The Armenian civilization had its beginnings nearly 5,000 years ago and during the 3rd millenium BC. In the centuries following, the Armenians withstood invasions and nomadic migrations, creating a unique culture that blended Iranian social and political structures with Hellenic– and later Christian–literary traditions. For two millennia, independent Armenian states existed sporadically in the region between the northeastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea and the Caucasus Mountains, until the last medieval state was destroyed in the fourteenth century.

A landlocked country in modern times, Armenia was the smallest Soviet republic from 1920 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The future of an independent Armenia is clouded by limited natural resources and the prospect that the military struggle to unite the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region with the Republic of Armenia will be a long one.

The Armenians are an ancient people who speak an Indo-European language and have traditionally inhabited the border regions common to modern Armenia, Iran, and Turkey. They call themselves hai (from the name of Hayk, a legendary hero) and their country Haiastan. Their neighbors to the north, the Georgians, call them somekhi, but most of the rest of the world follows the usage of the ancient Greeks and refers to them as Armenians, a term derived according to legend from the Armen tribe. Thus the Russian word is armianin, and the Turkish is ermeni.

Early Armenian history

The Ancient Period

Armenia has been populated since prehistoric times, and has been proposed as the site of the Biblical Garden of Eden. Armenia lies in the highlands surrounding the Biblical mountains of Ararat, upon which Noah’s Ark came to rest after the flood. (Gen. 8:4). In Armeni Sumerian records written ca. 2,700 BC, tells us the story of the Great Flood and the rebirth of Life [the Tree of Life or the Garden [Partez - Paradise - the main motif in the Armenian-Hurrian Mitanni and Araratian reliefs] of Eden located in Armenia - the Land of Four Rivers. Archeologists continue to uncover evidence that Armenia and the Armenian Highlands was the earliest site of human civilization.
The earliest record identified with Armenians, is from an inscription which mentions Armani together with Ibla, as territories conquered by Naram-Sin (2300 BC) identified with an Akkadian colony in the Diarbekr region. To this day the Assyrians refer to Armenians by this form Armani. Another mention by Thutmose III of Egypt, mentions the people of Ermenen in 1446 BC, and says in their land “heaven rests upon its four pillars” (Thutmose was the first Pharoah to cross the Euphrates to reach the Armenian Highlands).[1] To this day Kurds and Turks refer to Armenians by Ermeni. From 10,000 BC to 1000 BC, tools and trinkets of copper, bronze and iron were commonly produced in Armenia and traded in neighbouring lands where those metals were less abundant.
Several states flourished in the area of Greater Armenia, including Aratta (Haik’s time), mentioned in Armenic Sumerian records (3rd millennium BC), the Hittite Empire (at the height of its power), Mitanni (South-Western historic Armenia) and Hayasa-Azzi (15th - 12th cc BC), and in the Iron Age the Nairi people (12th - 9th cc BC) and the Kingdom of Ararat (Biblical Ararat) (9th - 6th cc BC), each of the aformentioned nations and tribes participated in the ethnogenesis of the Armenian people. Yerevan, the modern capital of Armenia, was founded in 782 BC by the Urartian king Argishti I.

Aryan migrations pointing off the starting point: Armenia.      Aryan migrations pointing off the starting point: Armenia.Scholars V.V.Ivanov and Tamaz Gamreklide place the Indo-European (Aryan) homeland in Armenian Highland, postulating the Armenian language as an in situated development of a 3rd millennium BC Proto-Indo-European language. The first major state in the region was the kingdom of Aratta. The word Armani - an early form of Armen-Armin [Armen or Arman denotes the national affiliation, as with many cultures standing for the particular nation thus, the God AR being the primary deity in the Indo-European pantheon - thus AR MAN denotes — Men of Ar or Children of Ar, again initially AR standing for ARAREL-ARARICH [hence Ar-Ar-At the Place of ARAR] — Create-Creator, also Sun, Light, Life and Love.

The modern Armenian name for the country was Hayk, or Hayastan. Haya, combined with the suffix ‘-stan’ (land). Hayk was one of the great Armenian leaders after whom the The Land of Hayk was named. He is said to have settled at the foot of Mount Ararat, traveled to assist in building the Tower of Babel, and, after his return, defeated the Babylonian king Bel (believed by some researchers to be Nimrod) in 2492 BC near the mountains of Lake Van, in the southwestern part of historic Armenia (present-day eastern Turkey). Nairi, meaning “land of rivers”, used to be an ancient name for Armenia and Armenians, used by Assyrians and Egyptians.

Greek historians first mentioned the Armenians in the mid-fifth century B.C. Ruled for many centuries by the Persians, Armenia became a buffer state between the Greeks and Romans to the west and the Persians and Arabs of the Middle East. It reached its greatest size and influence under King Tigran II, also known as Tigranes or Tigran the Great (r. 95-55 B.C.). During his reign, Armenia stretched from the Mediterranean Sea northeast to the Mtkvari River (called the Kura in Azerbaijan) in present-day Georgia (see fig. 5). Tigran and his son, Artavazd II, made Armenia a center of Hellenic culture during their reigns.

By 30 B.C., Rome conquered the Armenian Empire, and for the next 200 years Armenia often was a pawn of the Romans in campaigns against their Central Asian enemies, the Parthians. However, a new dynasty, the Arsacids, took power in Armenia in 53 A.D. under the Parthian king, Tiridates I, who defeated Roman forces in 62 A.D. Rome’s Emperor Nero then conciliated the Parthians by personally crowning Tiridates king of Armenia. For much of its subsequent history, Armenia was not united under a single sovereign but was usually divided between empires and among local Armenian rulers.

Armenian Empire

The Empire of King Tigran Mets. (c) 2005, Armenica.org

Empire of King Tigran Mets. (c) 2005, Armenica.orgFrom 87 to 85, Tigran’s Army victoriously entered Armenian Mesopotamia [Northern Mesopotamia], the province of Korduk’, Migdonia and Adiabenē, which were previously under the control of the Parthians. The kingdoms of Osroyenē and Atrpatakan [Atropatene] also pledged their loyalty and support to Tigran the Great. In 85, the Parthians officially recognized him as the supreme ruler of the East. Tigran took the haled title of King of Kings, from the Parthian monarch, and honorably held it to the end of his life.

In 83, after a bloody strife for the throne of Syria, governed by the Seleucids, the Syrians decided to choose Tigran as the protector of their kingdom and offered him the crown of Syria. Tigran was crowned the same year with the support of the local aristocracy. Tigran conducted an “open” policy of free trade within the Hellenistic metropolitan polis’ [cities] of the vast Armenian Empire, granting autonomy to those important cities, who could mint their own currency and were judged according to the local laws and customs. The Syrian mints also issued coins depicting the Emperor, King of Kings Tigran the Great. According to Justin, Tigran reigned for eighteen years on the Syrian throne.

During this period, the Armenian forces advanced and conquered the kingdoms of Commagene [mostly Armenian in its demographic composition] and Cilicia [also containing a sizable Armenian community]. Once in Syria, Tigran was confronted with another foe, Queen Alexandra, ruler of Palestine. Josephus noted “She [Queen Alexandra] was a sagacious woman…she increased the army the one half, and procured a great body of foreign troops, till her own nation became not only very powerful at home, but terrible also to foreign potentates.” [Wars, I.v.3;Antic. XIII.xvi.4].

The Armenian troops quickly advanced and took the city of Acre [Ptolemais] in Phoenicia. Tigran’s Army successfully besieged the onetime seat of the Seleucid capital — Seleucia-on-Tigris. Josephus in his Antiquities wrote that Queen Alexandra “presented Tigranes, with many valuable gifts, and also ambassadors…” The Queen pledged her loyalty by offering all of Phoenicia to the King of Kings.

After the successive campaigns on the eastern sea shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and conquests in Syria, Phoenicia and Palestine, the Armenian warriors gained a reputation and respect not only throughout the Near East, but the Roman domain as well. The famous Greek historian Strabo wrote: “They fight on foot and on horseback, both in light and heavy armor. The horses are also protected with armor. They use javelins and bows and wear breastplates, shields, and coverings’; [XI.xiv.12] And…”They have a passion for riding and take good care of their horses…”

While Plutarch wrote that the Armenian archers could kill from 200 meters with their deadly accurate arrows. The Romans admired and respected the bravery and the warrior spirit of the Armenian Cavalry — the hardcore of Tigran’s Army. The Roman historian Sallustius Crispus wrote that the Armenian [Ayrudzi - lit. horsemen] Cavalry was “remarkable by the beauty of their horses and armor” Horses in Armenia, since ancient times were considered as the most important part and pride of the warrior. It was the horse and the wagons [as well as the iron weaponry], that made possible the vast migrations of Indo-European peoples from Armenia (Aratta).

Language

Indo-European (Aryan) family tree

Indo-European (Aryan) family treeBy Thomas V. hat community came the languages that persisted into written history.

The first to branch off was the Greek-Armenian-Indo-lranian language community. It must have begun to do so in the fourth millennium B.C. because by the middle of the third millennium B.C. the Gamkrelidze and V. V. Ivanov Scientific American, March 1990, P.110 This inference is supported by what is known about the portion of the Indo-European community that remained after the Anatolian family had broken away. From tcommunity was already dividing into two groups, namely, the Indo-lranian and the Greek-Armenian.

Tablets in the Hattusas archives show that by the middle of the second millennium B.C. the Indo-lranian group had given rise to a language spoken in the Mitanni kingdom on the southeast frontier of Anatolia that was already different from ancient Indian (commonly called Sanskrit) and ancient Iranian. Cretan Mycenaean texts from the same eras as Mitanni, deciphered in the early 1950’s by the British scholars Michael G. F. Ventris and John Chadwick, fumed out to be in a previously unknown dialect of Greek. All these languages had gone their separate ways from Armenian.

Apostles in Armenia.
Abgar died after 38 years of ruling. After his death the Armenian kingdom was split in two. His son Ananun(Nameless) mounted the throne in Edessa, while his nephew Sanatruk ruled in Greater Armenia. At that time, the Apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew traveled through Armenia to preach the word of God. Many people were converted and numerous secret Christian communities were established. However, the Apostles suffered martyrdom. Around 66, Ananun ordered to kill St.Thaddeus in Edessa. According to tradition, two other Apostles also met their death in different places of Armenia: St.Bartholomew was skinned alive in Alvanapolis, and Judas was pierced with arrows in Artaz region. In Armenia, the Apostles Thaddaeus and Bartholomew are particularly revered. They are considered the first preachers of Christianity in Armenia and the Armenian Church is called Apostolic in their honor.

Armenia becomes the first Christian nation.

For all that, it’s only two and half centuries later that Armenia was Christianized. In 301, the king Tiridates established Christianity as a sole religion of Armenia. Some modern researchers unsubstantially pretend the event took place in 314, and not in 301. The fact remains that the Edict of Milan decreed by Constantine the Great in 313 simply mandated tolerance of the Christians in the Roman Empire, while Tiridates the Great proclaimed Christianity as a sole religion throughout all Armenian lands. Thus, Armenia became the first Christian State in the history of the world.
Gregory the Illuminator, the first Patriarch of the Armenian Church, converted Tiridates and his court. Before his conversion Tiridates, famous for his tyranny, persecuted Christians. After many horrible tortures, he threw Gregory into an underground pit full of serpents and dead bodies, where Gregory spent 13 long years.
Agathangeghos, historian of 4th century, states that during Gregory’s imprisonment a group of Christian virgins under the guidance of Gayane Abbess arrived in the city of Vagharshapat. The King Tiridates fell in love with Hripsime, one of the virgins. As Hripsime rejected his love, he put the whole group of virgins to the sword. As a result of this evil deed, Tiridates was stricken with an incurable illness. Then Khosroviducht, his Christian sister, urged him to free Gregory. The King did so, and was miraculously healed.
During the following years, Tiridates and Gregory implanted the new religion with fire and sword. The sanctuaries and heathen temples were destroyed throughout the country. The only pagan temple remained intact to this day is Garni.
The first Christian churches appeared in Vagharshapat (Echmiadzin), in Nakhijevan, in Artsakh. According to different accounts presented in ancient legends and in the History of Moses Khorenatzi, the first cathedral of St.Echmiadzin (now the official center of the Armenian Church) was built between 301 and 303. The exact design and place came to St.Gregory in a divine vision: Christ himself descended to the Ararat valley and struck with a golden hammer to indicate the future location of the cathedral.

Arshak II,Papes and Varazdat.

The adoption of Christianity put an end to the pagan traditions and abolished the secular fine arts and poetry. The Persian influence was still very strong in Armenia, but now Armenia and Persia worshipped different Gods. The political consequences of the evolution were tragic. A series of wars weakened Armenia during the ruling of Arshak II. The Persian King Shapur II succeeded in sowing discord between Arshak II and his principal feudal lords, called Nakharars. Some of the lords defected to Shapur. The Armenian King was summoned to Persia and then imprisoned for life in the Castle of Oblivion. His wife, Queen Parandzem, led the Armenian defense in the Artagers castle, but after 14 months of siege was also imprisoned, taken to Persia and then killed.
Arshak’s successor, King Papes was as contradictory figure as his father. He was assassinated by order of the Emperor Flavius Theodosius after he allegedly had ordered the Armenian Catholicos Nerses the Great be poisoned. At that time Papes’ two sons were not of age to take the throne, so Theodosius crowned Varazdat, Papes’s nephew. This Varazdat was a handsome young man, a formidable warrior and a skillful fisticuffs fighter. He took part in the Olympic Games at Olympia, Greece and became victor. But the end of his ruling was unfortunate. His intention to marry the Persian Princess angered Theodosius, Persia’s sworn enemy. The perfidious Emperor ordered that Varazdat be enchained and exiled to an island.

St. Mesrob and the Golden Age of Armenia

The Armenian Kingdom fell into decay, but Christianity in Armenia strengthened considerably. At that time the necessity emerged to revive the lost Armenian alphabet. The Masses in Armenian churches were sung in Greek, the Royal Court and nobility spoke Greek and Parthian, priesthood, schools and different educational institutions widely used Greek and Syrian. Therefore, the recreation of the alphabet became vital to oppose the possible assimilation.
King Vramshapouh and Catholicos Sahak Partev assigned the task to Mesrob Mashtots, a genius scholar monk. Early in the fifth century A.D., Saint Mesrop, also known as Mashtots, devised an alphabet for the Armenian Language, and religious and historical works began to appear as part of the effort to consolidate the influence of Christianity

 Mesrop Mashtots statue in Oshakan Village

For several years, he traveled throughout Greater and Lesser Armenias and Mediterranean world in quest for the lost scriptures. In Edessa, he finds some of the scrolls in old Armenian, and after carefully reviewing them and exploring the possibilities, he recreates the Armenian alphabet in 405.
In 425, the Bible was translated into the Armenian language from the authentic copies of the Bible brought from Constantinople and Edessa. The Armenian translation is the fifth known translation of the Bible. Earlier, the Bible was only translated into the Syriac, the Latin, the Coptic and the Abyssinian languages.
Some specialists estimate this translation, performed by St.Mesrob and his disciples, as the best Bible translation ever. The French linguists of the 19th century termed it as the “Queen of translations”. St.Mesrob, later elevated into sainthood, is also known as the author of the actual Georgian alphabet. He also invented an alphabet for the large tribe of Gargareans, that inhabited Aghuank.

For the next two centuries, political unrest paralleled the exceptional development of literary and religious life that became known as the first golden age of Armenia. In several administrative forms, Armenia remained part of the Byzantine Empire until the mid-seventh century. In 653 A.D., the empire, finding the region difficult to govern, ceded Armenia to the Arabs. In 806 A.D., the Arabs established the noble Bagratid family as governors, and later kings, of a semiautonomous Armenian state.
The works of Faustus the Byzantine, Moses of Khorene, Eliseus , Koriun, Lazarus Barbedzi, Eznik of Kolb, David the Invincible, and others, may be considered milestones of historiography and philosophy.

St. Vardan and the first war for the Christian faith.

Meanwhile, Armenia lost independence. Over the next 200 years the eastern provinces were ruled by the Persian marzpans. A number of insurrections took place during that period. The most famous among them was the so-called Vardanank, War of St.Vardan in 451, described in details by Eliseus and Lazarus Barbedzi. The Persian King Yazdegerd II tried to put an end to Christianity in Armenia, and to disseminate the doctrine of Zoroaster. Armenians revolted when the numerous Persian priests were sent to Armenia to build temples and conduct fire worship.
On May 6, 451 a horrifically bloody battle took place in the Avarayr place. 66 thousand Armenians heroically fought the overwhelmingly superior Persian troops. Most of the Armenian lords including St.Vardan fell in battle, but Armenia undoubtedly won a great moral victory. Over 60 thousand of Persian soldiers were killed, and Yazdegerd’s hopes were dashed. That was the first known war for Christian faith in history.

Vahan Mamikonean.

30 years later a new resurrection took place, headed by Prince Vahan Mamikonean, St.Vardan’s nephew. This commander fought the Persian king Firuz II with changeable success. Firuz’s successor was a moderate ruler conceding the freedom of religion. Vahan was granted the title of marzpan. Another offspring of Mamikonean family, known as Red Vardan, rose against Persians in the middle of the next century. He captured the city of Dvin, the old Armenian capital. But soon the rising was put down, and Vardan made his escape to Greece.

Nshan not only has an inspirational talent that touches people’s hearts and soul, but he also has that pure presence that makes you realize how true of an Artist he is of old Armenian times.  

Mher Mkrtchyan was happiest and saddest artist of the Armenian
cinematography and theater:

Arno Babajanian, was distinguished composer of the 20th century, the USSR People’s Artist, the State Awards laureate of Armenia

Won a Pulitzer Prize for the play “The Time of Your Life” which he turned down. Wrote “The Human Comedy”, “My Name is Aram”, and directed a prize winning movie.

MRI diagnosis machine. Magnetic Resonance Imaging allows the insides of the body to be viewed without actually using surgery.

He was born April 24, 1953 and raised in Woburn, MA. He graduated from Oberlin College. The author of the plays Talk Radio, subUrbia, and Griller, monologist Eric Bogosian also earned acclaim for his three Obie Award-winning one-man performances Drinking in America, Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll and Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead. An actor whose work ranged from appearances in the Steven Seagal action thriller Under Siege 2 to the Woody Allen comedy Deconstructing Harry, Bogosian also dabbled in music, in 1986 collaborating with Frank Zappa on Blood on the Canvas.

Strange but True Facts
 

#1   A Goldfish’s attention span is three seconds
 

#2   Animals that lay eggs dont have belly buttons
 

#3   Beavers can hold their breathe for 45 minutes under water
 

#4   Slugs have 4 noses
 

#5   Camels have 3 eyelids
 

#6   A honey bee can fly at 15mph
 

#7   A queen bee can lay 800-1500 eggs per day
 

#8   A bee has 5 eyes
 

#9   The average speed of a housefly is 4.5 mph
 

#10  Mosquitos are attracted to people who just ate bananas
 

#11  Flamingos are pink because they eat shrimp
 

#12  Emus and Kangaroos cannot walk backward
 

#13  Cats have over 100 vocal chords
 

#14  Camel’s milk does not curdle
 

#15  All porcupines float in water
 

#16  The world’s termites outweigh the world’s humans 10 to 1
 

#17  A hummingbird weighs less then a penny
 

#18  A jellyfish is 95% water
 

#19  Children grow faster in the spring
 

#20  Broccoli is the only vegetable that is also a flower
 

#21  Almonds are part of the peach family
 

#22  Alaska has the highest percentage of people who walk to work
 

#23  The San Francisco Cable cars are th only mobile national monument
 

#24  The state of maine has 62 lighthouses
 

#25  The only food that does not spoil is honey
 

#26  The Hawaiian alphabet only has 12 letters
 

#27  A ball of glass will bounce higher then a ball of rubber
 

#28  Chewing gum while peeling onions will prevent you from crying
 

#29  On average a human will spend up to 2 weeks kissing in his/her lifetime
 

#30  Fish have eyelids
 

#31  The average human will eat an average of 8 spiders while sleeping
 

#32  There are one million ants to every human in the world
 

#33  Termites eat through wood two times faster when listening to rock music!
 

#34  If you keep a goldfish in a dark room it will eventually turn white
 

#35  Elephants only sleep 2 hours a day
 

#36  A duck’s quack doesn’t echo
 

#37  A snail breathes through it’s foot
 

#38  Fish cough…
 

#39  An ant’s smell is stronger then a dog’s
 

#40  It is possible to lead a cow up stairs but not down
 

#41  Shrimp can only swim backward
 

#42  Frogs cannot swallow with their eyes open
 

#43  A cat’s lower jaw cannot move sideways
 

#44  The bullfrog is the only animal that never sleeps
 

#45  Elephants are capable of swimming 20 miles per day
 

#46  Elephants are the only mammal that cannot jump
 

#47  Giraffes have no vocal chords
 

#48  Cats can hear ultrasound
 

#49  Despite its hump…camel’s have a straight spine
 

#50  Mosquitos have 47 teeth
 

#51  There are 63,360 inches in a mile
 

#52  11% of people in the world are lefthanded
 

#53  The average women consumes 6lbs of lipstick in her lifetime
 

#54  The average smell weighs 760 nanograms
 

#55  A human brain weighs about 3lbs
 

#56  1/4 of the bones in your body are in your feet
 

#57  You blink over 10,000,000 times a year
 

#58  A sneeze travels out of your nose at 100mph
 

#59  Brain waves can be used to power an electric train
 

#60  A tongue is the fastest healing part of the body
 

#61  Pigs get sunburn
 

#62  The lifespan of a tastebud is 10 days
 

#63  The average human produces 10,000 gallons of saliva in a lifetime
 

#64  Strawberries contain more Vitamin C then oranges
 

#65  A one-day weather forecast requires about 10 billion math calculations
 

#66  Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza a day
 

#67  There are 18 different animal shapes in the Animal cracker zoo
 

#68  The longest one syllabled word is “screeched”
 

#69  No word in the english language rhymes with month
 

#70  A “jiffy” is actually 1/100 of a second
 

#71  There is a town called “Big Ugly” in West Virginia
 

#72  The average person uses 150 gallons of water per day for personal use
 

#73  The average person spends 2 weeks of it’s life waiting for a traffic light to change
 

#74  You share your birthday with 9 million others in the world
 

#75  The average person makes 1,140 phone calls per year
 

#76  The average person spends 2 years on the phone in his/her lifetime
 

#77  No piece of paper can be folded more then 7 times
 

#78  Alaska is the most eastern and western state in the US
 

#79  There are 119 grooves on the edge of a quarter
 

#80  About 18% of Animal owners share their bed with their pet
 

#81  Alaska has more caribou then people
 

#82  August has the highest percent of births
 

#83  Googol is a number (1 followed by 100 zeros)
 

#84  Oysters can change genders back and forth
 

#85  The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows
 

#86  Until the 19th century solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia
 

#87  A mile on the ocean and a mile on land are not the same distance
 

#88  A ten gallon hat holds less then one gallon of liquid
 

#89  The average American walks 18,000 steps a day
 

#90  The average raindrop falls at 7mph
 

#91  There are more telephones then people in Washington D.C.
 

#92  Fish can drown
 

#93  A Kangaroo can jump 30 feet
 

#94  Lizards communicate by doing push-ups
 

#95  Squids can have eyeballs the size of volleyballs
 

#96  The average American will eat 35,000 cookies in his/her lifetime
 

#97  A turkey can run at 20mph
 

#98  When the moon is directly over you, you weigh less
 

#99  You burn 20 calories an hour chewing gum
 

#100 In a year, the average person walks 4 miles makeing their bed
 

#101 About half of all Americans are on a diet at any given time
 

#102 A one-minute kiss burns 26 calories
 

#103 Frowning burns more calories then smiling
 

#104 There are more then 30,000 diets on public record
 

#105 You will burn 7% more calories walking on hard dirt then pavement
 

#106 You way less at the top of a mountain then sea level
 

#107 You burn more calories sleeping then watching TV
 

#108 Licking a stamp burns 10 calories
 

#109 Smelling apples and/or bananas can help you loose weight