Year: 2023
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: In the first evidence on Caucasian Albania, which goes back to Greek authors of the 4 th -3 rd centuries BCE, the name “Albania” refers to the territory between the downstream of the Kura, the Caucasian mountain ridge (up to Derbend) and the Caspian Sea. The analysis of the data of different periods makes it possible to understand this as a term for the territory’s population, conceived primarily as a group of tribes which was formed as a result of the splitting up of the proto-Lezgic ethnolinguistic entity. The analysis of the facts contained in written documents of the chronological period between 3 th and 5 th centuries CE reveals that the kingdom of Albania did not comprise a single ethnos with a common language and national consciousness. The absence of a written native language led to linguistic and cultural assimilation, which affected the ethnic selfconsciousness as well. Only the consolidation of the Christian part of the “Albanian meta-ethnos” resulted in the formation of the ethnos of the Udis in the 9 th century.
Source: De Gruyter eBooks
Author: Aleksan Hakobyan
Language: English
Topic: Eurasian Exchange Networks
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4379518831