arshba.ru

9th century BC

Ers — tribes that inhabited Egitica — a region in Colchis, also mentioned by Ptolemy in the following context (V, 10, 5): "The coastal part of Colchis is inhabited by the Lazi, the upland (areas) — by the Manrali and (other) peoples living in the country of Ecrectica (Ἐκρηκτική χώρα)" ^[1]. In the name Egitica-Ecrectica and in the name Manrali, one can easily recognize the names of both the country of Egrisi and the Egri who inhabited it, the later Mingrelians — one of the West Georgian (Mingrelian-Chan) peoples (Melikishvili 1959, 99). These are the only information in ancient authors about the Egri on the territory of Colchis. Later, the population of both coastal and inland Colchis in these sources is associated with the Lazi, while Georgian (already medieval) sources, which do not know this ethnonym, call Colchis Egrisi and its population Egri-Egrisians (Melikishvili 1959, 66-67) ^[2].

The Ers inhabited the northern part of Armenia, the northeastern part of Turkey, the southern part of Georgia, and the northwestern part of Azerbaijan. Information about the Ers is mainly gathered from archaeological and linguistic data, combined with known historical events in the region. A small number of mentions are found in Strabo and in Georgian and Armenian sources. It is known that the Ers were part of Urartu, which annexed them in the 8th century BC. Judging by toponymy, the Ers were ethnically different from the Urartians and were more related to the Nakhs. According to the Circassian Caucasologist Amjad Jaimoukha ^[3], the Urartian fortress of Erebuni was named after the Ers, and 'buni/bʊn/' is a Nakh root meaning house, shelter. Therefore, Erebuni and Yerevan — House of the Ers, since the Armenian 'van' goes back to the same 'bun'. Possibly Yere-van: ერი (eri) — people Georgian + უბანი (ubani) — district Georgian. In the Georgian chronicles, Leonti Mroveli ^[4] calls Lake Sevan the Lake of Ereta. The Araks River can also be attributed to Er toponyms, which is also called the Yeraskhi River. The Armenian name of the Araks River — Yeraskhadzor, and the Nakhchradzor gorge, located slightly to the south, also show Nakh connections. The northern region in Urartu was called Yeraskhadzor, and slightly northwest of Erebuni was Eriaki. Furthermore, Jaimoukha summarizes that the Nakh component played an important role in the ethnogenesis of the Hurro-Urartian tribes, and Urartu itself expanded to the North Caucasus through Kakheti.

Strabo ^[5] reports that during the decline of Urartu, the Gargareans returned to the Caucasus Mountains. Leonti Mroveli also speaks of the return of many Urartians to Kakheti, which is now part of Kartli. When Xenophon visited Urartu in 401 BC, he saw only small groups of Urartians surrounded by Armenians. In the Middle Ages, on the Georgian-Albanian border, there existed the kingdom of Hereti, in which the Ers lived. The capital of the kingdom was the city of Shaki. Today this is the territory of the Georgian region of Kakheti and a small part of the northwestern territory of Azerbaijan.

Hereti of the Georgian sources covered the territory of the northwestern outskirts of Albania. The choronym Hereti, which comes from the name of the Albanian tribe — the Ers, is identical to the kingdom of Shaki in Arabic sources and the kingdom of Alvania in Armenian and Byzantine sources. Rani (Aran) and Alvani are also identified. In the sources, there is another name for this region — Lbinia, derived from the name of the Lbins.

Georgian sources testify to the political influence of David the Builder on the Ers, Didoyans, and Leks. The historian of Queen Tamar (1184-1213) speaks of the revolt of all the Ers with all the Leks — inhabitants of the Caucasus Mountains. In another source (Amiran Darejiani), it speaks of an expedition by the Georgian king against the rebellious highlanders — the Ikhoelians and Didoyans. In these Ikhoelians, one can see the ancestors of the Ingiloy — the Gels. The self-name of the Ingiloy — Geli, and the form Gelav (Gelou, Geloy) with the Avar suffix of definition -av, as the neighboring peoples — Avars, Tsakhurs, Azerbaijanis — call the Ingiloy, as well as the ethnonym Gelavu, recorded in the 8th century (Ghevond), allow us to consider the Ingiloy as descendants of the Albanian tribe of the Gel, which is identified with the Ers (herni) and is compared with the names of the Khaputlins, Kryzes (her, herud, hered, gerez).

The hypothetical movements of the Ers coincide with the migration of one of the major haplogroups for the Western Caucasus according to Kandell 2009 ^[6]: [G2a2b1] -> [Iraqi Kurds, Armenians, Eastern Turkey] -> [Eastern Anatolian group, Hurrians, Lake Van area] -> [Urartu] -> [Moschi / Meskhi] -> [Transcaucasia before Greek colonizations of 650 BC] ^{[haplogroup names have been changed to their current classification]}

VARIANT NAMES: Russian. Ery, Khery, Er, Ersh, English. Èr, Èrsh, Hers.


Sources:

^[1] Claudius Ptolemy. Excerpts on Scythia and the Caucasus
^[2] HISTORY OF GEORGIA. TBILISI 1962
^[3] The Chechens A Handbook. Jaimoukha, Amjad 2005
^[4] Kartlis Tskhovreba. "Artanuji" Tbilisi 2008
^[5] Strabo. Geography in 17 books
^[6] Theorized origins of G2a2b1a. Kandell 2009
Ethnogenesis of the Abkhazians. D.A. Arshba, 2015