The Armenians are one of the ancient nations of the Middle East and belong to the armenoid type (near eastern) of Eurasian (europid) race.
The formation process of the Armenian physical type began a long time ago. It is closely related to the formation of near eastern or armenoid races. This anthropological type is highly widespread in the entire Central Asia including the Anatolia plateau, Syria and Iranian plateau. The anthropological type formation took place far before the beginning of Armenian ethnogenesis.
The Armenian anthropological type holds a unique place among the other types of Mediterranean branches, belonging to the huge range of the Europid race. It is characterized by a strongly developed hairline,
tawny white to light-brown skin tone, brachycephalic skull (broad-headed), strongly accentuated contours and a narrow face with slightly expressed cheekbones and an extraordinarily accentuated nose. The first three types point out the closeness of the Armenoid race to the southern Mediterranean population, while the brachycephaly goes for the Balkans population. The complex of characteristics that used to be specific only for the Armenians, can also be seen in the eastern or southern Georgia, which is the result of the Armenoid anthropological type moving to the northern border.
The Head Structure
The brachycephaly (a high-narrow face, a flat nape, a forehead with slightly accentuated eyebrow bones), a straight, middle-height broad forehead characterize the Armenians. There are anthropological types with different characteristics among the Armenians: some have slightly broad faces, horizontal or a little reduced nose tips, straight and flat foreheads, thick lips. Straight foreheads are primary in Transcaucasia.
The cephalic index for the Armenians is 85.4. It is 84 for Van and Yerevan, up to 86 in Sebastia and 87 for Karin. The average head height is 185 mm. It reaches 180 mm in the east and 183 mm in the south.
The Armenians possess a convex, long nose of middle-width. The length of the Armenians is 60 mm and it is quite wide, almost 33 mm. The width is between 37.4 mm and 38.4 mm from Van to Kesaria. The Armenian nose is especially featured in Caucasia.
Hair cover
The Armenians have highly developed tertiary hair cover. In terms of facial and body hair the Armenians are the first in Caucasia.
Dense brows, long eyelashes are typical for the Armenians. The densest brows are among the Armenians living in the east. With regard to the facial and body hair Armenoid (men) do not yield to the nationalities with the densest hair cover such as ainu people (Japan) and aboriginal Australians, and sometimes the Armenians even surpass them.
Skin and eye color: The Armenians have dark (more seldom light brown) hair, light (rarely dark) skin. Hair and skin gets darker from north-west to south-east. The maximum pigmentation occurs in Arménie Оrientale and the eastern Transcaucasia (Azerbaijan). The Azeri are noticeably darker than the Armenians. The Armenians’ skin colour is pink – white, dark white and light brown. The dark white can be found among 85% of the Armenians. The light pink skin is among 8% of the Armenians and is especially common for the Armenians who emigrated from Van and light-brown for Armenians of Kesaria (eastern regions of peninsula Asia Minor)
58% of the Armenians have dark-brown hair, while black and middle brown is 38% of the Armenians. The rest of 6% has reddish brown hair. Dark and black haired men’s beard is mainly the same color, brown haired men have red and red-brown beard. So, only 75% of the Armenians have mere black hair cover. Red and brown hair is the most common among the Armenians who emigrated from Lake Van surrounding, while black hair is in the south and west, particularly among the Armenians who emigrated from Syria and its close areas.
73% of the Armenians have brown hair. Dark brown eyes are the most common in the west, where it makes 36% and is rare among the Armenians of Lake Van where it makes 13%. Mixed or light eyes are 34% of Van Armenians and only 11% Kesarian Armenians.
Biometric data
The size of Armenians depends on the geographical region. The Armenians of Van, Baghesh, Karin, Yerevan are taller than the Armenians living in the west, in Caesarea, Marash and Sebastia. At the beginning of the 20th century, the tallest were the inhabitants of Van, with an average of 169 cm, and the shortest were the Armenians of Kesaria and Marash with an average of 164 cm.
Armenian women are significantly inferior to men. Their average height is 158.1 cm.
It has been established that during the 20th century, Armenian men gained 10.1 cm in height, and women – 8.5 cm.
Despite the average height, Armenians are stockier and, therefore, heavy for their height (72.5 kg on average).
The average penis length of Armenian men is 13.5 cm, the maximum is 21 cm. By its indicators, it is the third largest in the former Soviet Union and is considered the world average.
Yerevan Disease
Being one of the ancient nations the periodic disease or Familial Mediterranean fever is typical of the Armenians it is also sometimes called “Yerevan disease”. It is a hereditary autoinflammatory disease that mostly but not always, occurs among the nations whose predecessors inhabited the Mediterranean sea area especially the Armenians, Sephardic Jews (much less Ashkenazi Jews), Turks and the Arabs of Northern Africa.
Prepared by Bagrat Movsesyan
ARMENIANS
HISTORY
ARMENIA
