Yervand Grekyan - The 5.2 KA BP climate event and the Armenian Highland
30 Pages | 203-233 | DOI: Doi:10.54503/0135-0536-2022.3-203 | Revceived on: 2022-05-12 | Reviewed on: 2022-05-18 | Accepted for printing on: 2022-11-09
Published in: 2022 N 3 (221) / Discussions
One of the most important events in the Armenian Highland at the turn of the 4th-3rd millennia BC is the spread of the Early Bronze Age Kura-Araxes culture towards the other parts of the highland and beyond. This phenomenon is known as “Kura-Araxes expansion”.
The dating of the “expansion” at around 3000-2900 BC shows that it took place during the period of drastic climate change known as “5.2 ka BP climate event”.
Keywords Kura-Araxes culture expansion climate change palaeoenvironment mobility population movement depopulation.
Yervand Grekyan - “The crisis of the 7th century BC” and the problem of formation of the Median Empire
26 Pages | 192-218 | Revceived on: 2021-01-13 | Reviewed on: 2021-01-27 | Accepted for printing on: 2021-04-07
Published in: 2021 N 1 (216) / Discussions
Тhe 7th c. BC is considered as the period of formation and rise of the Median Empire. Meantime, economic crises, political instability, ethnic migrations, decline in military power, foreign invasions and, eventually, collapse of ancient state structures and depopulation were observed in the Armenian Highland and in Mesopotamia in the same period. These phenomena have usually occurred in the dramatic periods of the history of ancient Near East and, as a rule, were conditioned by climate change-related problems.
KeywordsMedian Empire Iranian Plateau Assyria Urartu palaeoenvironment climate changes crisis ethnic migrations depopulation.