From the steppes to Armenia and Ireland Fred Duffy

1. But there were many more tribes who having gained territory, settled locally only to find themselves raided and having to move on. A recurring situation could find a tribe having been raided, fleeing across the steppes, violently displacing the next tribe to the west. From the steppes to Armenia and Ireland For some time I have been considering the number of parallels that exist between the Armenian and Irish stories but it was only recently that I noted an important new element in the relationship. It is possible that the connection may have begun between our two peoples during the Mesolithic or Neolithic age up to 10,000 years ago in the south Russian steppes. Furthermore, this succession of raids by many tribes from different regions over thousands of years inevitably resulted in a very complex ethnicity. Because of its location, Armenia had for many centuries, been subject to continuing invasion and intertribal occupation by Hittites, Assyrians and many more. About 9000 years ago one such migration of nomadic My interest in the steppes began some years ago as settlers emerged from Anatolia and landed in we explored the Silk Road over several trips from Northern Ireland. Remains of this settlement were Venice to Istanbul, to Anatolia and Palmyra. We were found in Mount Sandel, Coleraine Co Derry. It was recently in Uzbekistan journeying from Khiva in the excavated in 1970 by Peter Woodman of University Khorezm Oasis heading east towards Tashkent and College Cork and revealed a Stone Age residence the Ferghana Valley. with clear evidence of the simple life of the settlers. There were three of them who were believed to have Part of the Kazakh steppes were close by to the north arrived about 4000 to 5000 years ago. It is very likely and we detoured along the Amy Darya River to a that they came in a migration from the eastern village of yurts near Ayaz Kala. The yurts where we Pontic Caspian steppe. This steppe is located north- slept were typical mobile structures which had east of the Black Sea, an area where Armenian tribes served the nomads for millennia. could be expected to have hunted. That particular area is regarded as the main avenue for the exodus of nomads from the western steppes The Eurasian steppes are a dominant feature of this of Russia and Ukraine. A large number of samples continent, a vast region of temperate semiarid have been taken from these nomads. Their genomes grasslands which can just sustain livestock but not has been analysed showing a high incidence of Y agriculture. It stretches from Romania to Manchuria, chromosomes carrying the R1b haplogroup. This is over 10,000 km. Without borders the nomads were very prevalent in the west of Ireland and in the born virtually on horseback travelling the earth, Basque country whose soldiers known as Milesians breeding formidable cavalry as they fought for probably brought it to Ireland. We can draw from all grazing territory. this that Ireland is not exclusively Celtic with a narrow island gene pool but that we are a race enriched by a wide amalgam of settlers. They grew into the most powerful forces on earth. The names of the most successful are well known, Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun the Vandals, Goths and the Visigoths who conquered all China, all of Europe, Fred Duffy Rome and Carthage. But there were many more tribes who having gained territory, settled locally only to find themselves raided and having to move on. A recurring situation could find a tribe having been raided, fleeing across the steppes, violently displacing the next tribe to the west. Separately there is a long tradition of academic study on the subject of transcultural connections between our two peoples. The Journal of Indo- European studies is a peer-reviewed publication which for nearly 50 years has presented papers in relation to the language, history and cultures of the Indo-European speaking peoples. www.fredduffy.org