History of Armenia

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The history of Armenia includes developments in the territory of the Republic of Armenia and historical Armenian empires from prehistory to the present. Armenia was first mentioned as a country of Asia Minor in the middle of the 1st millennium BC under the present name of the country.

Prehistory

Paleolithic
The Karakhach and Kurtan sites had an approximate age of 1.810,000 ± 5,000, respectively. 1.432,000 ± 28,000 years prove the earliest presence of hominins. The third site of this early period is Muradovo.

Copper, Bronze and Iron Age
The Anatolian Chalcolithic period is dated to about 3630-3380 BC one of the oldest known shoe finds from the cave of Areni I (province of Wajoz Dsor) in the south of the country.

Between 3500 and 2100 BC we know the Kura-Araxes culture. Shortly after 3000 BC, as before in the Maikop culture, the first wheel models also appear here, around 2400 BC the first wagon wheels. The Kura-Araxes culture is followed by the Trialeti culture.

From about 860 BC to at least 547 BC, between the “three seas” of Vansee, Lake Urmia and Lake Sevan, the empire of Urartu existed, which also comprised about half of today’s Armenia.

Since 782 BC Yerevan / Yerevan (Urartian Erebuni) is known as the name of a settlement and fortress that later became the name of the Armenian capital.

From 700 BC broke short term to about 672 BC. the Kimmerers from the Caucasus over the west coast of the Caspian Sea arrive in the region. 547 B.C. Urartu is named by Cyrus II. Conquered and part of the Persian Achaemenid Empire.

Oldest surviving use of the name Armenia
In the trilingual Behistun inscription of Darius I of 521 BC, the name of Armenia (Old Persian Arminia, Elamic Harminuja) is equivalent to the ancient name Uraštu in the Babylonian language. After Alexander annexed the country in 334 BC, indigenous dynasties ruled Armenia under the rule of the Seleucids.

Ancient

Orontid and artaxid dynasty
After the division of the Alexander Empire among the generals of the Macedonian conqueror fell in the years from 312 BC. the upper satrapies of Seleucus I, who later extended his rule to Syria and Asia Minor. Among his empire and that of his Seleucid successors also belonged the satrapy Armenia, which included the hill country north of Mesopotamia between Taurus and Little Caucasus. The rulers of Armenia, who came from the Orontid family, gained an independent position and took the title of king. From 212 BC, the Seleucid ruler brought Antiochus III. (223–187 BC) restored the Seleucid rule in the upper satrapies and forced the last Orontid rulers to recognize his supremacy, until he brought the country under his direct rule and two governors with the title