Kingdoms in Armenian Highland That You Never Heard About

At the end of the 4th millennium B.C., after developing agriculture and increasing productivity in the Armenian Highland, local tribes started to amalgamate and create city-states, fortresses, and nations. Nowadays, we know several Armenian kingdoms about which we don’t have a lot of information because of the small number of archeological excavations and lack of interest in the history of the tribes and early formations of governing systems of the Armenian Highland. The names of these kingdoms are Arrata, Armanum, Naryiri, and Ethiuni, which then would become a part of the Empire of Urartu. In this essay, I will write some not well-known historical facts about these kingdoms.

1. Arrata was situated south of the Armenian Highlands, extending between Lake Van and the Euphrates River. The first time we heard about this kingdom from the Sumerian epic “Enmerker and Owner of Arrata.” Scholars claimed that Sumerians wrote about Arrata because Sumeria and Arrata had deep economic and political connections. Also, scholars provided information that Arrata can be the Ararat Kingdom.
2. Armanu, for the first time, was mentioned in the records from 23rd century B.C. There are records about this land in the 8th-5th centuries too. Armanu included three worlds (states) from future Major Hayk. These are Tsopk, Aghdznik, and Taron.
3. Nayiri consisted of various tribes, and each of them had arkayiks (local kings). The tribes had one common rule, ‘unity is power’; That was why, when Assyrians attacked the Kingdom of Nayiri, they were faced with the power of the united tribes.
4. Ethuini was located in the Ararat lowland, and it included a part of Lake Sevan. Also, it was the reason why people called Ethuni “Veduri Ethiuni” (Watery Ethuni).

Supposedly, it was from all four kingdoms that Urartu was born and all the kingdoms mentioned above became a part of it. Out of Urartu, later, Kingdoms of Mets (Major) Hayq, Poqr (Small) Hayq and Tsopq emerged. Armenia was established.

*All the information stated above is taken from AGBU’s Armenian Virtual College’s AH 222: Ancient Armenian History — Part 1, LESSON 4: THE FORMATION OF THE OLDEST ARMENIAN GOVERNMENTS