these ancient mines. Roman physician Pedanius Dioscorides (1st century AD) says that the “finest comes from Armenia, the next best from Macedonia and after that the Cyprus, but this mineral is not obtained from any of these places today.”[21] It is also known to have been used for coloring ancient Chinese porcelain.[22]  The Armenian Azurite has been used as a pigment as early as the Fourth Dynasty in Egypt. It was no doubt the most important blue pigment in European painting from the fifteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century. The paintings of that period contain more ultramarine made from lapis Armenus, than from any other substance.[29]

From Armenia to Babylon

Babylonian map of the world (6th c. BC)

The method of transporting the “stones of the mountain” from Aratta to Uruk and of transporting grain from Uruk to Aratta, as described in the Sumerian myths, seems consistent with such trade historically between the Armenian highlands and areas to its south, namely, by boat from Aratta toward the south, and by pack animal from Uruk towards the north. Extensive trade between Armenia and Babylon was well known in the ancient world. The Greek historian Herodotus (c.a. 450 BC) in his work “The Histories”: I:194 provides some details on cargo transport between Armenia and Babylon: 

But the greatest marvel of all the things in the land after the city itself, to my mind is this which I am about to tell: Their boats, those I mean which go down the river to Babylon, are round and all of leather: for they make ribs for them of willow which they cut in the land of the Armenians who dwell above the Assyrians, and round these they stretch hides which serve as a covering outside by way of hull, not making broad the stern nor gathering in the prow to a point, but making the boats round like a shield: and after that they stow the whole boat with straw and suffer it to be carried down the stream full of cargo; and for the most part these boats bring down casks of palm-wood filled with wine. The boat is kept straight by two steering-oars and two men standing upright, and the man inside pulls his oar while the man outside pushes. These vessels are made both of very large size and also smaller, the largest of them having a burden of as much as five thousand talents’ weight; and in each one there is a live ass, and in those of larger size several. So when they have arrived at Babylon in their voyage and have disposed of their cargo, they sell by auction the ribs of the boat and all the straw, but they pack the hides upon their asses and drive them off to Armenia: for up the stream of the river it is not possible by any means to sail, owing to the swiftness of the current; and for this reason they make their boats not of timber but of hides. Then when they have come back to the land of the Armenians, driving their asses with them, they make other boats in the same manner. [23]

Medicinal Powers of Lapis Armenus

From “The Anatomy of Melancholy, what it is: With All the Kinds, Causes, Symptons, Prognostics, and Several Cures of it, Volume 2″ by Robert Burton (1871)

Lapis Armenus has often been credited with medicinal and sometimes even magical powers. Among many other things lapis Armenus was used to cure depression, elephantiasis, asthma, kidney problems, infections and melancholia. [24] In medicine according to Dr. Grew (1757), “it is highly celebrated by some, not only for its innocent and most easy, but also most effectual operation, in such diseases as are supposed to depend on melancholy.”[11]. Nicholas Meripsa puts it among the best remedies, in his book Antidotis: “and if this will not serve (saith Rhasis) then there remains nothing but Lapis Armenius and hellebore itself.”[25] Similarly, Isidore Kozminsky (2012) in his recent book “Crystals, Jewels, Stones: Magic & Science” describes some of its medical properties:

“Lapis Armenus, or Armenian Stone, is a copper carbonate used as a medicine against infection. It is related in Arab books that a solution of this substance will retain its power for 10 years. In the East copper has been long used as a safeguard against cholera, and it has been observed that workers in copper mines have enjoyed immunity from the disease. The Lapis Armenus, like all copper compositions, is under the rule of the planet Venus.” [26]

Burton (1871) recounts physicians who speak highly of this substance:

“”That good Alexander” (saith Guianerus) “puts such confidence in this one medicine, that he thought all melancholy passions might be cured by it; and I for my part have oftentimes happily used it, and was never deceived in the operation of it.” The like may be said of lapis lazuli, though it be somewhat weaker than the other. Garcias ab Horto, hist. lib. 1. cap. 65.relates, that the physicians of the Moors familiarly prescribe it to all melancholy passions, and Matthiolus ep. lib. 3. brags of that happy success which he still had in the administration of it.”[25]

In the Arab world Lapis Armenus was famously used by doctors as a remedy or natural cure against vertigo, melancholia, and epilepsy. The lapis Armenus was well known to the Arabs under the name “Hajer Armeny”, and their medical writers describe it quite accurately. Ibn Beithar states that if properly prepared it would not provoke nausea, as was otherwise the case. It was said to cause a very abundant evacuation of bile and must have been regarded as an efficient remedy for the bilious disorders so general in warm climates.

A “blue amulet” against vertigo, melancholia and epilepsy could be made up of the following ingredients: shavings from an elk’s horn and from a human skull, to be reduced to a fine powder, the excrement of a peacock, white agate, lapis lazuli or lapis Armenus, of which enough was to be used to give the required sky-blue tint. The whole mass was then to be softened by the addition of gum tragacanth, and formed into heart-shaped tablets, which were to be dried out in the air, and then smoothed on a turning-lathe. These amulets were to be worn attached to the neck or the arm, sometimes they were enclosed in a little receptacle of silver or of red sandal-wood and suspended from the neck. (J.J. Kent, 2004)

Regarding the length of time during which various preparations retained their strength, Braunfels (1997) states that, according to the opinion of the Arabian physicians, the solution of lapis Armenus lasted for ten years, while that of lapis lazuli could be preserved only about three years. [28]  Pliny too mentions a blue Azurite pigment from Armenia, which was used “in medicine to give nourishment to the hair, and specially the eyelashes” (N.H. 35:28) [19] Physicians used to select lapis Armenus that is smooth, blue, non-granular and easily pulverized. [21]

SOURCES:

[1] Kavoukjian M. (1978) Armenia, Subartu and Sumer

[2] Nazaryan G. (2008) Armenian Highland

[3] Movsisyan A. Armenia in spiritual concepts of Ancient world. Armenological Encyclopedia

[4] Artak Movsisyan (1992) Aratta: The ancient Kindgom of Armenia, Yerevan

[5] Artak Movsisyan (2001) Aratta: Land of the Sacred Law, Yerevan

[6] Boyce, Mary (1982), A History of Zoroastrianism, Vol. II, Leiden/Köln: Brill

[7] Cumont, Franz (1926), “Anahita”, in Hastings, James, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics 1, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark

[8] Lommel, Herman (1927), Die Yašts des Awesta, Göttingen-Leipzig: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht/JC Hinrichs

[9] George Perkins Merrill, Margaret W. Moodey, Edgar Theodore Wherry (1922) Handbook and Descriptive Catalogue of the Collections of Gems and Precious Stones in the United States National Museum, Issues 118-120

[10] 1998 Webster’s

[11] Emanuel Mendes da Costa, (1757). A natural history of fossils

[12] Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta, ETCSLtranslation : t.1.8.2.3 

[13] John Hill, Thomas Osborne, (1748) A General Natural History Or, New and Accurate Descriptions of the Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals, of the Different Parts of the World

[14] Theophilus (1847), Theophili, qui et Rugerus, presbyteri et monachi, libri III. de diversis artibus: seu, Diversarum artium schedula  

[15] Pliny the Elder, ( 1st c. AD ) The Natural History, Chap: 27 

[16] Valentine Walsh, Tracey Chaplin (2008), Pigment Compendium: A Dictionary and Optical Microscopy of Historical Pigments, Routledge 

[17] S. Richardson, T. Osborne, C. Hitch, A. Millar, John Rivington, S. Crowder, P. Davey and B. Law, T. Longman, and C. Ware, (1759) The Modern Part of an Universal History: From the Earliest Account of Time. Compiled from Original Writers. By the Authors of The Antient Part  

[18] Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities, (1550-1820) British History Online

[19]  George Robert Rapp (2009) Archaeomineralogy

[20] Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta, ETCSLtranslation : t.1.8.2.2

[21] Geological Society of America (1955), De Natura Fossilium: Textbook of Mineralogy

[22] Charles Alfred Speed Williams (1941), Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs: An Alphabetical Compendium of Antique Legends and Beliefs, as Reflected in the Manners and Customs of the Chinese

[23] Herodotus (c.a. 450 BC) The Histories: I:194

[24] C.J. Duffin, R.T.J. Moody, C. Gardner-Thorpe, (2013) A History of Geology and Medicine

[25]  Robert Burton (1871),  The Anatomy of Melancholy, what it is: With All the Kinds, Causes, Symptons, Prognostics, and Several Cures of it, Volume 2  

[26] Isidore Kozminsky, (2012), Crystals, Jewels, Stones: Magic & Science 

[27] J.J. Kent, 2004

[28] George Frederick Kunz, (1997) The Magic of Jewels and Charms

[29] Attila Gazo (2010) Attila Gazo

Striking similarities between prehistoric monuments in Devon England, and Armenia

I came across an interesting book today, titled “Historical views of Devonshire” by Richard Polwhele (1793).

In his book Polwhele argues that the first inhabitants of Britain came from Armenia. And specifically settled in the South Britain’s Devon or Devonshire as it’s also called. Let’s examine some of the arguments mentioned in the book.

Polwhele introduces his theory by saying: “That the original inhabitants of Danmonium were of eastern origin, and, in particular, were Armenians, is a position which may, doubtless, be supported by some show of authority.” Danmonium being the Latin name for Davon. He goes on to explain:

“Let us consider the testimony of one of our chronicles, which speaks to the point of the Armenian emigration. The Saxon Chronicle positively asserts, that “the original inhabitants of Britain came from Armenia, and that they seated themselves in the south-west part of the island:” 

The Saxon Chronicle is said to have been written by a monk, at Lincoln: And similar chronicles were kept by the most learned monks in several monasteries throughout the kingdom. The monk of Lincoln seems to have been well informed: And there is no more reason to dispute the authority of the passage before us, than that of any other part of the book. For it is not a conjecture: It is not hazarded as an opinion: It is a positive assertion and relation of an event, as a thing generally known and understood to be true.”

Polwhele also discusses similarities between early Armenian and Briton living habits including caverns which are found in abundance in Devon. He says:

“That these caverns were places of temporary residence in the time of war, wither the Danmonii retired, for the security of their persons, their domestic furniture, and their warlike stores, I should judge not only from the disposition of the Aborigines so congenial with the oriental turn of mind, but from the resemblance, also of our Danmonian excavations to those in Scotland and Ireland, which are allowed to be military retreats. But, whatever was their use, they were very similar to the caves of the eastern nations, and especially of Armenia.”

“That the Asiatics, from whose country the Danmonians are supposed to have emigrated, ” made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strongholds,” is evident, both from sacred and profane history. There is a remarkable passage in Xenophon, describing the caves of the Armenians. Xenophon informs us,  “that the houses of the Armenians were under-ground — that the mouth or entrance to these subterraneous habitations was like that of a well, but that underneath, they were wide and spreading — that there were ways for the cattle to enter, but that the men went down by stairs.” In Armenia, at this day, the people dwell in caverns. “In a narrow valley (says Leonhaut Rauwolf ) lying at the bottom of an ascent, we found a great stable, wherein we went. This was quite cut into the hill : And so was that wherein we lodged the night before. So that you could see nothing of it, but only the entrance. For they are commonly so in these hilly countries, under-ground, that the caravans may safely rest there, and defend themselves from the cold in the winter. This stable, twenty-five paces long, and twenty broad, was cut  out of a rock.”  These descriptions of the Armenian caves agree, in several points, with that of the cave near Plymouth, as well as the Cornish caverns. Xenophon’s cave is fub-terraneous : So is that near Plymouth : The apertures of both are narrow : And both caverns are, afterwards, sufficiently capacious.”

He goes on to describe place names: “I observe that the caves in Devon (so like the under-ground habitations of Armenia) are mostly in the Southams, at no great distance from the river Arme, or the town of Armenton, on the banks of the Arme, where the emigrators from Armenia are supposed to have first settled.”

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reads: “The first inhabitants were the Britons, who came from Armenia, and first peopled Britain southward.”

The book further describes many common characteristics of Britons and Armenians. From the warlike spirit, clothing, social structures, names and living habits. Vallancy, on the authority of Sir George Yonge adds that “in S.W. of Dovenshire, there is still a river, called Armine ; and the town and hundred are called Armine-ton to this day.”

Polwhele finally concludes as follows:

“That the settlers in this island, were not a colony from Gaul, has been proved, on every view of the subject. And the vulgar theory of the original European plantations, would be abandoned, I think, on all hands, after a candid and liberal investigation of it. To such an investigation I should be happy to excite the learned. From the dubiousness of the common theory, I had a right to form a new hypothesis. And I have imagined a rapid emigration to these islands, for the most part by sea, from Armenia… I have not grounded my supposition on the sole authority of the Saxon Chronicle.  The evidence of Caesar himself, is strong in my favor : And the voice of the Greek historians and geographers is still more decisive. But the character of the orientals, so strikingly contrasted with that of the Europeans, and yet according with that of the aboriginal Danmonii, seems almost to determine the controversy. The orientals, at the time of their first emigration into different countries, were imprest with various traits of character ; such as we have discovered in their modes of settlement, their civil government, their religion, their commercial communications, their language and learning, their genius and their customs. The wandering spirit and patriarchal policy of Armenia.”

The King climbing the chrystal tower to Zoulvisia, illustration from The Olive Fairy Book by Andrew Lang (1907)

Folk tales are traditionally passed down generations through oral traditions and as such they tend to get lost in the mists of history.  Some make it into books recorded by curious scholars, others completely forgotten. It is therefore always a delight to stumble upon tales recorded or otherwise translated by foreign travelers and scholars interested in Armenian folklore. One of such scholars was the French orientalist Frédéric Macler. Macler was a specialist in Oriental Languages ​​and Civilizations, having learned Armenian, Assyrian and Hebrew. He is credited with hundreds of articles on Armenian language, history, architecture, music and miniatures. Among his achievements are his French translations of old Armenian legends and fairy tales. In his book “Contes Armeniens” (Armenian Tales, 1905) he has collected dozens of Armenian legends, folklore and fairy tales. One of these tales “The Story of Zoulvisia” was later translated into English by Andrew Lang and included in “The Olive Fairy Book” (1907). The story was also featured in the book Once Long Ago, by Roger Lancelyn Green.

By clicking the links you can read both of these books in their entirety. I’d love to read more from “Contes Armeniens”, unfortunately my French is fairly basic. But for those interested go ahead and explore more of these interesting tales. Furthermore by going HERE you can listen to the entire English version as an audiobook. Bellow follows Andrew Lang’s translation of The Story of Zoulvisia from “The Olive Fairy Book” (1907):

The Story of Zoulvisia

In the midst of a sandy desert, somewhere in Asia, the eyes of travellers are refreshed by the sight of a high mountain covered with beautiful trees, among which the glitter of foaming waterfalls may be seen in the sunlight. In that clear, still air it is even possible to hear the song of the birds, and smell of the flowers; but though the mountain is plainly inhabited—for here and there a white tent is visible—none of the kings or princes who pass it on the road to Babylon or Baalbec ever plunge into its forests—or, if they do, they never come back. Indeed, so great is the terror caused by the evil reputation of the mountain that fathers, on their death-beds, pray their sons never to try to fathom its mysteries. But in spite of its ill-fame, a certain number of young men every year announce their intention of visiting it and, as we have said, are never seen again.

Now there was once a powerful king who ruled over a country on the other side of the desert, and, when dying, gave the usual counsel to his seven sons. Hardly, however, was he dead than the eldest, who succeeded to the throne, announced his intention of hunting in the enchanted mountain. In vain the old men shook their heads and tried to persuade him to give up his mad scheme. All was useless; he went, but did not return; and in due time the throne was filled by his next brother.

And so it happened to the other five, but when the youngest became king, and he also proclaimed a hunt in the mountain, a loud lament was raised in the city.

‘Who will reign over us when you are dead? For dead you surely will be,’ cried they. ‘Stay with us, and we will make you happy.’ And for a while he listened to their prayers, and the land grew rich and prosperous under his rule. But in a few years the restless fit again took possession of him, and this time he would hear nothing. Hunt in that forest he would, and calling his friends and attendants round him, he set out one morning across the desert.

They were riding through a rocky valley, when a deer sprang up in front of them and bounded away. The king instantly gave chase, followed by his attendants; but the animal ran so swiftly that they never could get up to it, and at length it vanished in the depths of the forest.

Then the young man drew rein for the first time, and looked about him. He had left his companions far behind, and, glancing back, he beheld them entering some tents, dotted here and there amongst the trees. For himself, the fresh coolness of the woods was more attractive to him than any food, however delicious, and for hours he strolled about as his fancy led him.

By-and-by, however, it began to grow dark, and he thought that the moment had arrived for them to start for the palace. So, leaving the forest with a sigh, he made his way down to the tents, but what was his horror to find his men lying about, some dead, some dying. These were past speech, but speech was needless. It was as clear as day that the wine they had drunk contained deadly poison.

‘I am too late to help you, my poor friends,’ he said, gazing at them sadly; ‘but at least I can avenge you! Those that have set the snare will certainly return to see to its working. I will hide myself somewhere, and discover who they are!’

Near the spot where he stood he noticed a large walnut tree, and into this he climbed. Night soon fell, and nothing broke the stillness of the place; but with the earliest glimpse of dawn a noise of galloping hoofs was heard.

Pushing the branches aside the young man beheld a youth approaching, mounted on a white horse. On reaching the tents the cavalier dismounted, and closely inspected the dead bodies that lay about them. Then, one by one, he dragged them to a ravine close by and threw them into a lake at the bottom. While he was doing this, the servants who had followed him led away the horses of the ill-fated men, and the courtiers were ordered to let loose the deer, which was used as a decoy, and to see that the tables in the tents were covered as before with food and wine.

Having made these arrangements he strolled slowly through the forest, but great was his surprise to come upon a beautiful horse hidden in the depths of a thicket.

‘There was a horse for every dead man,’ he said to himself. ‘Then whose is this?’

‘Mine!’ answered a voice from a walnut tree close by. ‘Who are you that lure men into your power and then poison them? But you shall do so no longer. Return to your house, wherever it may be, and we will fight before it!’

The cavalier remained speechless with anger at these words; then with a great effort he replied:

‘I accept your challenge. Mount and follow me. I am Zoulvisia.’ And, springing on his horse, he was out of sight so quickly that the king had only time to notice that light seemed to flow from himself and his steed, and that the hair under his helmet was like liquid gold.

Clearly, the cavalier was a woman. But who could she be? Was she queen of all the queens? Or was she chief of a band of robbers? She was neither: only a beautiful maiden.

Illustration from The Olive Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

Wrapped in these reflections, he remained standing beneath the walnut tree, long after horse and rider had vanished from sight. Then he awoke with a start, to remember that he must find the way to the house of his enemy, though where it was he had no notion. However, he took the path down which the rider had come, and walked along it for many hours till he came to three huts side by side, in each of which lived an old fairy and her sons.

The poor king was by this time so tired and hungry that he could hardly speak, but when he had drunk some milk, and rested a little, he was able to reply to the questions they eagerly put to him.

‘I am going to seek Zoulvisia,’ said he, ‘she has slain my brothers and many of my subjects, and I mean to avenge them.’

He had only spoken to the inhabitants of one house, but from all three came an answering murmur.

‘What a pity we did not know! Twice this day has she passed our door, and we might have kept her prisoner.’

But though their words were brave their hearts were not, for the mere thought of Zoulvisia made them tremble.

‘Forget Zoulvisia, and stay with us,’ they all said, holding out their hands; ‘you shall be our big brother, and we will be your little brothers.’ But the king would not.

Drawing from his pocket a pair of scissors, a razor and a mirror, he gave one to each of the old fairies, saying:

‘Though I may not give up my vengeance I accept your friendship, and therefore leave you these three tokens. If blood should appear on the face of either know that my life is in danger, and, in memory of our sworn brotherhood, come to my aid.’

‘We will come,’ they answered. And the king mounted his horse and set out along the road they showed him.

By the light of the moon he presently perceived a splendid palace, but, though he rode twice round it, he could find no door. He was considering what he should do next, when he heard the sound of loud snoring, which seemed to come from his feet. Looking down, he beheld an old man lying at the bottom of a deep pit, just outside the walls, with a lantern by his side.

‘Perhaps he may be able to give me some counsel,’ thought the king; and, with some difficulty, he scrambled into the pit and laid his hand on the shoulder of the sleeper.

‘Are you a bird or a snake that you can enter here?’ asked the old man, awakening with a start. But the king answered that he was a mere mortal, and that he sought Zoulvisia.

‘Zoulvisia? The world’s curse?’ replied he, gnashing his teeth. ‘Out of all the thousands she has slain I am the only one who has escaped, though why she spared me only to condemn me to this living death I cannot guess.’

‘Help me if you can,’ said the king. And he told the old man his story, to which he listened intently.

‘Take heed then to my counsel,’ answered the old man. ‘Know that every day at sunrise Zoulvisia dresses herself in her jacket of pearls, and mounts the steps of her crystal watch-tower. From there she can see all over her lands, and behold the entrance of either man or demon. If so much as one is detected she utters such fearful cries that those who hear her die of fright. But hide yourself in a cave that lies near the foot of the tower, and plant a forked stick in front of it; then, when she has uttered her third cry, go forth boldly, and look up at the tower. And go without fear, for you will have broken her power.’

Word for word the king did as the old man had bidden him, and when he stepped forth from the cave, their eyes met.

‘You have conquered me,’ said Zoulvisia, ‘and are worthy to be my husband, for you are the first man who has not died at the sound of my voice!’ And letting down her golden hair, she drew up the king to the summit of the tower as with a rope. Then she led him into the hall of audience, and presented him to her household.

‘Ask of me what you will, and I will grant it to you,’ whispered Zoulvisia with a smile, as they sat together on a mossy bank by the stream. And the king prayed her to set free the old man to whom he owed his life, and to send him back to his own country.

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‘I have finished with hunting, and with riding about my lands,’ said Zoulvisia, the day that they were married. ‘The care of providing for us all belongs henceforth to you.’ And turning to her attendants, she bade them bring the horse of fire before her.

‘This is your master, O my steed of flame,’ cried she; ‘and you will serve him as you have served me.’ And kissing him between his eyes, she placed the bridle in the hand of her husband.

The horse looked for a moment at the young man, and then bent his head, while the king patted his neck and smoothed his tail, till they felt themselves old friends. After this he mounted to do Zoulvisia’s bidding, but before he started she gave him a case of pearls containing one of her hairs, which he tucked into the breast of his coat.

He rode along for some time, without seeing any game to bring home for dinner. Suddenly a fine stag started up almost under his feet, and he at once gave chase. On they sped, but the stag twisted and turned so that the king had no chance of a shot till they reached a broad river, when the animal jumped in and swam across. The king fitted his cross-bow with a bolt, and took aim, but though he succeeded in wounding the stag, it contrived to gain the opposite bank, and in his excitement he never observed that the case of pearls had fallen into the water.

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The stream, though deep, was likewise rapid, and the box was swirled along miles, and miles, and miles, till it was washed up in quite another country. Here it was picked up by one of the water-carriers belonging to the palace, who showed it to the king. The workmanship of the case was so curious, and the pearls so rare, that the king could not make up his mind to part with it, but he gave the man a good price, and sent him away. Then, summoning his chamberlain, he bade him find out its history in three days, or lose his head.

But the answer to the riddle, which puzzled all the magicians and wise men, was given by an old woman, who came up to the palace and told the chamberlain that, for two handfuls of gold, she would reveal the mystery.

Of course the chamberlain gladly gave her what she asked, and in return she informed him that the case and the hair belonged to Zoulvisia.

‘Bring her hither, old crone, and you shall have gold enough to stand up in,’ said the chamberlain. And the old woman answered that she would try what she could do.

She went back to her hut in the middle of the forest, and standing in the doorway, whistled softly. Soon the dead leaves on the ground began to move and to rustle, and from underneath them there came a long train of serpents. They wriggled to the feet of the witch, who stooped down and patted their heads, and gave each one some milk in a red earthen basin. When they had all finished, she whistled again, and bade two or three coil themselves round her arms and neck, while she turned one into a cane and another into a whip. Then she took a stick, and on the river bank changed it into a raft, and seating herself comfortably, she pushed off into the centre of the stream.

All that day she floated, and all the next night, and towards sunset the following evening she found herself close to Zoulvisia’s garden, just at the moment that the king, on the horse of flame, was returning from hunting.

‘Who are you?’ he asked in surprise; for old women travelling on rafts were not common in that country. ‘Who are you, and why have you come here?’

‘I am a poor pilgrim, my son,’ answered she, ‘and having missed the caravan, I have wandered foodless for many days through the desert, till at length I reached the river. There I found this tiny raft, and to it I committed myself, not knowing if I should live or die. But since you have found me, give me, I pray you, bread to eat, and let me lie this night by the dog who guards your door!’

This piteous tale touched the heart of the young man, and he promised that he would bring her food, and that she should pass the night in his palace.

‘But mount behind me, good woman,’ cried he, ‘for you have walked far, and it is still a long way to the palace.’ And as he spoke he bent down to help her, but the horse swerved on one side.

And so it happened twice and thrice, and the old witch guessed the reason, though the king did not.

‘I fear to fall off,’ said she; ‘but as your kind heart pities my sorrows, ride slowly, and lame as I am, I think I can manage to keep up.’

At the door he bade the witch to rest herself, and he would fetch her all she needed. But Zoulvisia his wife grew pale when she heard whom he had brought, and besought him to feed the old woman and send her away, as she would cause mischief to befall them.

The king laughed at her fears, and answered lightly:

‘Why, one would think she was a witch to hear you talk! And even if she were, what harm could she do to us?’ And calling to the maidens he bade them carry her food, and to let her sleep in their chamber.

Now the old woman was very cunning, and kept the maidens awake half the night with all kinds of strange stories. Indeed, the next morning, while they were dressing their mistress, one of them suddenly broke into a laugh, in which the others joined her.

‘What is the matter with you?’ asked Zoulvisia. And the maid answered that she was thinking of a droll adventure told them the evening before by the new-comer.

‘And, oh, madam!’ cried the girl, ‘it may be that she is a witch, as they say; but I am sure she never would work a spell to harm a fly! And as for her tales, they would pass many a dull hour for you, when my lord was absent!’

So, in an evil hour, Zoulvisia consented that the crone should be brought to her, and from that moment the two were hardly ever apart.

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One day the witch began to talk about the young king, and to declare that in all the lands she had visited she had seen none like him.

‘It was so clever of him to guess your secret so as to win your heart,’ said she. ‘And of course he told you his, in return?’

‘No, I don’t think he has got any,’ returned Zoulvisia.

‘Not got any secrets?’ cried the old woman scornfully. ‘That is nonsense! Every man has a secret, which he always tells to the woman he loves. And if he has not told it to you, it is that he does not love you!’

The Witch and her snakes, illustration from The Tale of Zoulvisia

These words troubled Zoulvisia mightily, though she would not confess it to the witch. But the next time she found herself alone with her husband, she began to coax him to tell her in what lay the secret of his strength. For a long while he put her off with caresses, but when she would be no longer denied, he answered:

‘It is my sabre that gives me strength, and day and night it lies by my side. But now that I have told you, swear upon this ring, that I will give you in exchange for yours, that you will reveal it to nobody.’ And Zoulvisia swore; and instantly hastened to betray the great news to the old woman.

Four nights later, when all the world was asleep, the witch softly crept into the king’s chamber and took the sabre from his side as he lay sleeping. Then, opening her lattice, she flew on to the terrace and dropped the sword into the river.

The next morning everyone was surprised because the king did not, as usual, rise early and go off to hunt. The attendants listened at the keyhole and heard the sound of heavy breathing, but none dared enter, till Zoulvisia pushed past. And what a sight met their gaze! There lay the king almost dead, with foam on his mouth, and eyes that were already closed. They wept, and they cried to him, but no answer came.

Suddenly a shriek broke from those who stood hindmost, and in strode the witch, with serpents round her neck and arms and hair. At a sign from her they flung themselves with a hiss upon the maidens, whose flesh was pierced with their poisonous fangs. Then turning to Zoulvisia, she said:

‘I give you your choice—will you come with me, or shall the serpents slay you also?’ And as the terrified girl stared at her, unable to utter one word, she seized her by the arm and led her to the place where the raft was hidden among the rushes. When they were both on board she took the oars, and they floated down the stream till they had reached the neighbouring country, where Zoulvisia was sold for a sack of gold to the king.

Now, since the young man had entered the three huts on his way through the forest, not a morning had passed without the sons of the three fairies examining the scissors, the razor and the mirror, which the young king had left them. Hitherto the surfaces of all three things had been bright and undimmed, but on this particular morning, when they took them out as usual, drops of blood stood on the razor and the scissors, while the little mirror was clouded over.

‘Something terrible must have happened to our little brother,’ they whispered to each other, with awestruck faces; ‘we must hasten to his rescue ere it be too late.’ And putting on their magic slippers they started for the palace.

The servants greeted them eagerly, ready to pour forth all they knew, but that was not much; only that the sabre had vanished, none knew where. The new-comers passed the whole of the day in searching for it, but it could not be found, and when night closed in, they were very tired and hungry. But how were they to get food? The king had not hunted that day, and there was nothing for them to eat. The little men were in despair, when a ray of the moon suddenly lit up the river beneath the walls.

‘How stupid! Of course there are fish to catch,’ cried they; and running down to the bank they soon succeeded in landing some fine fish, which they cooked on the spot. Then they felt better, and began to look about them.

Further out, in the middle of the stream, there was a strange splashing, and by-and-by the body of a huge fish appeared, turning and twisting as if in pain. The eyes of all the brothers were fixed on the spot, when the fish leapt in the air, and a bright gleam flashed through the night. ‘The sabre!’ they shouted, and plunged into the stream, and with a sharp tug, pulled out the sword, while the fish lay on the water, exhausted by its struggles. Swimming back with the sabre to land, they carefully dried it in their coats, and then carried it to the palace and placed it on the king’s pillow. In an instant colour came back to the waxen face, and the hollow cheeks filled out. The king sat up, and opening his eyes he said:

‘Where is Zoulvisia?’

‘That is what we do not know,’ answered the little men; ‘but now that you are saved you will soon find out.’ And they told him what had happened since Zoulvisia had betrayed his secret to the witch.

‘Let me go to my horse,’ was all he said. But when he entered the stable he could have wept at the sight of his favourite steed, which was nearly in as sad a plight as his master had been. Languidly he turned his head as the door swung back on its hinges, but when he beheld the king he rose up, and rubbed his head against him.

‘Oh, my poor horse! How much cleverer were you than I! If I had acted like you I should never have lost Zoulvisia; but we will seek her together, you and I.’

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For a long while the king and his horse followed the course of the stream, but nowhere could he learn anything of Zoulvisia. At length, one evening, they both stopped to rest by a cottage not far from a great city, and as the king was lying outstretched on the grass, lazily watching his horse cropping the short turf, an old woman came out with a wooden bowl of fresh milk, which she offered him.

He drank it eagerly, for he was very thirsty, and then laying down the bowl, began to talk to the woman, who was delighted to have someone to listen to her conversation.

‘You are in luck to have passed this way just now,’ said she, ‘for in five days the king holds his wedding banquet. Ah! but the bride is unwilling, for all her blue eyes and her golden hair! And she keeps by her side a cup of poison, and declares that she will swallow it rather than become his wife. Yet he is a handsome man too, and a proper husband for her—more than she could have looked for, having come no one knows whither, and bought from a witch——’

The king started. Had he found her after all? His heart beat violently, as if it would choke him; but he gasped out:

‘Is her name Zoulvisia?’

‘Ay, so she says, though the old witch—— But what ails you?’ she broke off, as the young man sprang to his feet and seized her wrists.

‘Listen to me,’ he said. ‘Can you keep a secret?’

‘Ay,’ answered the old woman again, ‘if I am paid for it.’

‘Oh, you shall be paid, never fear—as much as your heart can desire! Here is a handful of gold: you shall have as much again if you will do my bidding.’ The old crone nodded her head.

‘Then go and buy a dress such as ladies wear at court, and manage to get admitted into the palace, and into the presence of Zoulvisia. When there, show her this ring, and after that she will tell you what to do.’

So the old woman set off, and clothed herself in a garment of yellow silk, and wrapped a veil closely round her head. In this dress she walked boldly up the palace steps behind some merchants whom the king had sent for to bring presents for Zoulvisia.

At first the bride would have nothing to say to any of them; but on perceiving the ring, she suddenly grew as meek as a lamb. And thanking the merchants for their trouble, she sent them away, and remained alone with her visitor.

‘Grandmother,’ asked Zoulvisia, as soon as the door was safely shut, ‘where is the owner of this ring?’

‘In my cottage,’ answered the old woman, ‘waiting for orders from you.’

‘Tell him to remain there for three days; and now go to the king of this country, and say that you have succeeded in bringing me to reason. Then he will let me alone and will cease to watch me. On the third day from this I shall be wandering about the garden near the river, and there your guest will find me. The rest concerns myself only.’

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The morning of the third day dawned, and with the first rays of the sun a bustle began in the palace; for that evening the king was to marry Zoulvisia. Tents were being erected of fine scarlet cloth, decked with wreaths of sweet-smelling white flowers, and in them the banquet was spread. When all was ready a procession was formed to fetch the bride, who had been wandering in the palace gardens since daylight, and crowds lined the way to see her pass. A glimpse of her dress of golden gauze might be caught, as she passed from one flowery thicket to another; then suddenly the multitude swayed, and shrank back, as a thunderbolt seemed to flash out of the sky to the place where Zoulvisia was standing. Ah! but it was no thunderbolt, only the horse of fire! And when the people looked again, it was bounding away with two persons on its back.

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Zoulvisia and her husband both learnt how to keep happiness when they had got it; and that is a lesson that many men and woman never learn at all. And besides, it is a lesson which nobody can teach, and that every boy and girl must learn for themselves.

(From Contes Arméniens. Par Frédéric Macler.)

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Did you know that the discovery of the ancient kingdom of Urartu/Ararat was made due to records from a medieval Armenian history book?

Well, the existence of the Kingdom of Ararat, or Urartu, was unknown to science until the year 1823 when a French scholar, J. Saint-Martin, chanced upon a passage in the ‘History of Armenia’ by Movses Khorenatsi, the Armenian historian of the fifth century A.D. who had recorded the kingdom in great detail. Inspired by these writings Jean Saint-Martin sent a team to the described location and discovered a kingdom completely unknown to western academia.

Armenian medieval historians were well aware of the old Armenian Kingdom of Van. Khorenatsi had described Urartian settlements in Van and attributed them to the legendary Armenian hero Ara the Beautiful also known as Aram. His description exactly matched, the later discovered, Assyrian clay tablet attributing the foundation of the kingdom to the first king of Urartu; king Aramu (c. 860 – 843 BC)

According to M. Chahin:

“Urartian history is part of Armenian history, in the same sense that the history of the ancient Britons is part of English history, and that of the Gauls is part of French history. Armenians can legitimately claim, through Urartu, an historical continuity of some 4000 years; their history is among those of the most ancient peoples in the world.”

- Mack Chahin, The Kingdom of Armenia, A History, 1987, revised in 2001