Herodotus was wrong, Armenians do not come from the Balkans

The Armenian population, historically considered as descendants of Phrygian settlers from the Balkans, may actually have different origins, showing similarities with the eastern, western and central communities of the highlands. This curious result emerges from a study, published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, conducted by scientists from the School of Genetics and Microbiology of Trinity College Dublin and the University of Cambridge. The team, led by Anahit Hovhannisyan, he overturned the theory relating to the Balkan origins of the Armenians. Supported by the Greek historian Herodotus, who observed that Armenians were armed in the Phrygian manner when serving in the Persian army, this hypothesis was also supported by linguists, according to whom the Armenian language shares links with the Thraco-Phrygian subgroup of Indo-European languages .

The research team examined the entire genome of modern Armenian populations with the known genetic data of ancient individuals from the Armenian highlands. The analysis does not highlight any significant genetic link, suggesting a different origin for the Armenians. “For centuries – states Hovhannisyan – historical beliefs have shaped our understanding of the past, often leading us to believe that what were only theories are truths. Now, with the ability to analyze whole genomes and ancient DNA, we can reframe long-held ideas and gain a more nuanced and scientifically grounded view of the history of human populations.”

The authors found that populations from the eastern, western and central parts of the Armenian highlands show a relatively high level of similarity. In the context of work, researchers have also disproved the idea of ​​an Assyrian ancestry for the Sasun,an Armenian population that inhabited the southern part of the Armenian Highlands (present-day southeastern Türkiye). This connection had been cited in many historical sources, including the Bible, cuneiform texts, and local traditional stories. In fact, the authors argue, the Sasun had experienced significant shrinkage in size in the recent past, which distinguishes them from other populations.

“When checking genetic continuity in the Armenian highlands,” Hovhannisyan reports, “we found genetic input into the region from a source linked to Neolithic Levantine farmers at some point after the Early Bronze Age. In terms of timing and genetic ancestry, this aligns with previous findings in adjacent regions, thus allowing us to conclude that there was a large-scale post-Early Bronze Age movement across the Middle East. In the next in-depth studies we will try to answer the questions still unresolved about this widespread wave of migration”.