Academic Hypotheses on the Ethnic Origins of the Armenians

Abstract

Discussions on the ethnic origins of Armenians in scientific publications do not cease. As a rule, the historians and ethnographers of the Ancient Middle East dispute two popular theories. The first of them is “autochthonous” (“Ḫayaša hypothesis”), which has been widely supported by the academic circles within the Republic of Armenia since Soviet times. The second is “migration-mixed” (“Ḫatti hypothesis”), to which many Russian and Western specialists continue to appeal. Due to the lack of consensus, the author of this article set out to analyze the history and main provisions of both scientific theories. In addition, he extracted from the multilingual cuneiform monuments of the Assyrian, Achaemenid, Babylonian, Urartian, Hittite, and Sumero-Akkadian cultures, Luwian hieroglyphics, as well as from the books of the Old Testament and ancient Greek and ancient Armenian literature all the materials that may be related to the ethnic and linguistic elements that took part in the long process of ethnogenesis of the Armenians.