On the question of the origin of the Georgian name of the ancestors of the Nakh peoples “kists” and its connection with some ancient ethnonyms of the Near East and the Caucasus

Albogachiev Magomed Mikhailovich ORCID: 0009-0006-3925-1554 Independent researcher Office 302, 7 Zyazikova Ave., Magas, Republic of Ingushetia, 386001, Russia magomed_albogachiyev77@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction. The question of the origin of the ethnonym kista has been investigated to one degree or another by Ch. E. Akhriev, A. I. Shavkhelishvili and other Caucasian scholars. However, due to the large volume of the article, we will not cover this issue, but will immediately proceed to present our own version.

Investigating the question of the ethnogenesis of the Hurrians-Urartians, we came to the conclusion that the Urartian tribes may be divided into two macrogroups, which we conditionally called "Sanarian (Tsoba-Ur)" and "Chaldean (Alarodian)", with their roots going back to the alluvial plain of Southern Mesopotamia, to the Ubaid tribes, who founded two main cities This area: Ur and Eridu. We associate the ethnonym Kista with the latter group, i.e., the Chaldean group.

Etymology of the term Chalda (Chaldeans). The main sources about the history of the Chaldeans or Chaldeans are the works of ancient writers such as Homer, Strabo, Xenophon, and others. Strabo, in his Geography (XII, 3, 28), reports that the Tibarenes and Chaldeans live above the environs of Pharnakia and Trebizond to Lesser Armenia ^{[1, pp. 159-160]}. Xenophon lists the Chaldeans among other tribes of the southeastern Black Sea region who opposed the Hellenes ^{[2, pp. 83-84]}. "Indeed, there was an area on the Black Sea coast, which included Trebizond, called Chaldean" ^{[3, p. 7]}.

Researchers of the first half of the 20th century tended to believe that the Chaldeans were remnants of Urartian tribes who named themselves after the main Urartian cult of the Chaldi ^{[4, pp. 1-79; 5, stb. 1131]}, and the Urartian language was called Chaldean ^{[6, p. 91]}. But modern researchers have mostly abandoned this ^{[7, p. 317]}. Nevertheless, the available evidence suggests that Chaldea could be an exoethnonym for a part of the Hurrian-Urartian community associated with the main cult of the Van kingdom (Chaldi).

Regarding the etymology, N. J. Marr explained that the term Chaldia "is a Greek translation of a local term found in Armenian sources as Hagtik h^ag^-ti-q (*h^al-ti-q) (in the Armenian language, the Urartian l is transitioning into x, or the voiced velar fricative ɣ – approx. M. A.), and the term ḫag^-ti-q represents the plural form on -te -ti with the second suffix -q. Thus, the basis of the tribal term, transmitted by the Greeks as xaldatos, is not h^ald, but only h^al" ^{[8, p. 120]}.

In other words, the ethnonym Chaldea is based on the root hal. While agreeing with N. J. Marr's opinion on this, at the same time, we disagree that the finite -ti// -di is a plural suffix. Based on the opinion that the term Chaldia // Chaldea is of the same origin as the name of the main cult of the Van kingdom of Chaldi, the final -di, in our opinion, is a truncated form from ardi. It is noteworthy that this is not the only name of the Urartian cult where the term ardi is present. Compare, for example, Shel-ardi, S-ardi, Tsinu-ardi ^{[8, pp. 221-222]}. The latter is probably connected with the name of the ancient Nakh-Dagestan cult of Ts I uv, from which the ing. Cheche originates. ts I ena – "pure, respectable", derived from the name of the cult of fire Ts I uv ^{[9, p. 472; 10, 12-13; 11, p. 164; 12, p. 13, 37, 46, 73, 121, 122]}. In other words, we believe that Haldi is a distorted Halardi.

The same root ard(i) is found in another name of Mutsatsir – Ardini, where the center of the cult of Khaldi was located ^{[13, p. 37; 14, p. 23]}. That is, the term ardi connects the cult of Khaldi with its Ardini center.

Regarding the origin of the name Khaldi, B. B. Piotrovsky writes: "The etymology of the name Khaldi is also unclear; it has been suggested that his name is based on the root hal, meaning heaven in the languages of western Transcaucasia, and then the name of the main Urartian 'god' will mean heavenly" ^{[8, p. 260]}.

In ancient Greek mythology, the cult of the sun was called Helios, Helios, and it was believed that he was "the son of the titans Hyperion and Phaea, the brother of Selene, and Eos (Hes. Theog. 371-374). The most ancient pre-Olympic ‘deity’, who gives life with his elemental power… Being high in the sky..." ^{[15, p. 144 ; 16, p. 271]}, which ascended from Colchis (Homer. Odyssey XII 4) ^{[17, p.403 (note)]}. Apparently, this is due to the fact that, according to the ideas of Ionian geographers, the Caucasus (including Colchis) was located on the eastern tip of the Earth ^{[18, p. 240]}.

The children of Helium (from the nymph Klimene – sisters Phoebe, Helia, Etheria, Lampetia and brother Phaethon (Hyg. Fab. 154), and seven sons from the daughter of Aphrodite, the nymph Rhoda ("Rose"), of the same name from the island of Rhodes (Pind. 01. VII 13) in ancient Greek mythology are called "Heliades" ^{[15, p. 144]}.

Perhaps the Greeks borrowed this cult from the pre–Greek population of the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean, and the name Eos is the Greek version of the name of the Sumerian cult Ea (Ai // Hai, etc.-Nahsk. D I a). According to Cotta's speech, there were five Helios, one of whom is the father of Aeetes and Kirka from Colchis (III. 21) ^{[19, p. 175]}. The name Eet, in our opinion, is also associated with the cult of Ea and is the eponym of the Hai tribe (see below).

In ancient Kazakh mythology, Gal // G I al ^{[20, p. 83; 10, 12, 32]}, GIeloi (comparative others-Greek. Helium) ^{[10, 28]}, XIalo ^{[21, 599 p.]}, was a cult of the sun, sky and thunderstorms " ^{[10, p. 12, 32-33]} – one of the main cults. It is interesting to note that the name of this cult was usually pronounced in conjunction with the term yerd (a), i.e. as Gallerd ^{[22, p. 107]}, Gallerdy ^{[20, p. 83]}, Gal-Yerd ^{[23, p. 177; 24, p. 49-69]}, Gel-yerdy ( style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Gal-yerdy) ^{[25, l. 16]}, G. I. al-Yerda ^{[26, p. 82]}.

In the pagan pantheon of the ancestors of the Nakh peoples, Galerd (as well as Gal) had a cult of the sun, sky and thunderstorms ^{[10, p., 28, 32; 20, p. 83]}, which is one of the oldest ^{[23, p. 177]}.

A.M. Sjogren wrote in the middle of the 19th century: "Ingush, Kistins and Galgai gather in the mountains to celebrate the new year, and there they sacrifice to Gallerd, revered by them as a saint" ^{[27, p. 110]}. The author also noted: "The Kist idol Gallerd stands quietly in the old abandoned church of Queen Tamara" ^{[22, p. 107]}. N. F. Dubrovin, another researcher of the 19th century, wrote about this: "The people of all three generations (Ingush, Kists, and Galgaevites), on New Year's Day, go to the mountains, where they sacrifice to Galerd" ^{[28, p. 385]}.

E. M. Meletinsky writes: "In the mythology of the Chechens and Ingush, Gela is the 'god' of the sun (sky); the father (or son) of the 'goddess' Asa..; Gela leaves the sea in the morning and sinks back into it in the evening. Prayers were offered to Gela; the drought was declared the favor of the 'deity'" ^{[15, p. 144]}. Interestingly, in ancient Greek mythology (Stesich. frg. 6 Diehl), "Helium rushes across the sky during the day on a fiery four horses, and at night bends to the west and swims across the sea in a golden bowl to the place of its rising. ^{[15, p. 144]}.

In the "History of Ingushetia" we read: "Celebrations related to the winter and summer solstices were held twice a year in honor of Gal-Yerd. The cult of Gal-Yerd was closely connected with animal husbandry. He was revered as the patron saint of cattle breeding, the main source of sustenance for the highlanders. Perhaps, in ancient times, Gal-Yerd himself was represented in the image of a bull" ^{[23, p. 177]}. Compare. with the fact that in other Greek mythology, on the mythical fr. Fat herds of snow-white Helium bulls graze in Trinacria ^{[15, p. 144]}.

M. Tsaroeva notes that the cult of the sky "Gilyerda" in ancient times personified the sun. This was reflected in the sacred hymn of the girls, which they sang during the pilgrimage to the sanctuary on the day of religious holidays" ^{[26, p. 82]}. The sources record several variants of prayer to Gel (Gallerd) ^{[23, p. 177; 29, 183-196; 10, p. 28]}.

In the Mountainous zone of Ingushetia and Chechnya, there are a large number of toponyms based on the root GIal // GIel // Gel ^{[10, pp. 32-33; 12, p. 8, 38, 92, 106, 111, 114, 132, 142]}. A huge boulder on the western outskirts of the village of Gendargen in the Nozhai-Yurt district of Chechnya is called Gela-Churt, which, according to legend, was thrown from the top of the Lekhchu court by nart Gela ^{[30, p. 91]}.

I. F. Blaramberg in the Assinovsky gorge of Ingushetia mentions a ridge called Galte, located to the right of the river Assi ^{[31, p. 313]}.

It should be noted that the term erd(a) is attached not only to G I al, but also to the names of other cults of the ancient Kazakh pantheon. For example, Amaga-yerda, Thaba-yerda, Moldaz-Yerda, Tamash-yerda, Albi-yerda, etc. (see Albogachieva M.S.-G.: abstract. 2021, pp. 13-24).

According to the modern Ingush-Russian dictionary, erd(a) means "sanctuary // temple" ^{[9, p. 185]}. But the fact that the term G I al-yerda was also used as one name (for example, when signing the "treaty" in 1810, representatives of the Nazran society swore by Gallerd ^{[32, p. 126; 33, p. 117]}), indicates that yerd (a) was also used as an epithet. to the name Gal I al, perhaps in the meaning of "sacred" or "Gal Ardinsky".

But judging by the description, I am. According to Reinegs, the term had another meaning. The author noted that "the Ingush honor the sacred cave near the village of Vapila and the sacred rocks, which the Ingush call Yerda, they have sacred silver fetishes of indeterminate shape, which they call Tsuum" ^{[32, p. 123]}.

Based on the above, we conclude that the term erd(a) was attached to GIal in three meanings.: 1) 'deity', saint; 2) as an epithet, meaning 'Ardinian' or 'sacred'; 3) sanctuary, temple.

In our opinion, in Urartian names, the term ard (i) played the same role as yerda (erdi) in the names of ancient Kazakh pagan cults, and Haldi is a transformation of Halardi as a result of syncopation of ar- (Haldi < Khal-ardi). In some cases, a similar phenomenon is observed in the Ingush and Chechen languages. For example, Chechen. erdu; ing. argda – "I will say", but bang. alor ^{[34, pp. 478-479]}. The original form of the future tense, apparently, was alor du ^{[34, pp. 527-528]}. That is, in this case, there was a syncopation -lo-. Moreover, in the speech of the Ingush, argda is pronounced as [adde].

Perhaps, in the title of the book al-yerda (Khal-ardi), the term yerda (ardi) is used in the meaning of "god" or "sacred". In this case, Haldi (Hal-ardi) means "God Hal" or "Sacred Hal").

Judging by the fact that the name of any cult, even the supreme one (like Diela and CIuv), was used in the meaning of "'deity', saint, sanctuary, sacred" ^{[35, p. 77; 32, p. 124; 36, p. 102]}, ardi// yerda could originally also be the name of a separate cult. It is noteworthy that in the ancient beliefs of the ancestors of the Nakh peoples there was a cult of the borders and ancestral lands of the Arda (see Albogachieva M.S.-G. Islam in the social life of the Ingush: history, practice, institutions (XVIII — early XXI centuries) : abstract. 2021. 434. p., p. 21). Ard was also a cult of the sun in Urartu ^{[37, pp. 43-44; 3, p. 8]}. That is, Ard It is associated with the earth (agriculture) and the sun (fire), like Gela in Nakh mythology.

Based on the above, we believe that the ethnonym Chaldea and the name of the cult of Chaldi come from the name of the cult of Khal-Ardi, which is formed by adding two names – Khal and Ardi. This conclusion is also confirmed by the fact that Herodotus in the 5th century BC (III.94.) does not mention the Chaldeans, while the Urartians are called Alarodians ^{[38, p. 9]}.

B. B. Piotrovsky writes on the issue of localization of alarodiev: "In ancient literature, the name Urartians was preserved only by Herodotus, who reported that the XVIII tax district of Persia included: Matiens, saspirs (saspeyri) and alarodii… Despite the fact that Herodotus does not have an exact indication of the location of the alarodes, we can still confidently attribute them to the lake district. Van" ^{[3, p. 5]}.

A. G. Sagon believes that Chaldia could have been located north of Araks and on lands that were previously under the rule of Urartu, especially in the area of the Zivin River valley, on the way between Kars and Tushpa ^{[39, pp. 29-30]}. In this case, the localization of the Alarodians almost coincides with the localization of the Chaldeans (Chaldeans).

Herodotus (VII. 79) reports that the Alarodians were armed like the Colchians (daggers, spears, leather shields and wooden helmets) ^{[38, p. 57]}, which again indicates the possible residence of the Alarodians near Colchis.

"The presence of the tribal name "alarodia", according to Ed. According to J. Meyer, it indicates that the name "Urartu", with which the name of the Alarodians is undoubtedly connected, was or became the name of a people, i.e. the designation of a certain ethnic group" ^{[40, p. 21 (approx. № 4)]}.

"It seems more likely," writes B. B. Piotrovsky, "that the Urartians, who did not constitute the majority of the population in their state, did not move anywhere after the fall of the Van kingdom, but remained in the Van region, retaining, according to Herodotus, their tribal name, rendered in Greek transcription as Alarodes" ^{[3, p. 9]}.

In other words, the Alarodians are the Urartian Chaldeans, who continued to call themselves by their ancient name (more precisely, one of its variants), where in the Greek transmission the initial sonorous velar fricative ɣ- (or the deaf uvular explosive q-) disappeared.

Thus, we have three ways of forming the name of a part of the population of the Van kingdom, derived from three variants of the name of their main cult of Khaldi: from Hal (other-Greek. Helios, etc.-nakhsk. G I al // Gel) – haly, gels, kola (see below), etc.; from Hal-ardi (other-Nakhsk. G I al-yerda // Gel-yerda) – alarodia (Halardy); from Chaldi – Chaldea (Chalda). The latter, apparently, was an exoethnonym, and they called themselves Hals, Ards (see below), and Halards.

The Ardi tribe // atri. Interestingly, Xenophon mentions in the Anabasis (V. 2. 1-6) the Drylae, who together with the Colchians fought against the Greeks ^{[2, pp. 77-78]}. Judging by Xenophon's report, the Drils lived in a mountainous, inaccessible area, and their main settlement was located about 6-8 hours away from Trebizond ^{[41, p. 252]}.

The Drils, according to Xenophon's reports, lived near the Colchians and the city of Trebizond, in fortified mountain settlements (Horia), as well as the Colchians, Taokhi and Mossiniki ^{[41, pp. 252, 254-255]}. Some of the chorias, such as those of the Taohs, were uninhabited. Medieval Vainakhs lived in the same fortified mountain settlements, whose towers were divided into residential (gIala) and non-residential military (in the I century // b I century) ^{[42, p. 168]}.

They knew metal drilling and processing ^{[41, p. 254]}.

Interestingly, the Roman governor of Cappadocia, Flavia Arriana (95-175 centuries A.D.), calls the Drils "sannas" ^{[43, p. 222 (§ 15)]}. Commenting on Arrian's message, M. I. Maksimova writes: "The drills are not mentioned by many ancient authors, including Arrian, who, like Xenophon, personally visited the vicinity of Trebizond. In his time, the tribe called the Drills was no longer in those places. Arrian, who was well aware of Xenophon's "Anabasis" and often referred to it in his writings when describing the surroundings of Trebizond, recalls Xenophon's story about raids on the Drils and presumably identifies the Drils with the tribe of the Sanns, who lived in his time in the mountains near Trebizond and, like the Drils, were distinguished by their belligerence and unwillingness to enter into relations with the Greek colonies" ^{[41, p. 251]}. As we can see, Flavius Arrian's description of the sanns (sanars) and their location is similar to Xenophon's description and localization of drills.

Pliny the Elder in the first century A.D. called the Tsanars sanars (Σαναροι) ^{[44, p. 125]}. The Armenian name Tsanar(k') (Ծանար(ք)) is found in the seventh-century work Ashkharkhatsuyts ^{[44, p. 125]}, according to which the Alans called the Tsanars Celkans ^{[44, p. 126]}. The 9th-century Georgian chronicle "The Conversion of Kartli" mentions the Tselkans, Phovels, Mtiuls and Chartals (inhabitants of the Chartalis-Khevi River, a tributary of the Aragvi), and in the 9th-century Arabic work. "Hudud al-Alam", the Tsanars were named Sanar ^{[44, p.126]}.

In the first century AD, Pliny the Elder localizes the Sanars (Σαναροι [tsanaroi]) in the Daryal Gorge and the territories adjacent to the south ^{[44, p. 125]}. In Ashkharkhatsuyts, the Sanars (Armenian: Ծանարք [Tsanark']) are indicated as neighbors of the Tush and dvals, on whose land the Alanov and Tselkanov mountain passes were located ^{[45, p. 37; 44, p. 125]}. The Alans called the Tsanars Celkans ^{[44, p. 126]}. Approximately in the same area, the Sanars are located in Hudud al-Alam (9th century) ^{[44, pp. 125-126]}. This territory, where, according to Georgian and Arab sources, Dzurdzuketiya was located ^{[46, pp. 27, 44, 135-139; 11, pp. 153-164; 47, p. 25]}. Interestingly, the Central Caucasian Tsanars (Sanars), as well as the Black Sea Sannas and Drils, are described as a warlike and irreconcilable people. Arab sources report a clash with the Tsanar mountaineers in Kakheti, who became especially active in the second half of the 8th and early 9th centuries ^{[48, pp. 82, 87 (approx. No. 27); 49, pp. 165-174]}. By the way, the tactics used by Drills against the Greeks ^{[41, p. 252]} are similar to those used by Imam Shamil against the tsarist troops during the Caucasian War.

In other words, the sannas (sanars) by ancient and medieval authors are placed not only in the Black Sea region, but also in the central and eastern regions of the Caucasus. Apparently, in ancient times there were migrations of Sanars from the southeastern Black Sea region to the Central Caucasus. This is evidenced, for example, by the report of the medieval Armenian historian and church and public figure Vardan ‘Arevelzi', about the migration of the Sanars to Gardman ^{[50, p. 101; 11, p. 153]}.

This is also confirmed, for example, in the work of Leonti Mroveli, who, speaking about the migration of the Chaldeans in the III century BC, writes: "The Chaldean tribes have come again" ^{[47, p. 28]}. The key word here is "again." Consequently, Chaldeans migrated to the Central Caucasus before the 3rd century BC.

So, Vardan Arevelzi calls the Tsanars "Chaldeans." At the same time, the "Armenian Geography" also indicates that the Tsans (Janiv) are Chaldeans" ^{[45, p. 39]}. In the "Collection of materials for the description of the localities and tribes of the Caucasus" for 1884, we read: "Chaldeans (Armenian Chaltik (i.e. Vats) of the VII century. – Approx. Comp.) They also live near the Kolkhos" ^{[51, pp.200-203]}.

Thus, according to the above data, the Sannyas are a Chaldean tribe. If you agree with Arrian's opinion that the Drills are the same as the Sannas, then they are also Chalds. The latter have Ardini as the sacred center of their main cult (Khaldi). Consequently, Chaldia (associated with Ardini) is a connecting element between the Sannyas, the Tsanars and the Drils (however, we believe that the Sannyas and the Drils were two closely related, but different peoples).

As we wrote above, Haldi is derived from Hal+ardi, and the people who profess this cult may have been called Halami, Ardami and Halards. In our opinion, the term drills (other-Greek. Drilae) is a Greek translation of the Chaldean ethnonym a d ril, where the initial vowel has disappeared. The elision of initial vowel sounds existed in both ancient Greek and Koine ^{[52, p. 70]}.

We compare the final -l(ae) with the Nakh word-formation suffix -luo // -love, with the meaning of a person's belonging to a religion, clan, locality (country, territory, city, etc.) where he lives or where he comes from ^{[53, p. 59; 34, 391-392, 394]}. The first element of the suffix goes back to the formant of the directional case -l, which was subsequently attached to the name of a locality or country to form a new word ^{[34, p. 396]}. For example, ch I aberl(a) is "cheberloevets" (from Ch I aber is the name of a locality in the southeastern part of Chechnya + the suffix -l(a)). Then the class indicator vu // va is added to the suffix -l(a): chaberla vu – "cheberloevets is". In such cases, the fusion of the final (non–front row) vowel with the bundle wu // va in the Vainakh languages usually gives the long diphthong uo, and in the Batsbian language - the diphthong ab// ov: h I aberla wu // va > h I aberlav > h I aberloo ^{[34, pp. 396-397]}. In that case, Drilae (Ad rilae?) It means "those who profess to be Adri" or "those who come from Adri /Ardini". Perhaps the ethnonym ermalo was formed in the same way (< armela +v) – "Armenian" (from Arme – the name of the ancient Urartian region + the suffix -l(uo)).

However, we tend to believe that the finite -l(ae) is an affix of the plural -li, present in the Urartian language ^{[54, p. 51]} (cf. Biaina, Biainili). The affix mn. ch. -l is also present, for example, in the modern Avar language ^{[55, p. 45]}. Hence, the other is Greek. Drilae (< Ad rili) means "Adras // Hadrians". In other words, those who came from Ardini or worshipped the cult of Ardi Chaldeans may have called themselves ardi(l) // adri(l). If our conclusions are correct, then this also shows the connection of the Chaldeans and Drils with the Urartians (Vanets).

Interestingly, the Sannyas were also called machelons (Macrons), for example, Strabo (XII. 3. 18), Stephen of Byzantium, etc. ^{[56, 262-263; 1, p. 158; 57, p. ii]}. At the same time, it is reported that the sannas (tzany, tchany, sanegi) are the same manholes ^{[57, pp. iv–v, 28 (approx. № 3)]}. At the same time, according to Byzantine historians (Prokopius, Agafia, and others), "the Lazyans are the same people as they were previously called Colchians" ^{[57, p. iv]}, and "Colchis later became known as Lazia or Lazica" ^{[57, p. v]}.

It follows from the above data that the Drils, Sannas, Machelons (Macrons), Lazyes, Colchians and Chaldeans were either tribes of the same people, or very close and related peoples.

"Regarding the area that belonged to Ksenofotov's drills, there is an assumption made by Tomasek that this is the area located around the Zigana Pass" ^{[41, pp. 252-253]}. It is appropriate to recall here that the Merzhoyevites (Teip as part of the Vainakh Orstkhoyev society) withdraw themselves from the shores of the Black Sea, where the Zigur River flows ^{[12, p. 79.]}. Researchers compare the hydronym Zigur with the name of the Zigana pass ^{[11, p. 160-162]}. This is actually a direct indication of the connection of the Dzurdzuk-Merzhoyevites with the area of residence of the Sanns and Drils.

Judging by the fact that the main cult center of the Van kingdom was located in Ardini, the founders of this state themselves came from this area. If they were the natives of the area around the lake. Van (where the Van Kingdom originally arose), then it is unlikely that their main cult center would not have been located on the territory of their country. Naturally, if the Van people did not borrow it from another people. But we are not considering this option, because scientists consider the Chaldi to be the original Urartian cults ^{[8, pp. 220-221]}.

Note that most Urarthologists tend to It is believed that the Urartians settled in the Armenian Highlands from the area of modern Revanduz, where the ancient city of Ardini (Mutsatsir) was located ^{[7, p. 332; 13, p. 48; 14, p. 26-28]} and that the hearth of the Urartian civilization was located on this territory ^{[7, p. 331-332; 13, p. 48; 14, p. 28; 40, p. 97; 58, p. 224; 11, p. 217-218]}. Therefore, Chaldeans (Chaldaeans) come from Ardini and the lake district. Van, who occupied the territory in the Lake Van area. That is, the founders of the Van kingdom were the Chalards, whom Herodotus in the 5th century BC called Alarodians (i.e. Halards). Perhaps the migration of the Hurrians from the territory of Nairi to the south, as well as to the north and west, was connected precisely with the arrival in the lake area. The Van Ardyn Chaldeans (possibly in alliance with the Urumei Tsobs), who drove them out of this territory. The Chaldeans moved their capital from Mutsatsir to Tushpa, while the religious center remained on the territory of their ancestral homeland.

Thus, we come to the conclusion that Drilae is a Greek translation of the Urartian (Alarodian) ethnonym Ad rili. Perhaps the ethnonym Alarodi is the common name of the Chalov and Ardov, in turn, derived from the names of two ancient cults – Hal (Gel) and Ardi (Adri). At the same time, the ethnonym Chaldea, in our opinion, is an exoethnonym of the Alarodians, which they received in ancient times, as an indication of the worship of the cult of Khalardi, but after the transformation of his name into Khaldi. Consequently, the Drils are part of the Chaldeans of the Black Sea region.

The Gels and Kols are tribes of the Chaldeans. The name of gela, in our opinion, is connected with the cult of Haldi. As noted above, B. B. Piotrovsky, referring to Marr, believed that the ethnonym of hala was at the heart of the term Chaldeans. In confirmation of the scientist's words, we note that in the work of Pliny the Elder (VI.19), Galas (Chalas) are mentioned among the tribes of the Northeastern Black Sea region and the Azov Sea region ^{[59, p. 180]}. Moreover, they are listed next to the meotes, whose name, in our opinion, is the same root as the ethnonym matiena.

In addition, in ancient sources in different regions of the Caucasus, there are people called Gels (other-Greek. Γῆλαι) ^{[1, p. 149]}, γέλαι ^{[60, p. 492]}, Γ ηλοι ^{[61, p. 244]}, as well as Gelati (Chaldeans?) ^{[62, p. 204]}, and the Gauls [63. 219-225]. Strabo, with reference to Theophanes of Mytilene (1st century BC), reports that "between the Amazons and the Albanians live the Scythian tribes of Gela and Legi" (Book XI. ch.5) ^{[1, p. 144]}. At the same time, Strabo places the Amazons "in the mountains towering over Albania" ^{[1, p. 144]}. Further, with reference to Microdorus of Skipsia and Ipsicrates, "also familiar with these countries," Strabo reports that "Amazons live near Gargarei, on the northern foothills of the Caucasus Mountains called Keraunian" ^{[1, p. 144]}. Judging by these data, the Gels lived somewhere near the Amazons, possibly on both sides of the Caucasus Mountains.

V. S. Peredolsky writes:"The Amazons occupied the mountainous country of the Caucasus above the Albanians, partly inhabited by Scythians, Gels and Legi, who, like the Amazons, divided their lands with the Sarmatians" ^{[64, p. 646]}. According to the author, the Gels and the legi "in the Strabonian period occupied the mountainous part of the country of the biblical Towela along the banks of the Mermadalia River" ^{[64, p. 635]}.

Apparently, we are talking about the gels in Albania and on the northern slopes of the Caucasus. According to K. V. Trever, "the legi mentioned next to the Gels apparently lived in the mountainous regions of the Samura River basin, north of the Udins and Albans" ^{[65, p. 93]}. Consequently, the Gels, localized by Strabo between the Amazons and the Albanians and indicated next to the Legae, lived north of the Samur River.

Mroveli also places the Legov (Lekans) in the North Caucasus east of the Lomeki River to the Caspian Sea and refers them not to the Scythians, but to the Caucasian peoples ^{[47, p. 21]}. It is possible that the Gels lived both on the southern slopes of the Caucasus and on the northern slopes, between the Lega and Gargarei. In this regard, it is interesting that in Azerbaijan, in the area of the modern village of Kyalva in the Akhsui region, there is a Gelava region, the name of which researchers associate with the Gels who lived in the northeastern part of the Caucasus Mountains, south of the Lega ^{[66, p. 248]}. In the "Armenian Geography", gels are found under the name hely and, judging by the text, they are localized approximately in the area of the border of modern Dagestan and Azerbaijan ^{[45, p. 38]}. That is, gels are also recorded on the southern slopes of the Caucasian Ridge.

According to the reports of ancient authors, the Gels lived not only north of the Albanians, but also south of them, in the Gilan region (modern Iranian province of Gilan) at the southwestern corner of the Caspian Sea, near Kadusia ^{[63, pp. 219-225; 65, p. 93]}. Referring to Patroclus (III century BC), Strabo (XI. 7) mentions the Gels among the tribes of the southwestern coast of the Caspian Sea ^{[1, p. 149]}.

Pointing to the report of Pliny Secundus (VI, XVIII.48), a number of researchers are inclined to believe that the Kadusiyas and Gels are the names of the same Iranian–speaking people ^{[67, p. 166; 63, p. 219; 68, p. 37; 69, p. 429]}. However, this contradicts Strabo, who cites the Gels separately from the Cadusians ^{[1, p. 149]}.

Ptolemy in the second century also indicates the Gelovs next to the Kadusians as a separate tribe (VI. II. 5), while placing the Gelonov in "European Sarmatia" (III. V. 10) ^{[61, pp. 244, 231]}.

Comparing all extant fragments of ancient sources, Kai Brodersen expresses the opinion that in Pliny's text the word legi could have disappeared during copying, and the original fragment read as "gels, legi – which the Greeks called kadusii..." ^{[70, p. 184]}.

The origin of the Cadusians themselves is controversial in the scientific community. It is believed that they were ethnically Eastern Caucasians ^{[71, p. 725]}. We are inclined to believe that the Kadusii were Urartian Chaldeans, related to the Dagestani peoples, who only switched to the Iranian language with the arrival of the Median tribes in this region.

Supporters of the Iranian-speaking Gels point to ancient authors (e.g. Strabo V. 5, 1) who called them the Scythian people. A. A. Tuallagov, referring to the Moor Servius Honoratus (Xl, 659), classifies the Gels as Scythians (see Tuallagov A. A. Sarmatians and Alans in the IV century BC – I century AD E. : The main problems of ethnogenesis and ethnopolitical history: abstract. Vladikavkaz, 2002. pp. 292-250 p.). The author connects the Gels with the Gelons, noting also their proximity to the Amazons ^{[72 , p. 128, 168]}. A similar opinion was shared by another Ossetian scientist V. I. Abaev ^{[73,. 94]}. V. S. Peredolsky was inclined to see the gels and legas of the Caucasian Sarmatians ^{[64, p. 646]}. K. V. Trever writes: "The fact that Strabo calls the Legov and Gelov Scythians suggests that these mountain tribes were ethnically different from the Udins and Albanians" ^{[65, p. 47]}.

However, the ancient authors called almost all the inhabitants of the North Caucasus who were not related to the Iranian world Scythians or Sarmatians, and the region itself – Scythia and Sarmatia. And not only the North Caucasian tribes, but also some Transcaucasian ones. For example, Pliny the Elder calls the Udins Scythians (VI. 38) ^{[59, p. 184]}, and Stephen of Byzantium – the Meots and Lazov ^{[56, p. 262]}.

There is no reliable evidence that the Gels were an Iranian-speaking people by origin. L. Mroveli referred the Legov to the Caucasian peoples, and placed the Kavkasi to the west of them (see above), which, in our opinion, the author included the Gels and Gargarei. At least, from Lomeka to the "limits of the Caucasian Mountains", the author does not indicate any other people besides the Kavkas.

It has also been suggested that the ethnonym Gela does not denote a separate tribe, but is only a form of the name of the legends of ancient authors (leks of early medieval Armenian and Georgian sources), formed as a result of metathesis ^{[74, p. 131]}. In our opinion, it makes no sense to even consider this version, since the ancient authors mentioned these two peoples separately (see above).

According to H. H. Ramazanov and A. R. Shikhsaidov, "the Gels or the Leges cannot be attributed to any one people" ^{[75, p. 20]}. A. K. Alikberov admits that the Gels may be associated with the people of Ma'jujah ^{[76, p. 350]}.

At the same time, a number of historians believe that the endoethnonym Ingush is of the same root as the name of the Gela people ^{[77, pp. 30-31; 78, pp. 643; 79, p. 239; 80, p. 489; 81, p. 97; 82, p. 33]}, which is consistent with our opinion that the Gela were Kavkas is a part of the people whose ethnarch is named in L. Mroveli's work ^{[47, p. 21]}. In our opinion, the Gels were one of the two main tribes of the Galgai people.

Apparently, another ancient Caucasian people, the Khons, mentioned in ancient Armenian sources, is somehow connected with the Gels. According to Robert Hewsen, "one can hardly doubt that the Khons and Gels are the descendants of the Chionites and Gelons, "especially warlike tribes," with whom, according to Ammianus Marcellinus, Shahanshah Shapur II first fought in 356-358, and then concluded an agreement in 358." ^{[66, p. 248]}. However, in the "Appeals of Georgia" ("Moktsevai Kartlisai"), it is reported that during the time of Alexander the Great, "a warlike tribe of Honns arrived from the Chaldeans, and asked the lord of the Bunturks for a place under the condition of paying tribute, and they settled in the Curtain. And they owned it, [a place] for which they paid taxes, and it is called Herki " ^{[83, p. 23]}. It is interesting to note that if, according to the report of Vardan 'Arevelzi', tsans (tsanars) arrived from Chaldia, then according to "Moktsevai Kartlisai" the people who arrived from this country are called khons ^{[11, p. 163]}. That is, we see a connection between the Khons and Chaldia, whose name, according to N. J. Marr and B. B. Piotrovsky (see above), is based on the ethnonym hal, i.e. gal // gel.

It should also be noted that in those places where the toponyms Tsan(ar), Tsopa // Tsova are found, the name Khon is invariably present ^{[11, p. 163]}. So, in the Pontic Mountains, in the upper reaches of the Chorokh in the 5th century BC, khons were located, and here, in the valley of the Chorokh, the Tsank (Tsanika) region is located ^{[11, p. 163]}. In the same Gardman, within the Tsovk region, at the confluence of the Kura and Khrami (where the Tsanars stopped on their way to the Central Caucasus), there was the ancient city of Hunan (Hunarakert of ancient Armenian sources), which existed already in the time of Alexander the Great, according to Georgian sources ^{[11, p. 163]}. In Tsanaria, which was called Khon (Masakha–khon) in the III-IV centuries, the mountain and the area of Khon are known ^{[11, p. 163]}. In the mountains of Chechnya, "the hydronym Khon-Argun (Chanty-Argun), there are still Nakh tribal groups with the names khona, tsova" ^{[11, p. 164]}.

It is important to note that the results of the study of this issue by G. J. Gumba convincingly prove that the Khons are part of the Hurrian–Urar community and are associated with the ancestors of the Nakho-Dagestan peoples ^{[11, pp. 124-153]}.

As an ethnonym for hona, we associate the mythical name Gan (Nakh. G I an) – appears in Vainakh legends as the ancestor of the ethnarch of the Nakh peoples Ga (Nahsk. I a) ^{[24, 427; 84, pp. 112, 116]}. One of the legends tells about the Galgai tribe of Gam, who lived in the Dzheyrakh gorge ^{[85, p. 58]}.

In Albania, Ptolemy mentions the cities of Gelda and Gelaiba (Ptol. Geogr. V, 11, 2), which are associated with gels in the literature [74 p. 130-131]. The hypothetically restored toponym Gelaiba is associated with the name of the modern village of Aglabi, north of the mouth of the Samur River ^{[74, p. 131 (note 4)]}. We compare these names with the ethnonyms of the Chaldeans // Haly.

In our opinion, the Gels in Albania and Gilan were originally related to the Urartians and the ancestors of the Vainakhs (here we recall that to the southwest of Gilan there was a Urartian religious center dedicated to the cult of Khaldi). But living in the north, in the mountains and foothills of the Eastern Caucasus, among peoples related to the modern Dagestan peoples, and on the southwestern coast of the Caspian Sea, among Iranian tribes that outnumbered them, the Gels gradually switched to Dagestan and Iranian languages.

Albert Olmsted in his writings calls one of the rulers of the Gels by the name Guaratranos ^{[86, p. 252.]}. Discarding the Greek ending -os, we get the name Guaratran, the first part of which we compare with Goar, preserved in the Armenian language as a feminine name ^{[87, p. 165]}. It is also interesting to note that in the Ingush language the expression "Goar to I antiy" remains (Exclamations and interesting expressions of the Ingush. Retrieved from https://inguche.livejournal.com/41052.html ; Chechen-Russian dictionary of phraseological units . 2014. Retrieved from https://idiom_che_ru.academic.ru/77/Ай_Goar_c1antium_I1_%21 ), which literally translates as "well done Goara".

The second part of Atran is probably a tribal name indicating belonging to the Alarodians (Halards), where the final is the n - Urartian membership suffix, or the affix of the genus. p., present in the Nakh languages (see below). In this case, Guaratran means "Guar (Goar) of Atria" (i.e. Alarodian). We also assume that atran is an indication that Guar was a follower of the cult of Arda (Adra).

In the Nakh mythology, there is the term Dzhelty (ing., Chechen. zhelti), as a designation of the people who lived in the mountains of Ingushetia and Chechnya. The Ingush legend, recorded by Ch. E. Akhriev, says: "At one time, the Jelts lived in these mountains with Soska-Solsa; they were a hardworking and educated people; they were good builders and built many towers and castles; in addition, they left large treasures in different places. They left us for some other country" ^{[88, pp. 6-7]}. According to B. K. Dalgat, the Greeks were called Jelts ^{[36, p. 39]}. However, there is no evidence that the Ingush or Chechens called the Greeks Djelts and that they built all these numerous towers, sanctuaries, etc. for them. At the same time, there is considerable evidence that the builders of these structures were local craftsmen ^{[42, pp. 168-178; [89, pp. 178-185]}.

Apparently, such legends are of late origin, when the people in the new conditions stopped building such structures and gradually most of them began to forget information about the builders. Yakovlev wrote in 1925 that Ingush artisans and craftsmen were almost unknown in Ingushetia, but in the old days there were whole families in the mountains engaged, for example, in the construction of stone towers, wide 2-3-storey residential towers (gal), tall ten-set, 4-5-tier slender combat towers (heu), small "solar burial grounds, crypts" (malkh-kash) and numerous temples (tsuu, elgats, etc.). Of all these structures, the construction of combat towers required special care and art" ^{[90, p. 88; 89, p. 179]}.

Indeed, "the memory of the people – folklore – has preserved the names and surnames of only the most skilled local medieval master builders - Dugo Akhriev, Dyatsi Lyanov and Khazbi Tsurov from the village of Furtoug, Yand and Esmurza Yandiev from Erzya, Itar from Olgeta, Tek-Batyg Eldiev from Targim, Berd Yevloev from Old Yevloy, Hanoi Hing from Khyani, Arsmak from Lyalyakh, Albakovs from Tumgoi, and others" ^{[89, pp. 178-179; 42, p. 177]}.

At the same time, it is possible that the oldest structures were built by craftsmen from Jelts, i.e. gelami. As noted above, migrations of tribes related to the Nakh peoples (Tsanar, Chaldean, Argan) to the Central Caucasus have occurred in several migration waves since ancient times. And judging by Strabo's reports, the Gels and Gargarei lived approximately in the area of modern Chechnya and Ingushetia (see above). In a certain historical period, the Tsanary-Dzurdzuks could occupy the territory and settlements inhabited by the Gels (Chaldean-Kists), and, naturally, call the settlements and settlements occupied by them Chaldean (i.e., Jeltian). Perhaps this (the arrival of the Dzurdzukes in the land of the Kists) is due to the fact that in a certain period the Dzurdzuk cult of Tsu // Tsob became the main one in the pagan beliefs of the ancestors of the Vainakhs ^{[11, p. 124]}.

And the reason that the Dzurdzuks associated the Jelts with the Greeks may have been that the Chaldeans migrated to these places in ancient times from the territory of the southeastern Black Sea region, where there was a strong Greek influence. At the same time, the Dzurdzuk Tsanars, who migrated later and occupied the territory of Chaldom, could have been from the territory of Orchistena (Artsakh), Tsovka (Syunik) or Gardman, where the Greek influence was not so strong. Consequently, such ideas about the Jelts appeared among the Dzurdzuk part of the Vainakhs. Interestingly, the cyclopean buildings of Ingushetia are similar to those known in the territory of the Van Kingdom (Urartu) ^{[42, p. 168]}.

In our opinion, the term Jelta comes from the ethnonym Chalda, where the root consonant has passed into the affricate of J. This phenomenon is recorded in the Nakh languages. For example, the Chechen ing. khazh is "forehead", in the Sharoev dialect of the Chechen language it sounds like khag ^{[55, p. 86]}. Interestingly, Jil (the full form of Gilan) is the Arabic name for Gilan (Gilan, Kurd. Gîlan) ^{[76, p. 350]}.

A similar opinion was shared by the Caucasian ethnographer A. N. Genko, associating the Jelts with the Gels. However, the scientist was inclined to refer the final word to the Ossetian suffix. mn. ch. -tæ ^{[91, p. 707]}. It is appropriate to recall here that in the ethnonym khaltik (Armenian form of the ethnonym Chaldea), the suffix -te -ti, according to N. J. Marr, also represents the plural form ^{[8, p. 120]}. However, this plural form is present in some Dagestani languages, for example, in Darginsky (see Umarkhanova J. A. Characteristics of the morphemic composition of the Darginian language. Makhachkala, 2010. 163 p., pp. 100-101). In the medieval Georgian language, the form of the Gen. P. mn. ch. was formed using the affix -ta. This form is found, for example, in Shota Rustaveli's poem "The Knight in the Tiger's Skin." Therefore, we assume that zheltiy is a form of the ethnonym Gela, which originated in the Dzurdzuk language, under the influence of the Georgian language, and means "belonging // professing Gela".

Perhaps, the term gełni (Armenian), gełnik (Armenian) or głni (Armenian), found in the medieval dictionary of Jeremiah Megresi, was formed in a similar way as one of the two self-names of the Armenians gełni ^{[92, p. 63, 67; 93, p. 64, 67; 94, p. 850]}. The final suffix -ni is probably related to the -ne formant in Hurrian, used to express possessive adjectives ^{[95, p. 383]}, or the Urartian membership suffix -ini and the case affix -ni ^{[54, p. 48, 54]}, or it is the affix mn. ch., which also functions in the modern Darginian language (see above). In other words, gełni probably means "worshipers of Gela" or simply "gels// chaly" (cf. Galai – tape as part of vine. orstkhoi Society). In our opinion, the Armenians inherited this name from the hal(d)s, adding the Armenian affix mn. ch. -k (-kh) to the gełni form ^{[96, p. 223 (note 87)]}. And judging by the research of B. B. Piotrovsky, all these names could be different forms of the ethnonym Chalda (khaltik).

It should also be noted that Gelam was the eponym of the western regions of Lake Gelam (modern Lake Sevan) ^{[94, p. 845]}, where the Tsovs lived and the Tsovk region was located ^{[11, p. 162-163]}. According to A. E. Petrosyan, the ethnonym gełni (i.e. haly // geli) in the Armenian genealogy of Hayk is represented by the eponym Gelam (Gełam) and Ara Gelecik (Ara Gełec'ik). In particular, the author writes: "In the folk tradition, hay and armen are associated with the names of the patriarchs Gaik and Aram or Aramaneak, and it is logical to assume that the ethnonym gełni also had an eponym in the myth and compare it with the names Gełam and/or Ara Gełec'ik" ^{[94, p. 850]}.

It is possible that the Gelons and the Gels were different peoples: the former were Iranian–speaking, and the Gels were a Caucasian tribe related to the Nakh and Hurrian-Urartian peoples. At the same time, we believe that the Scythian Iranian-speaking tribes could have borrowed the name "gelon" from the indigenous population of the Black Sea region after their expansion into this area in the VIII-VII centuries BC.

In this regard, the traditions of the Scythians about their ethnarch are of interest. Herodotus (IV. 5) reports on three legends: "According to the Scythians, their people are the youngest of all. And it happened this way. The first inhabitant of this then uninhabited country was a man named Targitai. The parents of this Targitai, as the Scythians say, were Zeus and the daughter of the river Borysthenes. Targitai was of this kind, and he had three sons: Lipoxai, Arpoxai, and the youngest, Kolaxai..." ^{[97, p. 188]}. It is easy to notice the consonance of the names Targitai, Lipoxai, Arpoxai and Kolaxai with the names of the ancestors of the Caucasian peoples in the messages of Mroveli – Targamos, Lekas, Eros and Kavkas. In the name Targitai, the final is tai, possibly an affix of many letters attached to the base of the Targi, which, in turn, goes back to the name of the country of Tukrisha, in Mesopotamia, or the ethnonym Takhor ^{[98, pp. 17-18]}.

At first glance, it just seems like a coincidence. However, the striking similarity of the names of the Scythian ethnarchs with the names of the ancestors of the modern Nakho-Dagestan peoples is hardly due to coincidence. We tend to believe that there were "descendants of Targam" among the Scythians, and the legend refers to the origin of precisely that part of the Scythians that is associated with the pre-Scythian population of the Black Sea region.

We find some confirmation of our conclusions in another ancient Greek legend about the origin of the Scythians, cited by Herodotus. It talks about the country of Gilea (IV. 9) ^{[97, p. 189]}. We fully assume that the name of this country comes from the ethnonym gela // haly (i.e. Giley probably means Helium). This legend tells about the three sons of Hercules: Agathirse, Gelon and Scythian. It is possible that the names of the three ethnarchs of the Scythians are the names of three different peoples that made up the classical European Scythians: the Indo-European tribes of the Srubnaya culture, the Caucasian tribes and the newcomers of the Iranian nomads. At the same time, Gelone is the eponym of the Gels, whose name is associated with the name of the mythical country of Giles.

It is also appropriate here to recall the story of Herodotus about the arrival of the Amazons in Scythia (IV, 110-116), in which it is reported that the Amazons settled in the area of Lake Maeotian (modern times). The Sea of Azov), up to the Tanais River (modern Don River) ^{[97, pp. 214-216]}. The legend also says that the North Caucasian Sauromats are descendants of Scythians and Amazons, and for this reason the Sauromats did not speak pure Scythian (IV, 117) ^{[97, p. 216]}. If the Amazons had been an Iranian-speaking Scythian tribe, there would hardly have been an emphasis on the distortion of the Scythian language. We tend to think that the Amazons were part of the Gels or the Khalibs.

We also associate the Kola people, who lived in the western Caucasus, with the Hadleys. Hecateus of Miletus mentions the Coles among the Colchian tribes, in the neighborhood of the Corax no later than 480 BC ^{[99, p. 2]}.

The author of the VI century. Stephen of Byzantium also writes that "the Kola people live near the Caucasus. The foothills of the Caucasus are called the Koli Mountains, and the country is called the Kolika Mountains" ^{[56, pp.200-203.]} V. T. Musbakhova localizes koraks and kols in the foothills of the Western Caucasus, in the upper reaches of the Kuban River ^{[100, pp. 904-910]}.

According to Pliny the Elder (IV. 85), among the six cities in Taurica, the city of Kaliordy is found ^{[59, p. 173]}, which may be associated with the Kols and Ardov who lived in this area, i.e. the Alarodians.

In our opinion, the ethnonyms gela (hala) and Kola are preserved in the endoethnonym of modern Ingush – g I alg I ai. More precisely, in the first part of the name g I al (we associate the second part -g I ai with gargarei).

It is interesting to note that in the sources of the XV-XIX centuries, some authors give the form of the name g I alg I ai with the root o/y ^{[101, p 148; 102, 62, 66; 103, p. 239]}, and others with root and/and (gilgo, kalkants, galgai, gligvi and etc.) ^{[91, pp. 698, 701; 101, pp. 62-67; 44, pp. 154-157; 104, p. 151]}. The Ossetian language still retains the designation of Ingush in the form of khulga [qulha] ^{[105, p. 68; 91, p. 703-704, 707]}, and in both dialects of this language ^{[106, p. 195; 107, p. 667, 800]}. In our opinion, the functioning of the two forms of the ethnonym g I alg I ai is related to dialectal features of the Old Kazakh language: with the root o // u – in the Kist dialect, and with the root a // e – in the Dzurdzuk. Interestingly, the vowels "a" and "u" often alternate in the Sumerian language" (Grozny, 1940, p. 43)" ^{[98, p. 106]}.

In the "Armenian Geography" in the province of Taik, the Kog region (Armenian) is mentioned ^{[45, pp. 52-53]}, whose name is the Armenian form of the name Kola // Kula // Gel (Georgian). I. A. Javakhishvili writes: "Kola, south of Artani and east of Tao, in this country, in the Kola gorge, the source of the Kura River is located (in the Kola – Kolis–mt'a mountains – modern Kula, designated on Russian maps as Gel)" 108, p. 319, 322, 325; 109, p. 65]. Interestingly, Mount Kula (Kolis mt'a) in this gorge was designated on Russian maps as Gel ^{[108, pp. 319, 322, 325]}, and the Kola region itself, which is part of the Turkish Ardahan peninsula, is called Gel. This shows the pattern of the Cola > Gel >Gel transition.

The name ila Ardahan, which in the Georgian language is called Artaani, is also interesting ^{[110, p. 547]}. According to some researchers, the root ard- // art- may be the name of a cult or place of worship ^{[110, p. 540]}. We believe that the name is based on the name of the Arda cult or the ethnonym Arda // arty, and the final Khan may be related to the Khons (the Gam people in the Ing. legend).

If our conclusions are correct, then the Cola and Ardahan regions were inhabited by Cola (khaly) and Arda, with the common name of Alarodia, as well as Khona.

Argishti I's inscriptions mention "Kulia, the name of the tribe and the territory it occupies, a "country" in the area of the modern village of Gulijan, on the northwestern slope of Mount Aragats (Alagez)" ^{[40, p. 64; 54, p. 438]}.

A number of researchers associate the toponym Kola with the Urartian name of Colchis – Kulkha ^{[40, p. 64; 111, p. 122; 112, p. 350]}. At the same time, the name Kulkha in Assyrian sources occurs in the form of Gelkhi // Kilkhi ^{[40, pp. 27-28, 175 (approx. No. 1)]}, which we compare with the designation of the medieval Ingush Georgian and European sources of the XVI-XIX centuries – glikhvi // gligvi ^{[44, pp. 158-159]}, and gilgo – among the Georgian highlanders ^{[91, pp. 698, 703]}.

Regarding the etymology of the name, G. A. Melikishvili writes: "In "Kulkha" ("Kolkha") -ha is the Hurri-Urartian ending of tribal names; as for its basis ("kol"), this name is almost completely identical to the name of one of the regions of southwestern Georgia - "Kola", on the territory of which, and for historical reasons, the existence of the center of this large association (Kulkha) should be assumed" ^{[40, p. 63; 113, b. p.]}. Here we agree with the author except for the part that concerns the final -ha, because in this case, in our opinion, we are not dealing with the Hurri-Urartian ending of tribal names, but with the tribal name itself. In this area, Hecatei records the Hoi people ^{[56, p. 270; 114, p. 329]}. Apollonius of Rhodes (III century BC) of Kitais (i.e., in Colchis) mentions the city of Eyah" ^{[115, p. 417]}. According to ancient Greek mythology, Eyah (other-Greek ΑίΑ, Aea) is a mythical country on the other side of the great Northeastern sea, where Aeetes reigned and where they performed their The Argonauts' expedition for the golden fleece ^{[116, p. 260]}, where Helios rises (Homer. Odyssey XII. 4), i.e. it is Colchis ^{[17, p. 403]}. In our opinion, this indicates that the Khai (Khoi) lived in Colchis along with the Kols.

To the south of Colchis in the II millennium BC was the country of Hayasa // Hayasha, whose name is etymologized as "the land of the Khai", where the final -sa // -sha means "country, region" in the Nakh languages ^{[10, p.30]}. The Armenian historian Ya. And Manandyan writes: "Even before the deciphering of the Hittite cuneiform tablets found in Boghaz, which contained information about the country of Khayas, scientists suggested that the Khai tribe (Khaioi) mentioned by Diodorus (VIX, 29) lived near the river Phasis in High Armenia ^{[117, pp. 69-70]}. At the same time, the author notes that the kinship of Armenians with the Khoi-Khoi is "more than controversial and requires thorough verification" ^{[117, p. 70]}.

Apparently, Hayasha is the country that is mentioned in L. Mroveli's work under the name "the lot of Gaos" ^{[47, p. 21]} According to G. J. Gumb, Gaos // Haik is the eponym of the Hurrians-Urartians ^{[11, p. 390, 403]}, and hai–Hurrians-Urartians ^{[11, pp. 388-391, 403, 418]}. According to I. M. Dyakonov, Khayash was inhabited not by Indo-European tribes, but by Hurrians ^{[96, p.225]}.

In this regard, the name Eet // Ayet (other-Greek αἰήτης,) is also interesting – in ancient Greek mythology, the king of Colchis, the son of Helios (Hesiod. Theogony 958; Homer. Odyssey X 137) ^{[118, p. 675]}. Apparently, it is the eponym of the country of Ai (Ea) and the people of Ai (Khai). In our opinion, the names Gaos, Haik and Eet, as well as the name of the mythical ethnarch of the Nahyan peoples, are different forms of the eponym of the Hai people (hoi), dating back to the Sumerian cult of Ea (Haya). That is, hai // ai means "professing Hai // Ai."

Thus, we come to the conclusion that Kolkhai // kulkhai is the common name of kols (gelov, halov) and khoys (khoev), and Kulkha // Colchis means "the land of kols and Khays". At the same time, there are two main groups of forms in the sources for the names of gels and their countries (or countries).: forms with alternating root vowels style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>a/e/i (X/Gel, K/Gil, X/Gal); and forms with alternating o/y (Count, Cool).

Mesopotamian Chaldeans. The Chaldeans of the Black Sea region were often confused with the Mesopotamian Chaldeans ^{[3, p. 7; 56, p. 269]}. N. Ya. Marr has long pointed out, writes B. B. Piotrovsky, the inaccuracy of identifying the inhabitants of the Van Kingdom with the Chaldeans of ancient authors (meaning the Mesopotamian Chaldeans – M. A.'s note) ^{[8, p. 120]}. Yes, Chaldea near Trebizond and Mesopotamian Chaldea are completely different countries and peoples of different languages lived there: in the first, Chaldea–Urartians, and in the second– Chaldea-Semites. At the same time, the name Chaldea, in our opinion, is not native to the Semites and passed to them from the exoethnonym of the indigenous population of Mesopotamia, possibly the ancestors of the Urartian Chaldeans.

According to the legend described in the "History of Armenia" by the author of the 5th century. Movses Khorenatsi, the mythical ancestor of Armenians by the name of Hayk, moved from Mesopotamia to the coast of Van (to the territory of the future province of Vaspurakan) in the summer of 2492 BC, along with 300 husbands and their families, founded the state of Hayk here and marked its borders around three lakes: Van, Urmia and Sevan, and all together – around Mount Ararat ^{[50, p. 18; 119, p.106; 94, p. 845]}.

Leonti Mroveli also connects the descendants of Haik (Gaos) with Mesopotamia ^{[47, p. 21; 11, pp. 388-391]}. The source studies conducted by a number of scientists convincingly prove the scientific value of the facts given in L. Mroveli's work concerning the ancient history of the Caucasian peoples ^{[11, p. 46; 120, p. 175-186]}. It is believed that Haik is the eponym of the Urartians and Armenians, who, according to scientists, are of Urartian origin ^{[11, pp. 390, 403, 418]}. In our opinion, the Hurrian-Urartians and the Nakh peoples, as well as some of the tribes of the Arak, Maikop, Colchido-Koban (and other related cultures) cultures, represent Ubeido-Uruk migrations from Mesopotamia and Syria.

Khalaf Ubaid was the culture of the first agricultural settlements in the north and south of Mesopotamia (5000-4000), characterized by the appearance of increasingly large warehouses and storages, public buildings and temples in settlements, and a significant increase in population density ^{[121, p. 10]};

Uruk is the culture of the Southern Two Rivers (4000-3200), which is associated with the intensive development of agricultural production based on irrigation, the emergence of cities with monumental architecture, specialization and standardization of handicrafts, the emergence of writing and the transformation of the early agricultural society of Ubaid into an urban civilization ^{[121, p. 10]}.

In the 5th millennium BC, the tribes of the alluvial valley advanced into Central Mesopotamia and further north and northwest along the banks of the Tigris, Khabur and Balik up to Anatolia ^{[121, p. 41]}. About 1000 years later, in the 4th millennium BC, Uruk tribes settled along the same rivers (Tigris, Khabur and Balikha), following the path of the previous Ubaid migrations ^{[121, p. 41]}. Currently, the most recognized theory is the exodus to the Caucasus of the population with Kazakh-Uruk traditions from the territory of Northern Mesopotamia, Syria and Eastern Anatolia, and a comparative analysis of not only the ceramics of Maikop, but also the entire complex of products, including metal, proves this ^{[122, pp. 157-202.; 123, pp. 1-415 pp. 124, pp. 158-225; 125, pp. 316-334; 126, pp. 1-244; 127, pp. 7-36; 128, pp. 247-259; 129, pp. 1-336; 130, pp. 4-20]}.

The above is confirmed by DNA studies. The gene pool of the Caucasian population was formed by ancient migrations from the Near East (see Dibirova H. D. The role of geographical subdivision and linguistic kinship in the formation of the genetic diversity of the Caucasian population : according to data on the Y chromosome : abstract of M.: Med.-genet. Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, 2011. 25 p., pp. 6, 22-24). According to research, the Ubaid (in 6-5 thousand BC) and Uruk (in 5-4 thousand BC) tribes, with which researchers associate haplogroup J2, began moving north from Mesopotamia and reached the North Caucasus, where the Maikop culture arose ^{[131, pp. 78-114]} (see Kutuyev I. A. The genetic structure and molecular phylogeography of the peoples of the Caucasus. Ufa, 2010. 46 p., pp. 19-20, 4 ; Dibirova Kh. D., 2011, ibid.).

We are inclined to believe that the main part of the Hurrian-Urartians belonged to haplogroup J2, and this "Proto-Caucasian" and "Hurrian-Urartian" haplogroup, judging by the above data, migrated from Mesopotamia and Eastern Anatolia. In this case, the term Chaldea could have existed on the territory of Mesopotamia.

"In ancient times, southern Mesopotamia was inhabited by the Sumerians, Babylonians, Arameans, Chaldeans, Amorites, and many others" (see Vlaardingerbroek, H. M. (2014). Mesopotamia in Greek and Biblical Perceptions: Idiosyncrasies and Distortions. [PhD-Thesis – Research external, graduation internal, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam]. 72 p., p. 43). The oldest mention of the Chaldeans dates back to the 9th century. BC: in the inscription of the Assyrian king Ashurnasirapal II (883-859 (Kozyreva N. V. The history of ancient Mesopotamia: An educational and methodical manual. St. Petersburg: Publishing House of St. Petersburg University, 2007. 128 p., p. 103). They may have belonged to a group of West Semitic peoples.; Although no evidence of the Chaldean language has been preserved and the question of their linguistic affiliation remains open, some researchers directly identify them with the Arameans (Kozyreva 2007, ibid.).

Surprisingly, the ethnonyms of Chaldea and Aramea are consonant with the Hurrian-Urartian names of Chaldea and Armea. We also note the fact that the lake, in the area of which the center of the main cult of the Van kingdom of Khaldi was located, is called Urmia. The oldest hearth of the Urartian civilization was located here (see above). And the name of the first king of the Van kingdom was Aramu ^{[8, p. 54]}.

Perhaps the Semitic aliens The Chaldeans and Arameans received their ethnonyms from localities (for example, those dedicated to the cults of Chaldi and Aram (Arni?)) when they occupied the territory of Syria and Mesopotamia inhabited by the Khalaf, Ubaid and Samarra tribes (or their descendants). During the 4-3 thousand BC, Semitic tribes settled in Arabia, Syria, and Mesopotamia, while the population of the Earth was very rare at that time, and the movement of tribes led, according to historical linguistics, not so much to the destruction or displacement of indigenous tribes as to the assimilation of the alien population with the indigenous ^{[132, p. 29]}.

Semitic tribes penetrated into the Two Rivers since ancient times. The Akkadians are considered to be the first Semitic tribes on its territory, which appeared here around the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC ^{[121, p. 8]}. Although, there is an opinion that the first Semites began to penetrate into Mesopotamia already at the end of the 7th millennium BC ^{[121, p. 21]}.

"West Semitic tribes settled near the Sumerians, constantly absorbing and assimilating the local population" ^{[132, p. 82]}. "This process was slow and in most cases, apparently, quite peaceful" ^{[132, p. 82]}. At the same time, the newcomers not only fell under the influence of the Sumerian cultural tradition, but over time began to perceive this tradition as their own and tried to develop and continue it ^{[132, p. 82]}.

The Jewish historian Josephus (37 – c. 100) reports that the Chaldeans were previously called Arphaxadites, since they were ruled by Arphaxad (Book I. Ch. 6. 4.) ^{[133, p. 31]}. We compare the name Arfaxad with the name of one of Targitai's descendants, Arpoxai, in Scythian mythology (see above). Perhaps Arfaxad is the eponymous ancestor of the Khalib tribe (Albs), who were part of the Ubaid Chaldeans.

In the Bible, the term Chaldeans became synonymous with the name "Babylonians", and Babylon, in turn, is designated as Chaldea and Shinar //Sennaar (other-Heb. שִׁנְעָר [Šin'ar], in the Septuagint – Σενναάρ) (see Gen. 14:1; Vlaardingerbroek 2014, ibid.). Here we find the term again, which indicates the connection of Mesopotamian Chaldea with Chaldea on the Black Sea. We are talking about Sennaar // Shinar, which is probably a variant of the name of Sumer in Hebrew, and which we compare with the name of the Tzanars, who brought themselves out of Chaldea.

Comparing the terms Chaldea and Sennaar in Mesopotamia with the names Chaldea, Tzanika, and Sanaria in Nairi, the southeastern Black Sea region, and the Caucasus, we do not consider this a coincidence. Especially if we consider that the Hurrians-Urartians, like the Nakho-Dagestanis, are part of the Ubeid and Uruk migrations. That is, the Mesopotamian names Chaldea and Senaar (Sumer) are quite possibly cognate with the Caucasian (Urartian) Chaldea and Tsanar. Even the fact that the Chaldeans were known as priests is consistent with the fact that the inhabitants of Ardini were priests of the Chaldi cult among the Vanians ^{[13, p. 47]}.

Chaldea's name (Latin Chaldaea) is the Latin form of the other Greek. Khaldaía (ΧΑλδαίΑ), which, in turn, "comes from the Akkadian māt Kaldu or kaššū, suggesting that the base /kaɬdu/" ^{[3, p. 7]}, (see Vlaardingerbroek 2014, ibid.). By the end of the 8th century BC, Chaldeans appeared in the ancient cities of Ur Chaldea (or Mat Kaldi) ^{[134, pp. 661-662; 135, p. 229]}.

The Kashdu option is of particular interest to us. In the Bible (e.g. 9 Anniversaries:4, Jewish Antiquities I 6:4) this ethnonym is found in Hebrew in the form Kaśdim (כשדים) ^{[134, p. 661]}, and in Aramaic as Kaśdāy (כשדי) ^{[136, p. 78; 137, p. 1518; 135, p. 230]}. We compare the terms kaśd u // kaśdîm with the Georgian name of the Nakh peoples – kisty // kishty. The final -im in Hebrew is an affix of many parts ^{[138, p. 34]}. The Bible uses the name Kesed (כשׂד, the ancient pronunciation of kaɬd, the singular form of Kasdim (כַּשְׂדִּים) (Genesis 22:22). Kesed is identified as the son of Nahor, the brother of Abraham (and the brother of Kemuel, the father of Aram), who lives in Aram Naharaim (Gen. 22:23). As we can see, here the ethnonym Chaldea is also associated with the term Aram.

In medieval Georgian sources, the ancestors of the Nakh peoples are called by the common name d(z)Urdzuki ^{[44, p. 136]}, and later it was replaced by the ethnonym Kisteni // kistebi ^{[44, p. 135, 137]}. It is found for the first time in the Georgian chronicle of the 13th century, which contains a list of names of 77 peoples, including the Kistin (Kishti) ^{[44, p. 140, (approx. 18); 91, p. 701]}. However, Martirosian also draws attention to the fact that the Cysts, as inhabitants of the Caucasus, are also mentioned. By Ptolemy ^{[24, p. 38]}. Borrowing the designation from Georgian historiography, in Russian sources in the XVIII-XIX centuries the Vainakh societies were called kists // kishtami ^{[44, p. 143]}.

Scientists agree that the maps // cards that lived in ancient times in the mountains south of Lake Baikal. The Van were one of the proto-Georgian tribes ^{[139, p. 3]}. As William M. Brynner writes, the variant forms of this name have led some scientists to mistakenly combine the country of their habitation, Karda, with Kurdistan ^{[140, pp. 68-69]}. In our opinion, living next to the Semitic tribes, the ancestors of the Georgians could borrow the designation of the Chaldeans from their language in the form of "kishti(m) // kist(u)". The Armenian form of the name bush(k) probably confirms this conclusion. The fact is that the Nakh languages are characterized by vowel alternation ^{[34, pp. 267-300, 305-323, 328-329; 55, p. 18]}. For example, ing. dita means "to leave", but dut means "I will leave"; duvts means "I am telling", but diytsad means "I told" ^{[9, pp. 152, 164]}. Historically, the verbs vut ("I will leave") and duvts ("I tell") come from vitu // vito and diytsu // diytso, respectively. This form is still preserved in the Cheberloev dialect of the Chechen language ^{[55, p. 63]}, where there is no secondary vowel alternation. ^{[55, p. 37; 34, pp. 267-300]}. Also compare, for example, chebarkh, but Chechen lit., ing. lokha – "low", kara, but Chechen lit., ing. kora – "deaf", etc. ^{[55, pp. 49-50]}. In our opinion, the same processes could occur in the ethnonym Kashdu, as a result of which the forms kishti // kisu and kustk // kusak appeared. Consequently, the terms Kashdim // kashdu // Kishti are exoethnonyms of the Chaldeans – the Semitic-Georgian version of their name.

It is interesting to note that Pliny (NH, VI, 48) calls the Kadusians on the southwestern coast of the Caspian Sea Gels (see above). We tend to believe that the ethnonym Kadusi is the result of a metathesis from Kashdu // kasdu.

I. I. Pantyukhov considered the Ingush-Kists to have migrated from Syria, under the leadership of Kist, Chaldeans ^{[141, p. 24]}. In our opinion, the author is right that Kist is the eponym of the Chaldeans, but here he does not represent a Semitic-speaking people with that name, but the Urartian Chaldeans (Alarodians) or their ancestors, who settled in Northern Syria, among other places.

This legend is given in the work of Ch. E. Akhriev, according to which the founder of the Kist society was Kist, the son of a famous Syrian owner from the house of Kamen, who passed through Abkhazia and Georgia during the Arab invasion (compare with the legend of Tsanar, about the resettlement to the Central Caucasus during the Arab conquest of Transcaucasia ^{[50, p. 101]} He moved to one of the gorges near the Terek River ^{[88, p. 1]}. We compare the name of the Kamen family with Kumenu (Kumme), the second oldest Urartian center associated with the cult of Teisheba, mentioned in the texts of Adadnirari II, who made campaigns in Nairi" ^{[8, p. 50]}. Also interesting is the name of a descendant of Kist – Chard ^{[88, p. 2]}, which may be related to the name of the Urartian Sardi cult (see above).

Thus, with the Sannas// Tsanars (as well as with the Sennaar Sumerians) We associate the Dzurdzukes, and the Chaldeans (Chalami and Ardami) with the Kists. Consequently, the names of the Mesopotamian Chaldeans-Sennaars, Urartian Chaldeans-Tsanars and Central Caucasian Kisto-Dzurdzuki are the same root.

Eridu and Ardini. Perhaps the name of one of the earliest settlements in Southern Mesopotamia, Eridu // Eridug // Urudug (Akkad. Iritu), founded around 5400 BC in the early Ubaid period ^{[142, p. 87; 121, p. 39]}. Today, the city of Abu Shahrain, in Iraq, stands in its place ^{[142, p. 87; 121, p. 39]}.

"Eridu (Greek: Ptolemy's Eridu) is one of the oldest cities in the world, the southernmost of the Babylonian religious centers, which once lay near the Persian Gulf and the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and therefore dedicated to the 'god' of the water element Ea" [116. p. 20].

Eridu was one of the oldest religious centers of Mesopotamia ^{[116, p. 20]} and the oldest temple was opened here ^{[142, p. 87]}.

By the end of the fifth millennium BC, the southwestern part of the alluvial valley was crossed by two or three channels of the Euphrates and the city of Eridu was located on the shore of the southern channel, with a population of about 4,000 people ^{[121, p. 40]}. There was a temple dedicated to the main Sumerian cult of the water element Enki ^{[143, pp. 5-90]}. "The ruins of the temple buildings in Eridu were examined in 1855. Taylor" ^{[116, p. 20]}.

One of the religious quarters of Babylon, containing, among other things, the temple of Esagil and Annunitum, was also called Eridu ^{[144, pp. 39-52]}. "In the religious legends of the Babylonians, the legend of Eridu has been preserved as an earthly paradise where a palm tree grows overshadowing the ocean." ^{[116, p. 20]}. As noted above, we identify the Colchian eponym Eet with the name Ea.

We compare the name of the religious center of the Sumerians, Eridu, with the name of the ancient Urartian religious center, Ardini. This comparison seems all the more plausible since the latter remained the religious center of the Chaldeans even after their migration to the lake district. Van (see above), and the Ardini priests were considered experts in cult matters ^{[13, p. 47]}. It is possible that the final -g in the term Eridug is a suffix related to the Hurrian-Urartian membership suffix -ḫi" ^{[54, p. 90]}. At the same time, at the end of the name Ard-ini, we find another Urartian membership suffix -ini ^{[54, pp. 48, 51]}. For example: babani (from baba-ini) "mountain"; for example: Imenua-ini (Imenuani) – "belonging to Menua" ^{[54, pp. 49, 51]}. We compare this suffix with the affix of the genus. p. in the general Kazakh language ^{[34, p. 420, 526]}, which is the source for all Nakh languages ^{[34, p. 429]}. To date, its designation remains in the literary Chechen language in the form -(a)h ^{[34, 409-410, 419-429]}.

The Hurrian-Urartian suffix of affiliation (-ḫi, -ini and their variants) is used most often in the formation of tribal names ^{[40, p. 63; 113, bp]}, as well as country names ^{[54, p. 51]}. We compare them with the Nakh suffixes -h(a) and -x(a). with the same value ^{[34, pp. 397-398, 401]} (comp. Orts x o is a representative of the Ingush teip ortskoi, nasar x o is a resident of Nazran, Gendarge n o is a representative of the Chechen teip Gendargenoi, Enga n o is a representative of the Chechen teip Engana, etc.). As G. J. Gumba writes: "Given the genetic relationship of the Hurrian-Urartian and Nakh languages, the suffix chi (ha) perhaps it should be attributed to their common vocabulary" ^{[11, p. 161]}.

I. M. Dyakonov believed that the form of proper names on the suffix -ni/e, which is constantly found at the end of the name of a city or country, is the Urartian determinant indicator -ni, which can also be easily replaced by the formative -hi, which forms a possessive adjective ^{[8, p. 34]}. Compare, for example, the name of the country Urtehe // Urtehini, located south-east of the lake. Sevan ^{[54, p. 446]}, which probably originates from Urudug (Eredu) > Urtech. Apparently, here we see the common suffix -ḫi/e(-ni) in the Urartian language, which is very close to the suffix -ini, and is also a suffix of affiliation ^{[54, p. 49]}. It is a variant of the suffix ḫi/e/a. So, for example: menuaḫini – "belonging to Menua" ^{[54, p. 50]}. Perhaps ḫini is a form of the nominative case of the unit part of the suffix belonging to ḫi in the unformulated case of the unit part ^{[54, p. 53]}.

At the same time, we assume that Urtech(ini) means "upper Hurrah country" (cf. nakhsk. the postposition t I e – "on", t I e -"from above" ^{[9, pp. 393, 404]}. The suffix x (g I/a) with the meaning of spatiality is found in the toponyms of the mountainous regions of Chechnya and Ingushetia – Dzheyrakh, Nashakh, etc. ^{[145, pp. 51-52]}. Also, for example, Gurzheh – "Georgia" ^{[53, p. 307]}.

The Nahyan languages also tend to alternate the vowels a – u – o – i – e in the position before the suffixes -g (-to I), -g I (-x) and -x. For example, bam. michuh, but Chechen. micah – "where" ^{[53, p. 14]}; Chechen. (Sharoy dialect) miloh – "which", mislog I o – "which" ^{[55, p. 77]}, but ing. malaga I a, massalag I a – in the same meaning ^{[146, p. 280]}; batsb. khats I uk I, eng. khazilg – "sparrow, bird" ^{[53, p. 313]}.

Based on the above data, we fully assume that the ancestors of the Urartian-Alarodians who migrated from Mesopotamia moved the name of their historical homeland to a new place in the lake district. Urmia. It is interesting to note that next to the city of Eridu, to the northeast of it, near the northern channel of the Euphrates, there was the city of Ur ^{[121, p. 40]}, whose name we associate with the name of the lake. Urmia and the Urartian region of Urme // Arme.

Scientists translate the name of Eridu from Sumerian as "good city" ^{[147, p. 154]}. In our opinion, a more logical translation of the name of the city, which was the center of the most important Sumerian cult of Enki, would be "sacred" or "temple". In other words, the name of the city could be based on the root ard // arid – "sacred", which, as noted above, may have been a derivative of the name of the most ancient cult of the water element and force.

In this regard, the name of the Jordan River (Yarden) in Palestine is interesting ^{[148, pp. 108-130]}. In ancient times, the Philistines and Captors lived here ^{[149, pp. 249-254]}. The Bible says that the Philistines came to Canaan from the island or coastal country of Caphtor ^{[150, page 390]}, (see the Bible. Deuteronomy 2:23). "From Caphtor, which lay by the sea (Jeremiah 47:4), the Kasluhim (i.e., the Philistines) penetrated into the coast of Palestine" ^{[149, stb. 250]}.

According to the most common opinion, Kaftor is identified with fr. Crete ^{[151, p. 147; 150, stb. 390]}. It is interesting to note that on this island, where the Eteocritans and Kidons lived (other-Greek. κύδωνες), there was also a river named Yardan (other-Greek. Ἰαρδάνης) (Homer III. 291-294) ^{[152, p. 87; 153, p. 30]}. It is quite possible that Cretan settlers brought the hydronym Jordan (Yarden) to Palestine. Moreover, in the toponymy of the Jordan River area there are names based on the root Gil. For example, archaic, non-Semitic place names such as the names of the mountains Gil|Boach and Gil|ad ^{[148, p. 121]}. According to Pauli Rakkonen, these names are based on the word gil – "mountain": "These names,– writes The author may not be Semitic because of their four–letter roots and the unknown etymology of the words behind these names. It is possible that these mountain names consist of the word *gil ‘mountain’ and an unknown element of the name (boʿa < ? *battle and ʿ ad < ? *poison). Ayin (ǵ) may be a Semitic substitute for the original *γ" ^{[148, p. 121]}.

In the Nakh languages, gu(v) means "hill, mound" ^{[9, p. 112]}. However, we tend to believe that the ethnonym is based on the tribal name of gela (khaly // kola). At the same time, we compare the "unknown element of the name" boah (boa) with nahsk. buh (mn. ch. bovkhash) – "the top" ^{[9, p. 75]}. (digraph x in nakhsk. yaz. stands for the deaf version of the sound I, corresponding to Arabic. ain). Thus, the name of the mountain (and ridge) Gilboa(x) is etymologized as "the peak of the Giels // helov".

As for the second term Gilad, here we associate the final -ad// -yad with ard // erd. Therefore, Gilad is a distortion of urart. Khal-ardi (> Khaldi) and others-Nakhsk. Gallerd (G I al-yerda // Gel-yerda). Or here it is the tribal name of the Alarodians (Halards).

If our conclusions are correct, then Gilad // Gilad is etymologized as "mount Gallerda/alarodiev".

Compare also with the name of the ancient city of Golan, located northwest of the Gilboa Ridge(x), on the territory of the modern Golan Heights (Greek. γαυλανῖτις, Lat. Gaulanítis – comes, apparently, from the name of the city). It is also interesting to see the name of the entire area – Vasane, which we compare with the self–name of one of the Nakh peoples of the Batsbians – Batsbi (unit.ch. batsav), as well as with the name of the capital of Mitanni - Vassukani.

It is possible that all these toponyms and other data (given above) indicate the residence of the Hals (Gels), Ards and Mitanni (Manneans) in this area.

Also, "Eridanus" (Greek: Ἠρῐδᾰνός [Eridănos]) in Greek mythology, a river located in the far west, according to one version, is identified with the river. Pad ^{[154, p. 235 (note 104); 116, p. 20]}. We compare the name of the river with the name of the mythical son of Ea (Hai), Adapa, "assigned by him to serve in his sanctuary" ^{[116, p. 20]}. Perhaps the hydronym Pad is the result of the metathesis and elesia of the initial a- in the name of Adapa (> Apada > Pad). Interestingly, according to Hesiod (Theogony, 338), Eridanus is the cult of the river, the son of Ocean and Tethys ^{[155, p. 494]}. Rodan is the ancient name of the modern Rhone River in France a^{[156, p. 155 (approx. No. 7)]}, possibly derived from Ordan // Eridon as a result of metethesis.

A similar version was followed by Pausanias (1. 4. 1), who places Eridanus (in auth. Iridan) in the country of the Galatians (Celts) ^{[157, 156]}. However, Dionysius Periaget places its sources west of the Pad: "Beyond [the Iberians are] The Pyrenean Mountain and the Celtic possessions near the sources of the beautifully flowing Eridani" ^{[154, p. 235 (note 104)]}. And again, in the area of the river with the name Eridanus, we find names with the root gal // kel: Celts, Galatians, Helios (cf. Chaldi, Chaldeans // Chaldae, Gels, etc.). In ancient Greek mythology, "after the death of Phaethon (the son of Helium by the nymph Klimene (Hyg. Fab. 154) – note by M. A.), the sisters mourned him on the shore of Eridanus and turned into poplars, and their tears became amber (Ovid. Met. II 340-366). ^{[15, p. 144]}.

In the "Description of Elada. Attics" by Pausanias (XIX:6) we also find mention of a river named Eridanus: "From the rivers in Athens flow: Ilis and Eridanus, which have the same name as the Celtic, and flow into Ilis" ^{[158, p. 186 (& 19:5)]}. We compare the hydronym Ilis with the second name of Troy – Ilios // Ilios, one of the founders of which, according to ancient Greek sources, were the Dardanians who migrated from Crete ^{[159, p. 102]}.

The hydronym Eridanus in ancient Greek mythology is also identified with the Euphrates and the Nile ^{[116, p. 20]}. Compare with the Egyptian loan of the word yor (other-Hebrew Yor), Yeor – "big river", Nile" in Hebrew translation ^{[148, p. 121]}. According to some scientists (Brown et al. 1999; Koehler and Baumgartner 2001), this may be somehow related to the basis of yar- (compare, for example, *yrw, cuneiform *yaru'u – "Nile, stream, channel") ^{[148, p. 121]}.

It is interesting to note that, according to Cotta's speech, the Nile is the grandfather of one of the five Helios (III. 21. 54) ^{[19, p. 175]}. As noted above, the father of Eetes and Kirka from Colchis was among them. These are hardly coincidences.

It is suggested that the Yar base, identified in the names of several rivers in the region (Yarkon, Yarmuk), with the assumed meaning of "river", may be inherited by Hebrew from an ancient Semitic or even pre-Semitic substratum ^{[160, p. 75; 148, p. 121]}. We also note the hydronym Ark a, the second largest tributary of the Jordan River.

The name of the Nile is Yeor, which we compare with Iori, the name of the river in Georgia and Azerbaijan. According to G. J. Gumb, it goes back to the Avar ior – "river, water" ^{[11, p. 187]}. In the Nakh languages, the word al(e) was present – "plain river", which was replaced by the word hi(y) – "water" and is considered an archaism today. But in the dialects of different ethnic groups, Ali It is used in the meaning of "river", "gorge" ^{[161, p. 132]}. It is also found in the hydronyms of the foothill part of Chechnya and Ingushetia ^{[161, pp. 23-25, 35-37, 39]}. Compare. The derivative of ali is "ravine" ^{[9, p. 38]}. The river valley is designated by the word atag I e ^{[9, p. 34; 161, p. 39]}. Perhaps the hydronym Nile is based on the root al // il – "river", and so the river was called on the plain. At the same time, it originally bore the name Year in its upper reaches.

Interestingly, in the mountainous regions of Chechnya and Ingushtia, the river was called ahk // ark // erk. For example, I ilakhoin erk in the mountainous Hildekharoy in Chechnya, Khacharoy-erk in Khacharoy, . M. I. ein erk in Maist, etc. ^{[162, pp. 92, 109]}. Today, the word akhk – "abyss" is preserved from this archaism ^{[9, p. 36]}, erkye – "gorge" ^{[162, p. 58]}.

The mountain current of the Terek is called Lomeki in Georgian sources ^{[47, 25]}. According to K. M. Tumanov, this name consists of two words: lam – "mountain" and chi – "water, river" ^{[163, p. 18,16]}. However, we believe that Lomeki is a distorted Nahsk. Scrap-ehk/erk. Interestingly, this river was called Alonta in ancient times on the plane ^{[164, p. 67]}. We tend to believe that the name is based on the same root ale / / alo – "plain river".

We will also point to the verbs ahka (< arch) – "to dig (for example, to dig a trench)" and aha – "to plow" (i.e., to cultivate the land" ^{[9, pp. 35, 36]}.

It is possible that in the word ark ("river") the finite -k is an affix of the real case (in modern times. nakhsk. yaz. -x). If so, then ark means "arowy". In this regard interestingly the name of the city of Jericho (أريحا [ʔaˈriːħaː]$ Hebrew: יְרִיחוֹ [Yəri: ħo:]), which a number of researchers associate with the Canaanite word r ē [ [reːħ] – "fragrant" ^{[165, pp. 367-370; 166, p. 1136]}.

According to another version, it dates back to Canaan. Yaraḥ - "moon" or the name of the moon cult of Yarich, the early center of which, according to researchers, was in Jericho ^{[167, p. 141]}. But perhaps the name is based on the word ark – "river".

In ancient Greek mythology, Eridanus was depicted as a bull (Georgica, IV, 371) ^{[168, p. 115]}. The bull, in our opinion, indicates that it was also a cult of agriculture and fertility. And this is logical, because irrigation is connected with agriculture. Note that, according to ancient Greek mythology, "fat herds of snow-white Helium bulls graze on the mythical island of Trinacria" ^{[15, p. 144]}, which indirectly confirms the connection of Helium with Eridanus. In Nakh mythology, Gelu was also associated with a bull (see above).

As noted above, in Ingush mythology, Arda is the cult of borders and ancestral lands, which was one of the most revered in the pagan pantheon of the ancestors of the Ingush, who, responsible for the boundaries of land plots, contributed to irrigation and increased yields" ^{[169, p., 21]}. That is, here Arda is also given the power to protect land. The picture is complemented by the fact that in the Urartian pantheon there was a cult of the sun Arda ^{[37, p. 43; 3, 5-10]}, which brings it closer to Gela (Helium).

In the Nakh languages, a means "strength, might" ^{[34, p. 85]}. At the same time, ar can mean "powerful, strong", where the final -p is an indicator of the initial case in the Nakh–Dagestan languages ^{[170, p. 183; 34, p. 443-449]}. For example, compare ing. loamar(a) – "mountain", from loam – "mountain" ^{[9, p. 284]}. Compare. also urart. euri – "lord", "lord"; Hurrian. ibri – "king" ^{[54, pp. 47, 91]}, which may have originally meant "strong, mighty".

In our opinion, avar. ior and nakhsk. ar (k) – "river, water" is also derived from ar (the water element in the view of ancient people had great power). Apollonius of Rhodes in the Argonautica mentions the "Areev Grove" in Colchis, dedicated to the cult of Ar(eu)u ^{[115, p. 417]}.

The final -d in the word Ard is a petrified cool indicator. Or is ard the result of a metathesis in the word adr (< and the gift) – "possessing might, strength": (compare. Aldar is the title of Ossetian (Tagaurian) princes. Thus Ar(i)d// Adr means "strong//powerful" and "watery".

The city of Eridu was located in Southern Mesopotamia, where the natural conditions were very harsh and flooding of territories often occurred, and collective efforts were needed for survival, since individual constant control over a certain area of the territory did little ^{[121, p. 28]}. For this reason, "the first settlements of Southern Mesopotamia were located on the highest places of the Tigris and Euphrates delta, which remained dry even during periods of floods, when water flooded the coastal territories" ^{[121, p. 29]}. Naturally, in such conditions, the ancient inhabitants of Southern Mesopotamia considered the water element to be a powerful force. Perhaps that is why the city was named after the cult of the "power of the water element" – Eridu, and there was a temple of the main cult of Enki, also associated with the water element.

The name of the Jordan, Eridan and Yardan rivers, in our opinion, goes back to the name of the city or cult of Eridu (Arda), by adding the affix of the genus. p. -n, present in the Nahyan languages (compare ing. loam – "mountain", loaman – "mountain" ^{[9, p. 284]}), and the Hurrian-Urartian affix of affiliation is (and)neither (see above). Consequently, the hydronyms Jordan, Eridan, and Yardanus mean "belonging// dedicated to Eridu (Ardu)."

Thus, initially the cult of Eridu was associated with the power of the water element (ar), but later, when the tribes (who had this cult) settled in different directions and some ended up in mountainous areas far from the sea, it became the cult of rivers, and in some cases, the cult of sunlight, flame. (for example, among the Urartians) or arable land (for example, among the ancestors of the Nakh peoples). This is logical, because the cultivation of land is directly related to water and sunlight. That is, the root ar could form the basis of Sumer. Eridu (the cult of the power of the water element), Urart. Ard (the cult of the sun), Ardini and Nakhsk. Arda (the cult of land) and yerda.

It is interesting to note that Ptolemy called the Kuban river Vardan // Valdan (other-Greek: Oὐαρδάνος) ^{[100, pp. 907-908; 171, cl. No. 1394]}. In the "Armenian Geography", the author of which was based on the work of Claudius Ptolemy ^{[100, p. 907]}, this river is mentioned under the name Valdanis // Vardanes ^{[172, p. 29]}. The consonance of the hydronym Vardan with Jordan is obvious.

Based on written sources (ancient, Armenian, and Georgian), G. J. Gumba concludes that "in the first millennium BC, the Nakh tribes lived throughout the Central Caucasus, including the southern and northern parts of the Main Kakaz Range – from the upper reaches of the Kuban and Inguri rivers in the west to the foot of the Andean Range and the upper reaches of the the Alazani river in the east" ^{[11, p. 87]}.

Y. Z. Akhmadov also notes that according to archaeological data and Armenian-Georgian sources, the Nakh peoples occupied a large territory from the upper basin of the Bolshaya Laba River in the west to the Andean and Snowy ranges in the east; from the mountainous regions of Georgia (gorges of the Main Caucasian and Lateral Ranges within the basin of the upper reaches of the Bolshaya Liakhva, Terek, Aragvi rivers, Assi, Argun, Alazani), Yori in the south to the North Caucasian plains in the north ^{[173, p. 299]}. By the way, the name of the Laba River (? Alba?) may indicate that the Albans (tribes that worshiped the cult of Alba) also lived in this area.

It is noteworthy that in the foothills of the Western Caucasus, in the upper reaches of the Kuban River, according to ancient sources, the Kolkh tribes of Koraks and Kolov lived ^{[100, pp. 903-904]}. That is, in the area of the Vardan river, we also find tribes based on the same root gil // kel // kol.

To the east of this region, in the area of the Malka River, whose name the city of Dzhumba associates with the kist mahals ^{[11, pp. 76-77]}, there is also a hydronym with the root ar(d) – the Ardon River, the left tributary of the Terek (cf. the Eridan River). In the 18th century, the name of this river was recorded in the form Ordan and Jordan ^{[174, p. 228]}.

Based on the above data, we believe that urart. Ardini and Schumer. Eridu(g) is a single–root name associated with the name of the cult of the water element Eridu // Ardu, which is based on the root ar - "strength // might". In other words, Ardini is a new Eridug founded by the Ubaid tribes (Alarodians) who migrated from Mesopotamia to the north around 6-5 thousand BC.

We are also inclined to believe that a new Ur was founded next to Ardini by people from Ur, as perhaps indicated by the name of Oz. Urmia. At least, Eridu and Ur in Southern Mesopotamia were located at a close distance from each other in the alluvial valley, and it is logical to assume that the inhabitants of these two cities migrated north together. At the same time, we associate people from Eridu with the cult of Haldi (Khal-ardi), and from Ur with the cult of the Arni highlands and the cult of fire Tsob // Tsov.

Among the ancestors of the Nakh peoples, the cult of Khalda, in our opinion, was practiced by the Kists, and the cults of Arni and Tsov by the Dzurdzuki. Apparently, it is not accidental that the Kistinka river became known as Armkhi (Arni River?) after the Ortskoi-Dzurdzuki settled here ^{[175, 149-150]}.

Cassettes. The well-known ethnographer A.V. Gadlo, referring to Arab sources of the 9th century, writes that the people of the Kaysi, who were allies and, possibly, neighbors of the Sanarites ^{[176, pp. 163-164]}. Perhaps these allies of the sanarites (tsanars) have cysts. Kis // kish in Arabic is rendered as qais ^{[177, p. 335]}. In other words, Kaysites may be the Arabic form of the ethnonym kista.

We also compare the term Kaysites with the Kassites (Latin cass(a)ei // cass aiaei), the name of ancient tribes whose indigenous habitat is considered to be the mountainous areas of Western Iran – in the upper reaches of the Diyali River and its tributaries near the northwestern reaches of Elam ^{[132, p. 100]}. It is unknown whether they were autochthons or aliens here^{[132, p. 997, p. 100]}. However, since the Kassites first appeared in the north of Mesopotamia, it is generally assumed that the Zagros Mountains were their traditional territory ^{[178, p. 187]}.

"The Kassites appeared on the historical scene in the XVIII century BC, when Kassite names and titles began to appear in Babylonian texts. At the end of the XVI century BC, after the defeat of Babylonia by the Hittites, the Kassites came to power there. The Kassite period in Babylonia lasted until the 12th century BC, when the Elamites came to power in Mesopotamia" ^{[178, p. 185]}. One of the groups of Kassite tribes even advanced into Northern Mesopotamia in the XVIII century BC and settled in the Canaanite kingdom (on the middle Euphrates at the mouth of the Khabur River) ^{[132, p. 100]}.

The genealogical affiliation of the Kassite language is unknown ^{[178, p. 185]}. There is no reliable information about the possible kinship of the Kassites with other ancient peoples, but apparently they were not Indo-Europeans ^{[132, p. 100]}.

The monuments of the Kassite language itself have practically not been preserved. There is one short Kassite–Akkadian dictionary (49 units); other information is available from toponyms, theonyms and anthroponyms, as well as horse names in Akkadian texts and technical terms related to them ^{[178, p. 185; 179, p. 271-281]} Judging by them, the Kassite language was not related to Afroasiatic or Indo-European languages, but it may be related to the Hurrian-Urartian languages ^{[180, pp. 372-382]}. Attempts to link the Kassite language. with Indo-European languages (A. Ancilotti) and with the Elamite language (F. Delich, G. Husing, V. Eilers) are extremely unconvincing ^{[178, p. 185]}.

Over time, the Kassites disappeared among the population of the Babylonian kingdom, and some of their leaders and cults apparently bore Indo-European and Akkadian names ^{[181, p. 413 (approx. 22); 178, p. 186; 182, p. 283-304]}.

The name of the Babylonian king of the Kassite period Ka tili u ^{[178, p. 185]}, who was captured by the Assyrians at the end of the 2nd millennium BC, is interesting ^{[132, p. 101]}. Perhaps the name is based on the ethnonym kashdu // kashdim (comparative cargo. kishti // brushes). According to the available data, the name Kashtiliash was borne by four Kassite kings, two of whom were among the first kings of Hanea. In this connection, the name of the brother of the king of Albania, Kosid, is interesting, according to Plutarch (Pompey. XXXV), who led the Albanian uprising against the Romans and was killed by Pompey ^{[60, p. 492]}. We also note the above–mentioned name of the son of Nahor - Kesed (the singular form of the Kasdim – "Chaldeans") (Genesis 22:22; Genesis 22:23).

Let us point to the designation of outcasts in Babylon during the Kassite period — hapiru ^{[132, p. 103]}, which resembles the ing. hurdel – "tramp", hurdiy dala – "decompose (morally)" ^{[9, p. 431]}.

In our opinion, the Akkadian form of the Kassite ethnonym, kaššū ^{[178, p. 184]}, comes from the name of the Chaldeans, k aśd u (< k a l d u), as a result of progressive assimilation in the śd complex: k aśd u > k aś tu > kašš u. It is noteworthy that the Kassite texts contain the root G/Kal', which is the source of the Akkadian form (through the forms galzu galdu, galšu - "kassite")" ^{[178, pp. 184-185, 187]}.

According to B. K. Dalgat, "the Pshavs, Khevsurs and Georgians call all Chechens (meaning all Nakh peoples – M. A.'s note) by one common name kisu or kista" ^{[183, p. 41]}, and according to E. G. Pchelina, the Khevsur river Armkhi (Kistinka) is called Kisu-Tskhali (Tskhali means "river") ^{[105, p. 68]}. We also point to the term kusak, which, according to S. T. Yeremyan, is the designation of cysts of Armenian sources ^{[44, p. 140 (approx. 16)]}. The final -k (-kh) is the Armenian affix of the plural (see above).

Interestingly, in the Middle Babylonian period, the name of the Kassites was written as k u-u š-š u, k un š u ^{[178, p. 184]}. We match the cargo. Kisu from Akkad. kaššū, and pussy and arm. kusa(k) with k u-u š-š u. Here there is an alternation of vowels: kisu // kassu > kusa(k) // kust(k) // kaisit // kist, characteristic of the Nakh languages.

Perhaps the name of the ancient city-state of Kish is connected with the terms kaššū, Kaśdim and Kaśdāy, as well as with the ethnonym Kishti.// Kis (noise. Kiš, modern Tell Ukhaymir) was the largest urban center of the north of Southern Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BC, which in the 3rd millennium BC became the main rival of Uruk ^{[121, p. 47]}. It was located 18 km away. to the northwest of Babylon, it was founded, according to scientists, at the end of the 4th millennium BC on the site of more ancient settlements ^{[121, pp. 47-48; 184, pp. 178-179]}. Perhaps the city originated on the site of modern Abu Salabih ^{[121, pp. 47-48]}.

Thus, the Kassite ethnonym kaššū is derived from the Akkadian name of the Chaldeans k aśd u. In turn, Akkad. k aśd u // k a l d u, Hebrew. kasdim, aram. The kāśdāy are related to the term Kaysi in Arabic sources and to the medieval Georgian-Armenian designation of the Nakh peoples – Kishti // kis(k)u // kusa(k), kust(k).

Cuties. Another nation Ancient Mesopotamia, whose origin causes great controversy, is Kuti // Gutei (Akkad. Kuti-im, Gutebu-um; babyl. Gutu-um; novovavil. Quteu; assyr. Guti). There is no reliable data on their origin ^{[185, p. 171]}. About 2200 BC appear in written sources, when they invaded Mesopotamia and destroyed the powerful Akkadian Empire, and around the same time the "Kutian dynasty" established itself here, ruling Mesopotamia for about 100 years ^{[185, p. 171; 186, p. 119]}.

The Kuti are mentioned in the texts as a mountain people, possibly from northwestern Iran ^{[185, p. 171]}. At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, the Kutia were localized in areas close to the Syrian-Mesopotamian steppe and the left bank of the Persian Gulf (see the History of Ancient Mesopotamia. Retrieved from https://abzubov.com/new_course/lecture_045 ). This territory may not have been their mother land, and it is believed that the Kuti were originally from the mountains of southern Zagros (see History of the Ancient East. Higher School Publishing House, 1988. Edited by V. I. Kuzishchin. 2nd ed., revised. and the add-on. Section III, Chapter 22. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20100317202412/http://bibliotekar.ru/polk-17/28.htm ).

As a result, this people was expelled from Mesopotamia by the ruler of the city of Uruk named Utu-hegal (2123-2113) ^{[187, p. xli]}, and by the end of the 2nd millennium BC, as an ethnic community, it disappeared from the historical arena of Western Asia (see History of Ancient Mesopotamia, ibid.). In the Assyrian texts of the late Bronze and Iron Ages, the term "Qut u (Quti)" referred to the Hurrians and Manneans who lived in the lake area. Urmia ^{[187, p. 586]}.

The complexity of the issue of linguistic and ethnic identity of the Kutis is also indicated by the fact that their language has not yet been assigned to any language family or tribal community. There are attempts to identify the Kutis as the "first Indo-Europeans" (e.g., Henning 1978) ^{[185, p. 171]}. "Henning (1978) and Narain (1987) suggest that the Kuti migrated to the east after the conquest of Mesopotamia, where they are referred to in Chinese texts as yueh-zhi (guti is considered as a phonological equivalent)" ^{[185, p. 171]}. "Henning suggested that the ancestors of the historical Tokhars, a special branch of the Indo—Europeans, formed the ruling dynasty of the Kuti people" ^{[186, p. 119]} and that "the ancient pronunciation of the Chinese name yue—zhi = Yuezhi (=kuchan = tohar) can be approximately reconstructed as *Gu(t)-t'i" ^{[186, p. 119, (approx. 12)]}. "However, the Chinese ethnonym 月氏 could also sound *ngi wa-t‑ĕg, so this assumption of Henning remains controversial" ^{[188, p. 120 (approx. 12)]}.

T. V. Gamkrelidze and Vyach.As expected, the Ivan Kutian language was attributed to Indo-European (as noted above, the hypothesis of kinship with Proto-Tocharians is being considered) ^{[186, pp. 119-120; 189, pp. 14-39; 98, pp. 117-118]}.

L. M. Sverchkov compares the name Gutium with the Astrabad culture (one of the variants of the culture of gray ceramics) ^{[98, p. 107]}.

However, in Mesopotamia, archaeologists have not been able to identify a single fragment of material culture belonging to the Kuti, and Akkadian (West Semitic) texts also do not contain loan words that could be attributed to Indo-European ^{[185, p. 171]}. Thus, the Kuti, with the exception of their name and activities described in Mesopotamian texts, are practically invisible ^{[185, p. 171; 190, p. 168]}. Perhaps because they were part of the Ubaid Chaldeans.

A number of researchers distinguish the Kutian language into a special group, denying its relationship with any of the languages known in the Near East, including Indo-European and Semitic ^{[188, pp. 281-282]}.

"In the inscription of Hammurabi from Ur, Elam, the country of the Gutiyas, Subartu and Tukri are mentioned together..." ^{[98, p. 18]}. At the same time, L. M. Sverchkov writes: "Thus, Guti (hence Kuči) and Yüe-chih are absolutely equivalent, whereas the name Tukri is identical to the later Tuyri and TuχAr" ^{[98, p. 17]}. While we disagree with the author's opinion about the Indo-European language of the Kuti, we fully assume that they were related to the Tukras and Subareans and are descendants of the Ubaid tribes.

I. M. Dyakonov and S. A. Starostin admitted the possibility of classifying the Kutian language to the East Caucasian family and kinship with the Lullubeian language. In particular, the authors write that Kuti "could be close to Lullubeian – it was even suggested that the name Udi is a reflex of *Quti" ^{[191, p. 166]}.

That is, I. M. Dyakonov and S. A. Starostin were inclined to classify the Kutis as a Native Dagestani language group, comparing their name with the name of the Dagestani people of Udina. However, we are not aware of other cases where the term kuti // guti occurs without an initial consonant. And we associate the ethnonym uti or Udiny with the name of the country Etiv (Etiuni, Etiukhi), the population of the eastern part of which, most likely, was related to the Dagestani peoples and there are names with a characteristic ending for Dagestani languages -iv ^{[11, p. 183]}. For example, Abarsuniv, Kamaniv, Tsurzaldiv, Likiv (in Urartian cuneiform inscriptions it is associated with the ethnic name of the Dagestani people Leks), etc. ^{[11, p. 186; 40, p. 115-117]}. In his earlier work, I. M. Dyakonov also pointed out the possible relationship of the Kutian language with the Nakh-Dagestan language group ^{[96, p. 7]}.

The connection of the Kuti name with the Lullubeans and the Nakho-Dagestanis is indirectly evidenced by the suffix -bu in the Akkadian name Gute bu-um, which may also be the Dagestani suffix -ib // -ib. However, we tend to see in it the affix mn. ch. -b(i), functioning in many nakho-Dagestan languages ^{[192, p. 511; 34, pp. 411-415]}, (see Umarkhanova J. A. 2010, ibid.).

According to DNA studies, "at the turn of 3-2 thousand BC, that is, during the period of the death of the Kuro-Arak and the birth of the Gincha cultures, there was, if not a complete, then a significant change in the demographic composition of the Eastern Caucasus. A new population of East Anatolian is emerging in the region. origin, carriers of the family of subgroups J1a3-Z1828" (see Chokaev Kh. K., Chokaev A. Kh., Arsanov P. M. On the origin of the Chechen and Ingush peoples in the light of genetic research data. 2014. Retrieved from https://proza.ru/2014/05/25/119 ). Representatives of the J1a3-Z1828 subgroup from the Andi and Lullubea regions may have migrated to the Arak Valley, where representatives of the Hurrian-Urartian (according to genetic scientists, see Chokaev et al. 2014, ibid.) J2a1b-M67 subgroup lived.

It is noteworthy that "according to Moisey Kagankatvatsi, the Kusti-Parn area was located in Artsakh. One of the districts of Albania called Artsakh-Kusti is marked on the road map of the IV century A.D. (78, 88) ^{[44, p. 140 (approx. 17)]}. As it was shown in our article "On the etymology of the name Dzurdzuki" (currently in the process of publication), the Armenian name of Karabakh – Artsakh is an integral part of the Dzurdzuki ethnonym. Thus, Artsakh-Kusti is the Albanian analogue of Kisto-Dzurdzuketi in the Vakhushti Bagrationi, localized in the Daryal gorge ^{[104, pp. 150-151]}.

Adhering to the opinion of I. M. Dyakonov and S. A. Starostin about the kinship of the Kuitev with the Nakho-Dagestan peoples, we will try to etymologize their name using the Nakh languages. Perhaps the term kuti // guti comes from Nahsk. Gu(in) – "the hill. The second part is ti – naskhk. a topoformant derived from the postpositions -t I and // -t I e // -de – "on" (see above). That is, kut I e // gude translates as "highlands", and gut I iy – "inhabitants of the highlands". This conclusion is consistent with the fact that the Gutians came from mountainous regions: "Enlil brought them out of the mountains..." says the "Curse of Akkad" (see the Babylonian poem "The Curse of Akkad" // Translated by V. K. Afanasyeva. Retrieved from http://skazanie.info/prokljatie-akkade ).

However, we are inclined to a different version of the etymology of this ethnonym. The fact is that in the Kakh dialect of the Georgian language, instead of the brush // kishti, the kiti form is used to denote the Nakh peoples ^{[44, p. 140]}, which, apparently, is the result of the elision of the consonant C. Therefore, the ancestors of the Georgians (however, as well as the Semites), who were neighbors with the Chaldeans in ancient times, there could be forms of kitty and kuti, as variants from kishtu // kusti. In this regard, it is interesting that, according to Apollonius of Rhodes (III century BC) (II. 399, 404), there was a city in Colchis called Kitea ^{[115, p. 413]}. The Byzantine philologist and commentator on ancient authors John Tsets (1110-1180) mentions the territory of Colchis under the name Kitaida mainland, Kitaida ^{[193, pp. 400, 405]}.

In ancient Greek mythology, the daughter of the mythical Colchian king Eitus Chalciope had 4 sons – Arga, Kitissora, Milana and Frontis ^{[115, p. 412]}. The first two names seem to be related to the two names of Colchis – cargo. Egrisi (compare Argveti) and Greek. Kiteya. It is possible that Kitissora was obtained from Kistiora as a result of metathesis. The name of the island of Kos is also interesting, from where, according to other Greek mythology, Chalciope was born. It is believed that the name Chalkiope (Greek: ΧΑλκιόΠη) translates as "bronze face". However, we fully assume that the ethnonym of Kolkha is at the heart of the name (cf. self-identification. Ingush – Khalkhai (ing. g I alg I ai)).

Claudius Ptolemy (c. 100 — c. 170) mentions the Kistoboks among the tribes of the Eastern Black Sea region and the Northern Caucasus ^{[61, p. 231]}. At the same time, along the Caspian coast, along with the Kadusians and Gels, the author indicates the Dribiki tribe ^{[61, p. 244]}. Perhaps the latter name consists of two parts: drills and biki. As noted above, we identify drills with Chaldae, i.e. Cysts. We compare the second part, biki, with the second part of the ethnonym Kistoboki. That is, it is possible that biki and boki are different forms of the name of the same Kist-Drill tribe, or related to them. If our conclusions are correct, then kistobok and dribiki are different versions of the name of the Chaldean tribe. Perhaps this etymology is confirmed by the message of Pliny the Elder (VI. 19), which says: "The Scythians, Cimmerians, Kisians, Georgians and the Amazonian tribe are right behind them. The latter live up to the Caspian and Hyrcanus Seas" ^{[59, p. 183]}. The author's report on the Kas River in Albania (VI. 19) ^{[59, p. 184]} also indicates the possible residence of kists (or Kisiants) in the Caspian region. Therefore, we fully assume that the kisiants could be part of the dribs (cysts).

The same K. Ptolemy was among the Scythian tribes of the Eastern Black Sea region, "lower than the Akibs and Nasks" (cf. with a name. the Vainakh societies of Akkhiy and Nashkhoy), indicates tribes called Vibions and Idras ^{[61, p. 231]}. Idras, in our opinion, are adras (drills), and we compare the name vibions with the Vappiy–Vainakh society, which in Russian sources of the 19th century was known as cysts (see above).

After the Kutians were defeated in the 2nd millennium BC, some of them may have moved to the northeast and settled on the territory of historical Colchis. It is noteworthy that Xenophon mentions whales among the tribes inhabiting the Southeastern Black Sea region ^{[2, pp. 83-84]}. Here, perhaps, they founded a settlement, whose name is preserved in the name of the modern Georgian city of Kutaisi, which is located on the territory of the historical Colchis. The Abkhaz name of this city is KҭEsh [Kytesh] (Retrieved from https://ru.glosbe.com/ru/ab/Кутаиси ). Stephen of Byzantium reports: "Whales is a city of Colchis... The inhabitant is κυταΐος, from where else κυταιεύς [as Apollonius says]: "You will see the towers of the Chinese Eeta"; the feminine gender is κυταιιάς. It is also said to be from κυταιος" ^{[56, p. 262]}.

Another Byzantine historian of the sixth century. Procopius of Caesarea (IV. 14), gives the name of the city in the form Koitai and Kotiaion, and with reference to Argian, wrote that the name comes from the Greek language and that the Lazyes changed it to Kutais ^{[194, pp. 423-424]}. At the same time, John Tsets reports that the manholes are called kolkhas ^{[193, p. 400]}. According to Procopius of Caesarea, Eetes came from Koitai and marched, and as a result, poets call him Koitai himself, and the Colchian land Koitaida ^{[194, p. 424]}.

We are inclined to believe that Kotiaion is the Greek version of the Colchian name, and the Georgized descendants of the Laza Colchians already pronounced this name in the Georgian way.

The term Koitai (Kutais) we compare it with the name of the ancient city in Mesopotamia Kuta, Kuva (shum. Gudua). We also point to the Hut tribe, the Urartian population, who lived in mountainous areas during the post–Uranian period and still retained their ethnic identity ^{[195, p. 162; 11, p. 423]}.

In the land of the Tibarenes, Xenophon, in "Anabasis" (V. 5, 3), mentions the Greek city of Kotior (a) (other-Greek. with the name of Chalciope's son, Kitissor) and calls it the colony of Sinope ^{[196, pp. 69-77]}. Scientists localize it on the site of the modern city of Ordu in Turkey ^{[196, p.69]}. It is interesting to note that the Zingana Pass is marked in this area, through which the road ran "from Trebizond to Bayburt, Erzurum and further to Transcaucasia or south to Mesopotamia" ^{[196, p. 77]}. As noted above, according to legend, the ancestors of the Merzhoyevites (belong to the Orstkhoi society) in ancient times lived near the shores of the Black Sea, where the Zigur River flows ^{[12, p. 79]}. G. J. Gumba associates the hydronym Zigur with the name of the Zigana pass ^{[11, p. 160-161]}.

Perhaps Cotiora is of the same root as the name Kotia // Kutais, where the final -c, according to the law of rotationism, turned into -R. At the same time, the ancient name of Colchis Kitea // Koitaya is a consequence of the elision of the consonant with // w in the name Kutais // Kutesh, which in turn was obtained as a result of a metathesis in the ethnonym kusti (> kutis > kuti).

Among the peoples of the Eastern Black Sea region, Pliny Secundus (VI.19) finds tribes of Koity and Kety ^{[59, p. 180]}. Perhaps these are two forms of the same name (compare there are two forms of the city name Kiteya and Koitaya).

With the ethnonym kety // whales, we compare the name of the Katiars, who, according to Herodotus (IV. 5-7), were one of the Scythian tribes, whose ancestor, according to the legend (IV. 6), which existed among the Scythians, was the middle son of Targitai– Arpoxai ^{[38, pp. 11-12]}. As noted above, we associate the name Targitai with the name of the ethnarch of the Caucasian peoples in the communications of L. Mroveli – Targam.

There are different versions of the origin of the Katiars in the scientific community, but the dominant point of view is that they were not an ethnic, but a class-caste group of Scythian society, being farmers and pastoralists ^{[197, pp. 65-67]}. At the same time, D. S. Rayevsky speaks "about the composition of the universe as a whole, i.e. it has a cosmological and even cosmogonic character, embodied in a genealogical narrative" ^{[197, pp. 63-64]}.

"The name Arpoxai, according to V. I. Abaev's interpretation, in the first part has the root apr-, which is also preserved (without the metathesis rp > pr) in the ancient form of the Iranian—language name of the Dnieper - Danapris ("deep river") and reflected in Ossetian arf — "deep" ^{[198, pp. 242-243]}." ^{[197, pp. 65-67]}. Contrary to the opinion of respected scientists, we believe that the name is based on the ethnonym alb(an)s // alibas, also known as eras // hera. The second part, ksai, is probably a Scythian epithet for the name of a people originating from Iran. xsaya – "lord, lord, king." Apparently, Arpa-ksai means "father (ancestor) of the arps." In other words, Arpoxai is the eponym of the Albanians. At the same time, we etymologize the ethnonym of Katiara as the addition of two tribal names – kety and er(p)y.

The name Matiketes is also of interest — the Scythian tribe mentioned by Hecateus in the Description of Europe ^{[56, p. 263]}, which we etymologize as "mats (matiens) and chetes (whales).

Among the peoples of the North Caucasus listed in the "Armenian Geography", there is the Kudety people ^{[45, p. 37]}. We compare this name with the ethnonym kuti // gudi and the ancient name of Colchis – Koitai // Kitea.

We also tend to see a connection between the name kudeta and the ethnonym brush. But what about the fact that kudets and bushes are mentioned simultaneously in the "Armenian Geography"? Here, bushes are localized in mountainous areas adjacent to canaries, tskhavats, and carcasses ^{[45, p. 37]}. Does this mean that the Kudets and the bushes are two completely different peoples? Probably not. The fact is that the original "Armenian Geography" is basically not an independent source, but a correspondence of the work of Claudius Ptolemy "Guide to Geography" ^{[44, p. 135]}. Moreover, the original has been lost, only a copy dating no earlier than the 13th century has been preserved, and researchers believe that changes were made there by different authors at different times ^{[44, p. 135]}. In other words, in correspondence by later authors, bushes could have been included in the tribes of Asian Sarmatia (without realizing that they were the same Kudets), but already localized in the mountainous regions where they lived in their (the authors who made the changes) time. Whereas the kudets may have been in the original source, and were localized in the area between the Malka and Kuban rivers.

Interestingly, Stephen of Byzantium reports about three cities with the name Kitea. In addition to the one in Colchis, there are two cities of Kita: in Europe and the island of Crete ^{[56, p. 262]} (cf. with the Eteocrit tribe of Kidona). As we wrote above, a river named Yardan was marked on the island of Crete in ancient times, and one of the two Etiocrite peoples (along with the Cretans) was called the Kidons. We compare the name of the latter with the ethnonym of Kitea // koity and fully assume that the name of the city of Kitea in Crete was associated with the kidons. At the same time, the name of the brother of the Cretan queen Cadmus ^{[159, p. 102]} is probably an eponym of the Kidones.

Special attention is paid to the ethnonym Gudamakary, which is found for the first time in the "Armenian Geography" among the tribes that lived in the mountainous regions of the Central Caucasus ^{[45, p. 37; 91, p. 710]}. The Caucasian ethnographer A. N. Genko compared the term Gudamakar with the Ossetian names Ingush (mӕхъl) and Tushin (gudan). The author etymologizes the term gudamakar as consisting of two parts – gudan and makar, the first of which (gudan) is called tushin by Ossetians, and the second (oset. mkӕl(he)) They are called Ingush ^{[103, p. 709]}. According to A. N. Genko, the name of the Gudanta locality in Tusheti may be associated with Gudamakars ^{[91, p. 709, note 5]}, and the name of the Gudanti sanctuary in Khevsuri may have been left over from the pre-Khevsuri population of the gorge ^{[91, p. 709-710]}. The author also notes the Feppin surname of the Gudantovs ^{[91, p. 709]}.

We compare the first part of guda and the Ossetian name tushin – gudan (the final one is n – oset. the suffix of the person), with the ethnonyms kudeta and gutia (kutia), as well as with the name of the Colchian city of Kuta (is) and the name of Colchis itself Kitea // Koitaya. At the same time, we compare the ethnonym Makar // mahal with the name of the Colchian tribe of the Macrons (Mahelons, Mahls). Therefore, Gudamakar is a combination of two tribal names – Gutians and Macrons, or it means "Kutian macrons".

The term Gudamakar can also mean "Colchian macrons", since Colchis was called the "Chinese country". Or, perhaps, it refers to the fact that the Macrons belong to the Gutias.

We wrote above that Kudets may have lived in the area of the Malki River. At least, they are mentioned between the Alans and the Argvels ^{[45, p. 37]}. Researchers consider the name of the latter to be a Georgized form of the name of the ancient Argi people (argu), who inhabited some areas of the Central Caucasus from Nalchik to Argun, before the arrival of the Alans on these lands ^{[199, p. 49]}. If so, then the Kudets lived on the plane, approximately in the interfluve of the Kuban and Malka rivers. According to some sources, mahals also lived in this area in the Early Middle Ages ^{[11, pp. 76-77]}. That is, we see mahals (Makarov?) again. next to the kudets (Hood?).

Here we point out that the ancient habitat of the near kists (Feppins) is the gorge of the Arm-khi river. It is noteworthy that the Georgians call this river K'istis-cqali, which means "river of kists". At the same time, Ossetians call the same river Maekhaeldon, which translates from Ossetian as "mahalov river". That is, here the Georgian name of the cyst is a synonym for the Ossetian mahal. Kabardians also called kists mahals ^{[200, l. 858-860]}. In our opinion, the ethnonym mahal, as a self-designation, is preserved among the Melkhistins ("distant cysts" in the sources of the 19th century) in the form of mankhiy.

And if the Mahals // Macrons were a Kist (Chaldean) tribe, then the term "Gudamakars" acquires the meaning of "Kist // Chaldean mahals // Macrons".

Conclusion.Thus, the ancient ethnonyms kaɬdu (and its variants: kaśdāy/kaśdim/kaššū) and alarodia are cognate with one of the Georgian names of the ancestors of the modern Nakh peoples – Kishti // kisty and comes from the name of the cult of Khaldi (< Khal-Ardi). If our conclusions are correct, then the ethnonym kist // kust arose even before the migration of the Khalaf-Ubaid and Uruk tribes from the territory. From Mesopotamia to the countries of Nairi and the Caucasus.

In turn, the ethnonym Chaldea // Alarodia was obtained by combining the ethnonyms Hal and Arda, or from the name of the cult Hal-Eridu // Hal-Ardi. It is also possible that alarody (halardy) means "haly from Eridu // Ardi".

To date, it is impossible to say for sure whether the ethnonym of Chaldea (Kashdu) is related to the name Kutiev. But based on the data presented in this article, we are inclined to believe that Kish, kashdu // kashdim, kashshu // kassites, kishty // cysts // kisu // kisu // kusak // kustk, kaisity, Kutais // Kutesh // Kutia // Kiteya, kuti // guti, koity, Kety, Kudety, Koity, Kitiara are terms of the same root and are variants in different languages (and by different authors) of the same Chaldean (Alarodian) people who lived in the mountains of Western Zagros and the plains of Southern Mesopotamia before the arrival of the Semitic tribes. Their name was borrowed in various forms by other peoples and adapted to the norms of their language. Some of the Alarodians moved to the area of Lake Urmia and, together with the natives of Ur (the Tsoba-Ur group), participated in the ethnogenesis of the Urartians and in the education of Urartu.

The article is published in the version approved by the reviewers (after receiving a positive review recommending the manuscript for publication) with corrections made by the author (after receiving the editor’s comments, if any).
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