The Problem of Armenian Origins in the Light of Recent Archaeogenetic Data

Palyan, Aram and Petrosyan, Armen · 2025

Marshals the latest archaeogenetic evidence to re-examine the origins and formation of the Armenian people. The authors argue that, whatever the location of the early Indo-European homeland, the late Indo-European homeland formed in the steppe and forest-steppe of Eastern Europe between the Volga and the Dniester. Genetic data show migration across the Caucasus into the South Caucasus and the Armenian Highland from the mid-third millennium BC, whose descendants created the Trialeti-Vanadzor, Sevan-Artsakh, Van-Urmia and Lchashen-Metsamor cultures. Even at the end of Urartu (7th–6th c. BC) the population of the land of Etiuni still carried roughly 75% steppe patrilineal DNA, which the authors read as support for the Etiuni hypothesis of Armenian ethnogenesis.

Citation checked against the publisher's record on 2026-07-13.