Editing History of Armenia (section)

===Bronze Age===
[[File:Zorats Karer 2008, part of the stone circle.jpg|right|thumb|Bronze Age astronomical observatory [[Zorats Karer]] (also known as [[Carahunge|Karahunj]]).]]
An early Bronze-Age culture in the area is the [[Kura–Araxes culture|Kura-Araxes culture]], assigned to the period between c. 4000 and 2200 BC. The earliest evidence for this culture is found on the [[Ararat Plain|Ararat plain]]; thence it spread to [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] by 3000 BC (but never reaching [[Colchis]]), proceeding westward and to the south-east into an area below the Urmia basin and [[Lake Van]].

From 2200 BC to 1600 BC, the [[Trialeti culture|Trialeti-Vanadzor culture]] flourished in Armenia, southern Georgia, and northeastern Turkey.<ref name="books.google.ca">Joan Aruz, Sarah B. Graff, Yelena Rakic, [https://books.google.com/books?id=0H0EpSm8aioC&pg=PA12 ''Cultures in Contact: From Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C.''] The Metropolitan Museum of art symposia. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013 {{ISBN|1588394751}} pp. 12-24</ref><ref>Aynur Özifirat (2008), [http://www.mku.edu.tr/files/1113_dosya_1355509802.pdf ''The Highland Plateau of Eastern Anatolia in the Second Millennium BC: Middle/Late Bronze Ages''] pp.103–106</ref> It has been speculated that this was an Indo-European culture.<ref>John A. C. Greppin and I. M. Diakonoff, ''Some Effects of the Hurro-Urartian People and Their Languages upon the Earliest Armenians'' Journal of the American Oriental Society
Vol. 111, No. 4 (Oct. – Dec. 1991), pp. 721 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/603403?read-now=1&seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents]</ref><ref>Joan Aruz, Kim Benzel, Jean M. Evans, ''Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C.'' Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_gr5BgOwEJicC/page/n179] (2008) pp. 92</ref><ref>{{citation  |url=https://docplayer.net/108120425-The-mushki-problem-reconsidered.html|title=The Mushki Problem Reconsidered |date=1997 |first=Aram V.|last=Kossian}} pp. 254</ref> Other, possibly related, cultures were spread throughout the Armenia Highlands during this time, namely in the [[Mount Aragats|Aragats]] and [[Lake Sevan]] regions.<ref>Daniel T. Potts [https://books.google.com/books?id=7lK6l7oF_ccC&pg=PA681 ''A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East''.] Volume 94 of Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World. John Wiley & Sons, 2012 {{ISBN|1405189886}} p. 681</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Simonyan|first=Hakob Y.|title=New Discoveries at Verin Naver, Armenia|journal=Backdirt|date=2012|issue=The Puzzle of the Mayan Calendar|pages=110–113|publisher=The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA|url=https://www.academia.edu/25380162}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Martirosyan|first=Hrach|title=Origins and Historical Development of the Armenian Language|date=2014|pages=1–23|publisher=Leiden University|url=https://ling.hse.ru/data/2014/09/01/1313574129/Hrach%20Martirosyan%20-%20Handout.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://ling.hse.ru/data/2014/09/01/1313574129/Hrach%20Martirosyan%20-%20Handout.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Early 20th-century scholars suggested that the name "Armenia" may have possibly been recorded for the first time on an inscription which mentions [[Armani (kingdom)|Armanî]] (or Armânum) together with [[Ebla|Ibla]], from territories conquered by [[Naram-Sin of Akkad|Naram-Sin]] (2300 BC) identified with an [[Akkadian Empire|Akkadian]] colony in the current region of [[Diyarbakır|Diyarbekir]]; however, the precise locations of both Armani and Ibla are unclear. Some modern researchers have placed Armani (Armi) in the general area of modern [[Samsat]],<ref>{{cite journal|last=Archi|first=Alfonso|title=Egypt or Iran in the Ebla Texts?|journal=Orientalia|date=2016|volume=85|page=3 |url=https://www.academia.edu/34915656}}</ref> and have suggested it was populated, at least partially, by an early Indo-European-speaking people.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kroonen|first=Guus; Gojko Barjamovic; Michaël Peyrot|title=Linguistic supplement to Damgaard et al. 2018: Early Indo-European languages, Anatolian, Tocharian and Indo-Iranian|date=9 May 2018|page=3 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1240524|doi=10.5281/zenodo.1240524 |journal=Zenodo}}</ref> Today, the [[Assyrian people|modern Assyrians]] (who traditionally speak [[Neo-Aramaic languages|Neo-Aramaic]], not [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]]) refer to the Armenians by the name Armani.<ref>Martiros Kavoukjian, "The Genesis of Armenian People", Montreal, 1982.<!-- publisher, ISSN/ISBN, page(s) needed --></ref> It is possible that the name ''Armenia'' originates in ''Armini'', Urartian for "inhabitant of Arme" or "Armean country."<ref>Armen Petrosyan. ''The Indo-European and Ancient Near Eastern Sources of the Armenian Epic''. ''Journal of Indo-European Studies.'' Institute for the Study of Man. 2002. p. 184. [https://www.academia.edu/3656244/The_Indo_European_and_Ancient_Near_Eastern_Sources_of_the_Armenian_Epic_Washington_D_C_2002?auto=download]</ref> The Arme tribe of Urartian texts may have been the Urumu, who in the 12th century BC attempted to invade Assyria from the north with their allies the [[Mushki]] and the [[Kaskians]]. The Urumu apparently settled in the vicinity of [[Sason]], lending their name to the regions of Arme and the nearby land of Urme.<ref>Armen Petrosyan. ''The Indo-European and Ancient Near Eastern Sources of the Armenian Epic''. ''Journal of Indo-European Studies''. Institute for the Study of Man. 2002. pp. 166-167. [https://www.academia.edu/3656244/The_Indo_European_and_Ancient_Near_Eastern_Sources_of_the_Armenian_Epic_Washington_D_C_2002?auto=download]</ref>  [[Thutmose III]] of [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]], in the 33rd year of his reign (1446 BC), mentioned as the people of "Ermenen", claiming that in their land "heaven rests upon its four pillars".<ref>International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 1915 [http://holycall.com/biblemaps/minni.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120221232731/http://holycall.com/biblemaps/minni.htm|date=21 February 2012}}; Eric H. Cline and David O'Connor (eds.) ''Thutmose III'', University of Michigan, 2006; {{ISBN|978-0-472-11467-2}}.</ref> Armenia is possibly connected to [[Mannaeans|Mannaea]], which may be identical to the region of Minni mentioned in the Bible. However, what all these attestations refer to cannot be determined with certainty, and the earliest certain attestation of the name "Armenia" comes from the [[Behistun Inscription]] (c. 500 BC).

The earliest form of the word "Hayastan", an [[Endonym and exonym|endonym]] for Armenia, might possibly be [[Hayasa-Azzi]], a kingdom in the Armenian Highlands that was recorded in [[Hittites|Hittite]] records dating from 1500 to 1200 BC.

Between 1200 and 800 BC, much of Armenia was united under a confederation of tribes, which Assyrian sources called [[Nairi]] ("Land of Rivers" in Assyrian").<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/longest-rivers-in-armenia.html | title=The Longest Rivers in Armenia| date=21 December 2020}}</ref>