Antiquities

Armenians and Sumerians

The Sumerian civilization is the oldest civilization known to mankind. The Sumerians, were an ancient people, called Ararat, Arrata.

In their great epic poems of Gilgamesh Arrata, they tell of the land of their ancestors, the Arratans in the Highlands of Armenia.

The Sumerians also in the epic poems describe the Great Flood and the rebirth of life after the terrible deluge that fell from the Highlands of Armenia unto the lands of Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent.

The Sumerians had a very close connection with the ancestral Land of Ararat and considered it as their ancestral homeland (many historians and archaeologists are convinced that the Sumerians initially lived in Northern Mesopotamia and Armenian Highland).

In their epic poems of Gilgamesh and Aratta, they mentioned the Armenian Highlands as the land of their ancestors, the Arattans.

Different peoples throughout different times used to refer to Armenia by different names. The Sumerians in around 2,800 BCE called Armenia – Aratta, while the Akkadians that succeeded them in the second half of the Third Millennium BCE called Armenia – Armani or Armanum.

The Hittites who rose in the Second Millennium BCE were called Armenia – Hayasa, while the Assyrians who arose in the second half of the Second Millennium BCE were called Armenia – Uruatri or Urartu (Ararat).

by Nouné Yeranosian

Read Also:

Vigen Avetisyan

Recent Posts

Hayasa-Azzi: A Powerful Armenian Kingdom of the Armenian Highlands

Among the earliest known states of the Armenian Highlands, few are as historically important as…

6 days ago

The Frescoes of Dadivank Monastery and the Misinterpretation of Heritage

The medieval monastery of Dadivank is one of the most important spiritual and artistic centers…

2 weeks ago

Armenian Orphan Girls in New York (1917): A Forgotten Act of Witness and Relief

In 1917, at the height of global upheaval during World War I, a small but…

2 weeks ago

The Armenian Genocide: State Crime, Mass Participation, and the Burden of Historical Responsibility

The Armenian Genocide (1915–1921 ...) was not an accident of war, nor a tragic byproduct…

3 weeks ago

The First Printed Armenian Bible (Amsterdam, 1666–1668)

Introduction The first printed edition of the Bible in the Armenian language stands as one…

4 weeks ago

Armenopolis (Gherla): An Armenian “Ideal City” in the Heart of Europe

Armenopolis (modern-day Gherla, Romania) is a remarkable example of how the Armenian diaspora not only…

4 weeks ago