On the etymology of the ethnonym "dzurdzuki"

The author considers the question of the origin of the name of the people, known from ancient and medieval sources as "dzurdzuki // durdzuki // tsurtsk". The information from these sources and scientific works about the Dzurdzuk, as well as their ethnogenetic connections with the tribes of the Hurrian-Urartian community, is studied. The analysis of the currently existing main versions of the origin of the term "dzurdzuki" is carried out. At the same time, the author offers his original point of view of the etymology of this term. In historical science, it is considered that in the sources the ethnonym "dzurdzuki" was used as a common name for the ancestors of modern Nakh peoples. The purpose of this article is to show, based on ethnographic material and scientific data accumulated recently, that the term "dzurdzuk" is the Georgian origin of the common ethnonym of two ancient Nakh ethnic groups: Tsovtsy (Tsova) and Ortskhoevtsy (Artsukh). When studying this issue, the work used narrative, historical-genetic, historical-chronological, historical-comparative, etc. methods. According to the author, the ancestors of the Tsova-Ortskhoevites were part of the last migration wave of Hurrian-Urartian tribes to the Caucasus, associated with the decline of the Van kingdom in the VI century BC. From the territory of Tsupani and Alzini Tsoba-Arza migrated to Chaldia, in the Southeastern Black Sea region. Then some of them move east to the lake Sevan, where the regions of Artsakh (Orchistena) and Tsovna (Tsanika) arise. In the VII-VIII centuries, through the Gardman, the "Chaldean men" migrated to the Central Caucasus, where their tribes lived. Subsequently, they moved to the northern slopes of the Caucasian Ridge and occupied part of the Argun, Daryal, Dzheyrakh and other gorges. In the author's opinion, the ancient ethnonyms of Tsobs and Arzov are preserved in the names of the Vainakh societies ortskoi and orstkhoi, in one of the designations of the Batsbians – cIova, as well as in the names orkhustoy // orstkhoi from the Nart epic of the Ingush and Chechens. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that this article presents the original version of the etymology of the ethnonym "dzurdzuki". The author outlined promising directions for further research on this issue.