Herodotus' theory on Armenian origins debunked by first whole-genome study

Posted on: 25 November 2024

Armenians, a population in Western Asia historically inhabiting the Armenian highlands, were long believed to be descendants of Phrygian settlers from the Balkans.

This "Balkan Theory" originated largely from the accounts of the Greek historian Herodotus, who observed that Armenians were armed in Phrygian fashion when serving in the Persian army.

Linguists further supported this theory, suggesting that the Armenian language shares ties with the Thraco-Phrygian subgroup of Indo-European languages. 

But the first whole-genome study is challenging this long-held belief, revealing no significant genetic link between Armenians and the populations in the Balkan region. The study compares newly generated modern Armenian genomes and published genetic data of ancient individuals from the Armenian highlands with both modern and ancient genomes from the Balkans.  

“For centuries, historical beliefs have shaped our understanding of the past, often leading us to accept theories as truth,” said Dr Anahit Hovhannisyan, Marie Curie Fellow in Trinity College Dublin’s School of Genetics and Microbiology, and first author of the just-published study in the American Journal of Human Genetics. 

“However, with the availability of whole genome sequencing and the advancement of ancient DNA research, we can now question and reframe these long-held ideas, revealing a much more nuanced and scientifically grounded view of the history of human populations.” 

The researchers behind the new study also disproved another belief – claims of an Assyrian ancestry for the Sasun, an Armenian population that inhabited the southern part of the Armenian highlands (modern-day southeastern Turkey).

This connection had been referenced in many historical sources, including the Bible, in cuneiform texts, and local traditional stories. Instead, they found that the Sasun had experienced a significant contraction in size in the recent past, which sets them apart from other populations. 

“While checking for genetic continuity in the Armenian highlands, we found a 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," said Andrea Manica, Professor at the University of Cambridge, who is the last and co-senior author in the publication. 

"The questions of exactly where and when it came from, as well as what triggered such a widespread migration wave, remain unanswered and yet to be studied"

The researchers also shed light on the population structure and genetic variation of different Armenian groups, finding that populations from the eastern, western, and central parts of the Armenian highlands show a relatively high level of similarity.  

“This is the first study attempting to draw the genetic atlas of the Armenian highlands,” said Levon Yepiskoposyan, Professor at the Institute of Molecular Biology, NAS RA, and co-senior author of the publication. 

This research was mainly supported by the European Research Council, the Science Committee of the Ministry of Education and Science of Armenia; Marie Curie Individual Fellowship, the ESF DoRa PROGRAMME; Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation; Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology (FAST). 

The journal article can be read on the publisher's website.

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