ABSTRACT
Historic Armenia constitutes an elevated plateau buttressed by formidable mountain systems. The severe geography, and resultant harsh climate, has enabled the Armenian people to survive invasion and foreign domination, and has assured a continuity of population. At the eastern end of the Armenian plateau, around Lake Sevan (which has an elevation of 1,916m) the mountainous aspect of the landscape is at its most pronounced. This region comprised the ninth and tenth provinces of Armenia: Siunik and Artsakh. Northeast of Artsakh, where the mountains decline to the valley of the Kura, lay the province of Utik; and east of the southern end of Artsakh, towards the confluence of the Kura and Arax rivers, lay Paytakaran, a province that also included land south of the Arax. 1
The elevation of the plateau of historic Armenia was also a major factor in determining the social system; mountain and valley dwellers live differently from plains people. In essence, the typical Armenian social structure was of a federation of local dynastic princes, known as nakharars, which both pre-dated and survived the various monarchies of Armenia. In the east the nakharars were the descendants of tribal chieftains (Armenian and non-Armenian) of considerable antiquity. Their authority ensured strength and continuity in Armenian society, although their conflicts with monarchy (which was seldom superior to them) sometimes weakened the State. They usually had wide powers of raising taxes and administering the law. Beneath the princes, and subject to them, were a landed gentry (azat) and a peasantry (shinakan).2
