VIGEN AVETISYAN OCTOBER 3, 2017 source allinet.net

ARMENIAN HIGHLANDS THE CENTER OF CREATION 

It is difficult to imagine a nation in the world which does not have a traditional story about the creation of the universe and the world. In these ancient accounts the place where the creation took place is particularly important. It is in that place where the navel of the earth is located, through which the axis of earth (or the universe) passes, and from which rises the Universal Mountain, the Universal Tree, or its variants, the Tree of life and wisdom. The Mountain or Tree that rises from the center of the earth becomes the symbol of universal harmony, whose destruction will lead to the primordial chaos and the end of the universe. Therefore it is not an accident that in mythology and legend the place where creation happened is considered extremely sacred. 

A large part of the earliest, recorded creation myths which have reached us, are from the Near East, the best known of which is the Biblical account of Genesis. According to the Biblical tradition, God created the world in six days, completing his work with the creation of man, with the Tree of life (the Tree of knowledge of good and evil) in the middle of Paradise (Gen. 1:1-2, 15). Later we will have the opportunity to look more closely at Biblical Paradise and the Trees of life and wisdom. For now, it is enough to note that the most important fact regarding the location of Paradise is that it is the headwater of four rivers (Euphrates, Tigris, Gihon and Pishon), which unequivocally shows that the Biblical Paradise and the Trees of life and wisdom were centered in the Armenian Highlands. In other words, the place of creation was Armenia, according to the Bible. n was Armenia, according to the Bible. Perhaps it would have been expected that the Jews who wrote the Old Testament would have located this center of creation in their own homeland, but that is not the case. This fact becomes yet more intriguing and significant, when the Armenian Highlands are considered the place of creation in a number of ancient Near Eastern nations’ creation accounts, which were written centuries before the Old Testament. The earliest inhabitants of southern Mesopotamia who are known to us through their writings are the Sumerians (a people whose origin to this day has not been discovered), who created a unique civilization (including the invention of cuneiform writing) and disappeared from the world scene some 2000 years BC. In the first half of the third millennium BC Semitic tribes from the Arabian Peninsula migrated into Mesopotamia, where they founded first the Akkadian and then Babylonian kingdoms, and in the north, Assyria. They absorbed the Sumerian civilization, making it their own. Religious values were a significant part of the borrowings, including traditional creation accounts, which were adopted by the Semitic people. The Sumerian invention, cuneiform, spread among these peoples. For this reason, there are similarities among the written accounts left by ancient peoples of the Near East, to which we shall return later. The complete, original Sumerian creation account has not reached us. Various episodes are found in various original writings; from this it is not possible to reconstitute the complete Sumerian creation story. The most complete account of the ancient Mesopotamian tradition is the Babylonian epic “Enuma Eliš ...” (“When skies above…”)5 . It tells of a primordial period (“when skies above were not yet named, nor earth below pronounced by name”) when there were two primordial oceans, Apzu (Sumerian Abzu) and the proto-mother Tiamat, “whose waters mixed” and from which was born the first generation of gods. Their restless behavior irritated the two pre-existing gods, who decided to destroy the young gods. The later were saved by the wisest of their number, Haya6, who killed Apzu and erected his dwelling upon that spot, calling it Apzu. 

Taking refuge from the chaos in his new dwelling, Haya and his wife beget a child Marduk. Trying to establish law and order in the chaos and avenging her spouse do not give Tiamat much rest, as she shortly thereafter goes to battle the younger gods. Not one of them dares confront Tiamat, and young Marduk saves the day. Marduk agrees to fight Tiamat, if all the other gods recognize his supremacy, to which they consent. In the decisive battle, Marduk defeats Tiamat and begins to create the world. Cutting Tiamat’s body in half, he makes one half into heaven, building a mountain on her head and from within her two eyes spout forth the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Out of the other half, he creates the earth, establishing the tie between heaven and earth. Thereafter, the god Haya creates humankind, who in the image of Abzu the gods create Babylon, “Gates of the God”, where forever rules Marduk, supreme god of the Babylonians. In this creation account, the place of creation is the premordial mountain which rises from Tiamat’s head and provides a unique tie between heaven and earth. From the mountain flow the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, that is, the place of creation is the Armenian Highlands. The victory over the forces of chaos, building a mountain on top of the defeated foe, and creating a new world order are also the theme of the Sumerian legend of Ninurta (the son of the supreme god Enlil) . It is notable that here as well the geographic location is established as the Armenian Highlands in the headwaters of the Tigris.

According to ancient Mesopotamian geography, the Mašu (Masu) Mountains held up the universe, “their upper parts [touch (?)] the sky’s foundation, below, their breasts reach Arallu”10. These mountains, which Gilgameš reaches on his journey to immortality (which goes along the banks of the Euphrates) coincide by geographic location and by name with the Kašiari (today known as the Tur Abdin) Mountains on the southern approach to the Armenian Highlands, which in Greek as well as medieval Armenian sources are referred to by the names Masius and Masion.

In pre-Christian Armenian mythology, the pre-Christian Armenian spiritual center of Bardzr Hayk’ (“Upper Armenia”) Province has been considered the Universal Mountain, where the father god Aramazd, mother goddess Anahit, the goddess Nane, the god Sun-Mihr, and other cult centers were located. Bardzr Hayk’ Province in the well-known “Ashkharhatzuytz” (“Geography”) of Anania Shirakatzi is described as follows: “This territory, truly, as its name shows, is higher than not only the rest of Greater Armenia (“Mets Hayk’ ”), but also the rest of the world; for that reason, it was called the top of the world. From it flow forth the rivers to the four corners of the world. Four large rivers originate in Bardzr Hayk’”15. And Pavstos Buzand’s “History of Armenia” preserves the name of one of the mountains of Bardzr Hayk’ and its description: “On the Great Mountain, in place of the gods, which is called the seat of Nahata”

The Universal Mountain is usually presented in three parts: on its summit dwell the gods, beneath it dwell the forces of evil, and in the middle of it (that is on earth) lives mankind19. Greater Ararat (Masis) in ancient Armenian literature is known as “the mountain on which the sun strolls” and “the highest mountain in the universe, under which dwell evil forces22. This shows that in the earliest beliefs of the Armenians Greater Ararat (Masis) was presented as the holy mountain that preserved the system of the universe after creation. It is apparent from a riddle dating to the 12th -14th centuries preserved and recorded by Hovhannes Tsortsoretzi that Masis (Greater Ararat) was understood in the Armenian world-view as the Universal Mountain. “As defined by the great Creator it is a pyramid and the foundation of the world, the place of the house built by God on which human feet may not tread (answer – Masis)”.  

THE LAND OF THE SUN 

 In the Bible, the Garden of Eden is located “in the Eastern parts” (Gen. 2:8). In another place in Genesis, Noah’s ark found refuge in the Mountains of Ararat (that is, in Armenia), after which a people “from the East” who still spoke the same language went and in a field in the land of Senaar built the tower of Babylon to heaven. For this reason, God mixed all the languages of mankind and scattered them around the world (Gen. 11:1-9). In both instances, Armenia (the Garden of Eden and Mountains of Ararat) are presented as the land of the East, whereas for the Hebrew writers of the Old Testament, it is to the North. In another episode in the same book, for the third time the same image is presented, “And Jacob set out and went to the land of the sons of the East… And Jacob asked them: “Brothers, where are you from”? And they answered: “We are from Harran” ”(Gen. 29:1-5). Jacob was traveling from the town of Beersheba in southern Palestine to the town of Harran located in northern Mesopotamia on the south-western border of the Armenian Highlands, which although located directly north of Beersheba, was known as the land of the sons of the East. These passages show that at least in the book of Genesis the Armenian Highlands were known as the land of the East (or rising sun)25. What is the source of these views? In the Mesopotamian epic “Gilgameš”, Paradise and the land of immortality was on the boundary of the Mašu Mountains,26 where the sun rises and sets: “The name (?) of the mountains [is (?)] Mašu. When he reached the Mountains Mašu Which daily guards the coming out [of Sun (Šamaš)].

Modern comparative linguistic evidence shows that Armenian, as a member of the Armenian-Hellenic-Aryan subgroup of Indo European language family, which emerged as a separate language at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BCE, and that the earliest speakers of Armenian lived in the Armenian Highlands in the 3rd-2nd millennia BCE. These linguistic facts Aare supported by ancient written testimony. The names given to Armenia and Armenians in the 3rd millennium BC evidenced in ancient written sources show that this is a fact. We are aware of the fact that a single location, a community, a country, a people, may be known by different names and known in different centers of writing by a variety of names. In early Armenian historiography, Armenia and or Armenians were known, for example, as Hay, Hayk, Ararat, Armenia, House of Torgom (as well as the Land of the Askanaz nation), all names which come from different sources. Therefore, one issue that must be explored is whether the toponyms and endonyms and exonyms evidenced and recorded in relate to the Armenian Highlands or to different geographic and political entities, or if they are different names for the same place. Their upper parts [touch (?)] the sky’s foundation, Below, their breasts reach Arallu. They guard its gate, Scorpion-men Whose aura is frightful, and whose glance is death. Their terrifying mantles of radiance drape the mountains. They guard the sun at dawn and duskGilgameš looked at them, and fear and terror clouded his face”In other words, according ancient Mesopotamian views (of which some are found in the Bible), Armenia is the land of the rising sun as well as the setting sun, where the sun rests at night. Thus, for the peoples of Mesopotamia and Palestine, the Highlands lying to the north were considered “East” not in the geographic sense, but as the place where the sun rises. In time, the original literal meaning was lost, and the geographic meaning preserved. The view that the Armenian Highlands was known as the resting place of the sun is further supported by Hittite sources. According to the latter, the sun rises in from the “Eastern Sea”, which based on Hittite sources, was the Hittite name for Lake Van28. That is also consistent with the Armenian folk traditions recorded by Garegin Srvandztyantz in the 19th century, according to which the rest place of the sun was at the bottom of Lake Van, fromwhere the light-giver of the day rises in the morning and returns in the evening29. Very interesting evidence regarding Armenia as the land of the rising sun (not in the geographic sense of the word) is preserved in the “Davit of Sassoon” (“The Daredevils of Sassoon”) epic, which has been overlooked. In the first part (“The Struggle against the Caliph of Baghdad”) of the first cycle (“Sanasar and Baghdasar”) Tsovinar advises her sons to flee Baghdad for Armenia, saying the following: “Flee, go to the city of the Armenian kings, Follow the bright star in the night, In the day ask for the land of the king of the East”30. In the epic, Armenia is called the “Land of the King of the East”, which could only have arisen and been preserved from the most ancient times31. Bringing together the Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Hebrew (Biblical) and Armenian sources, we see that Armenia was considered from ancient times to be the land where the sun dwelt, its resting place, the land of the rising and setting sun. 

THE GOLD-LADEN LAND OF HARALI 

Interesting information about the land of Harali has been preserved in ancient Mesopotamian records (variants: Arali, Arallu, Harali, Harallum). According to these sources, the land is described as a) the dwelling place of the gods before man’s creation, the cradle of civilization; b) the underworld; c) a real country that was rich in gold mines.4 
The Aratta/Ararat Homeland of Aryan Tribes – The Origins of Mankind

The Aryan family includes several dead languages like Venetian, Gothic, Gaelic, Illyrian, Luvian, Menki, Tocharian, Thracian, Phrygian, and Hittite as well. 

There are those who do not doubt the biblical tradition of the once-existing single proto-language also some who are trying to discover the homeland of the Aryan tribes and their language.

The geographical notes of the state of Sargon were the first to mention the prototype of the toponym “Armenia”, “Arman(um)”. The fourth king of the Akkadian Empire Naram-Suen (also known as Naram-Sin, reigned c. 2254–2218 BC) organized numerous campaigns in the direction above the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.

Naram-Suen’s campaigns are testified by one of his most extensive records, which mentioned “Arman(um)” as a country “that has never been conquered by any king since the beginning of mankind.”He left an obelisk with his image and inscriptions in the fields of Diarbekir, which says that the country of “Arman(um)” was located in the territory of Akhdznik.

At the initiative of Arman(um), an alliance against Naram-Suen was formed between the Armenian Upland and neighboring 17 states. Later, the union of 17 countries came under the control of the Gutian state, which was able to defeat the tyrant Naram-Suen.
Note that according to Movses Khorenatsi, the names “Armen” and “Armenia” are based on the name “Aram” and I add that they all have the root syllable Ar the base verb 'Take) for a given as a prefix.


The ancestral home of Indo-Europeans according to the language
Metsamor Observatory, from where the sky was explored in the 2800-2600s. This fact substantiated the conclusions of historians-astronomers of the late 19th century, according to which the name of the constellations of zodiac signs originated in the territory of the Armenian Highlands.
Russian scientists Tamaz Gamkrelidze and Vyacheslav Ivanov were able to show convincingly that the ancestral home of the Aryans-Indo-Europeans was the Armenian Highlands and the adjacent regions of eastern Asia Minor and Mesopotamia.

Today, it is possible to state with some certainty that the Armenian Highlands, Asia Minor, and Mesopotamia are the homeland of not only the Aryan tribes but the whole mankind, confirming the biblical version of the origin of civilized/ordered mankind. Ararat the homeland of the Armenians we know existed long before the Great Flood but the question is when was that name given to the geographic location and what did it mean when it was established.

The root syllable of the concept of Ar which gave rise to the sacred toponym Ararat and Aratta, that has a connection with the word ark, from which root (the proponents of the hypothesis of the Hyperborean ancestry derived the word Arctic) also the Armenian word Arch and the Greek arkus for bear, There were many tribes that were part of the Aryan world. The geographical location of the ancient Aryan communities, was fairly broad and therefore the word Aryan with the root Ar needs a closer look but for now Arian as a definition based on language rather than Indo-European looks more likely. Aryan tribes coexisted with each other with a fundamental belief first in freedom from tyranny, with the common ethos of nobility and civilized ordered behavior as the contract of the individuals within the culture, made up of indigenous ethnic groups. Their leaders, their high priests obviously designed/created the necessary abstract syllabic artificial language which the bards and the priests, chanted to unite and galvanise what we now know to have been like Armenian and Sanskrit, the yeast of a great and lasting culture.
After several millennia in the highlands it is hypothesised that the Aryan tribes from the north west went south east to India (around 1500 BC), forming there an Aryan community, where they superimposed their knowledge into written form into books which we now recognise as the oldest Aryan writings and teachings. In Armenian there is the word (A)Vedagir (Armenian: Վեդագիր, վեդա (Vedic), գիր (writing), Vedas). Armenians still today refer to their homeland Avedyats Yerkir (First Vedic Country) which translates to (if one takes the A/Alpha as the First) First Country of Inner Knowledge. Armenian word avet means 'commandment' and the Armenian Bible is commonly referred to as Avetaran.

Ar – is the first mover, the place holder of +1, it is the 'given' it is a base verb which says 'take' thus +1 as in mathematics the first base give in the act of giving. The first act. Ar is the root syllabic base of the name of the main god of the pagan pantheon. Ar+amazd, Aramazd, where azd if we stick to Armenian syllabic root meaning is a 'star , thus we could be saying the first, the leading star.

Rama is the hero of Ramayan epic. He represents the sun. In Aryans worship Rama represents the sun as the visible embodiment of the light, conciousness, creation. “Hare, Rama, hare!”, that is: “Ascend, Rama ascend!” “Ascend, Sun, ascend!”

The sacred Armenian name Aram, from the root Ar which underpins Arya was also the ancient Aryan name of Syria the land of the Aramaic people. Jesus Christ was an Aramean.

Sanskrit specialist Ter-Hakobyan, has published several books showing a close relationship for more than 5,000 Sanskrit and Armenian syllabic root phonemes that have the same or synonymic meaning.