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Part of a series on the
History of Armenia
Prehistory Shulaveri–Shomu culture Kura–Araxes culture Legend of Hayk Trialeti–Vanadzor culture Armani Lchashen–Metsamor culture Hayasa-Azzi Arme–Shupria Mushki Urumu Nairi Confederation Urartu (Kingdom of Van) Etiuni
Antiquity Satrapy of Armenia Armenia Minor Kingdom of Armenia Armenian Empire Roman Armenia Christianization of Armenia Kingdom of Sophene Commagene Byzantine Armenia Sasanian Armenia Muslim conquest of Armenia
Middle Ages Emirate of Armenia Principality of Hamamshen Kingdom of Armenia Kingdom of Vaspurakan Kingdom of Tashir-Dzoraget Kingdom of Syunik Kingdom of Artsakh Zakarid Armenia Principality of Khachen Mongol Armenia Kingdom of Cilicia
Early modern age Iranian Armenia Five Melikdoms Ottoman Armenia Russian Armenia Armenian Oblast Armenian question Armenian genocide Western Armenia National movement
Modern age First Republic of Armenia Armenian S.S.R. Republic of Mountainous Armenia Contemporary Armenia Republic of Artsakh
Timeline • Origins • Etymology
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The name Armenia is an exonym, the Armenian language name for the country being Hayk‘ (see Haik for a discussion of that name). Its first unambiguous application as the ethnonym of the Armenians is in a late 6th century BC Old Persian inscription, as Armina, and a few decades later, Herodotus, in his review of the troops opposing the Greeks, wrote that “the Armenians were armed like the Phrygians, being Phrygian settlers" .

There are, however, surprisingly early (Bronze Age) attestations of what appears to be the same name as a geographical term in both Mesopotamian and Egyptian sources. The earliest is from an inscription which mentions Armânum (also read Armani) together with Ibla (Ebla) as territories conquered by Naram-Sin (23rd century BC) identified with an Akkadian colony in the Diarbekr region

A Babylonian inventory of the Akkadian Empire locates the land Armanî next to Lullubi Another mention by pharoah Thutmose III in the 33rd year of his reign (1446 BC) as the people of Ermenen ("Region of the Minni"), and says in their land "heaven rests upon its four pillars".

Minni (מנּי) is also a Biblical name of the region, appearing in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 51:27) alongside Ararat and Ashchenaz, probably the same as the Minnai of Assyrian inscriptions, perhaps corresponding to the Minyans. Armenia is interpreted by some as Minni, that is, "the mountainous region of the Minni".

It has been suggested that Old Persian Armina and the Greek Armenoi are continuations of the Assyrian toponym.

There have been further speculations as to the existence Bronze Age tribe (of an ethnonym, as opposed to a toponym) of the Armens (Armans, Armani; Armenian: Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)), either identical to or forming a subset of the Hayasa-Azzi Etymological speculation inspired by the Armenian hypothesis of Indo-European origins connects the name with the Ar- root meaning light, sun, fire found in Arev (Sun), Arpi (Light of heaven), Ararich (God or Creator), Ararat (place of Arar), Aryan, Arta etc. Alternatively, the name has been claimed as a "variant" of Urmani, a e living near Lake Van and near Lake Urmia according to an inscription of Menousas. According to an increasing number of scholars, Indo-European presents was in the Armenian Highland since the 3rd millenium BC. These scholars place the homeland in Armenia, located where the Kuro-Araxes culture showed Indo-European presents at the same time.

Armenian tradition makes Armenak or Aram the great-grandson of Haik. Other authors connect the Parsi name Armin.

Modern terms for Armenians and Armenia in Armenian and neighboring languages:

References

1. Herodotus, History, 7.73.
2. Artak Movsisyan, "Aratta: The ancient Kindgom of Armenia," Yerevan, 1992, p. 184
3. surviving in an early Babylonian copy, ca. 2200 BC, URI 275, lines I.7, 13; II.4; III.3, 30.
4. Horace Abram Rigg, Jr., A Note on the Names Armânum and Urartu, Journal of the American Oriental Society (1937).
5. no. 92 of Schroeder's 1920 Keilschrifttexte aus Assur; W. F. Albright, A Babylonian Geographical Treatise on Sargon of Akkad's Empire, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 45. (1925), p. 212.
6. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 1915; Eric H. Cline and David O'Connor (eds.) Thutmose III, University of Michigan, 2006, ISBN 978-0472114672.
7. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia s.v. Minni
8. Smith's Bible Dictionary
9. Easton’s Bible Dictionary
10. H. A. Rigg (1937).
11. Rafael Ishkhanyan, "Illustrated History of Armenia," Yerevan, 1989
12. Elisabeth Bauer. Armenia: Past and Present (1981), p. 49
13. T. V. Gamkrelidze and V. V. Ivanov, The Early History of Indo-European (aka Aryan) Languages, Scientific American, March 1990
14. Vahan Kurkjian, History of Armenia, Michigan 1968
15. James P. Mallory, "Kuro-Araxes Culture", Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.; T. V. Gamkrelidze and V. V. Ivanov, The Early History of Indo-European (aka Aryan) Languages, Scientific American, March 1990
16. Hovick Nersessian, Highlands of Armenia, 1998, Los Angeles
17. Parsiana, Book of Iranian Names: a dweller of the Garden of Eden, a son of king Kobad

See also

• Hayasa-Azzi
• Kingdom of Armenia

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