Armenian Genome Mapping Proves Herodotus was Wrong, Again

A new study has analyzed a large whole genome dataset of the Armenian population. The study, published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, has caught out at least one ancient historian.

The Armenians, an ancient peoples of West Asia, can be dated back thousands of years. Darius the Great of Persia spoke of them in the 6th century BC, as did the Greeks, both talking as if of a long-established culture.

They were one peoples among many, and the tangled web of their origins was not always clear. It’s always nice to know how things came to be as they are, and happily the Armenians had an answer: they called themselves the Hay, they were descended from Hayk, and Hayk was descended from Noah.

As ethnic origin stories go this is all great stuff, but somewhat light on actual facts. Other theories existed alongside this one, and the ancient Greek historian Herodotus had his own ideas. He saw the Armenians as “colonists” of the Phrygians, settlers from the Balkans and the major culture in western Anatolia following the Bronze Age Collapse of the 12th century BC. 

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Herodotus likely claimed this because he knew of Armenians in the Phrygian army, decked out in Phrygian gear and looking straightforwardly like more Phrygians. But, as the new study shows, in this case he was completely wrong.

The study includes both newly generated Armenian genomes alongside genetic information from ancient Armenians. Both are compared to both modern and ancient genetic data from the Balkans, and the results show no link between the populations.

The study also unraveled another misconception regarding the Sasun population, a genetically distinct population of Armenians. It was thought throughout both ancient and modern history that this was because the Sasun were part Assyrian, the “sons of [Assyrian king] Sennacherib” as one source from the 5th century AD has it.

But analysis of Sasun genetic data shows they were distinct not because they gained Assyrian genes, but because they lost Armenian ones. The distinctiveness of the Sasun comes from a bottleneck in their genetic past which eliminated many genes found in the wider population.

So, who are the Armenians if not Phrygians? It seems the Armenians were locals who show some influence from Greek presumed refugees from the Bronze Age Collapse, but further work needs to be done to understand who they originally were. For now we just know who Armenians are not.

Original Study: Demographic history and genetic variation of the Armenian population

Header Image: Armenians depicted in Persepolis. Gene analysis has disproven theories of their Balkan origin held since antiquity. Source: Phillip Maiwald (Nikopol) / CC BY-SA 3.0.