The manual presents primary sources of Armenian ethnological science from the ancient period to the mid-18th century, including information about materials from archaeological excavations, rock paintings, cuneiform and foreign language inscriptions, lithographs, as well as folklore materials of the Armenian Highlands. Particular attention was paid to Armenian and ancient Greco-Roman historians, biblical sources, church canonical and other secular sources, rich and varied ethnographic information about the Armenians and Armenia in the travelogues of Arab, Turkish and European travelers. The role and significance of the field ethnographic collection materials as an important source for the study of the Armenian ethno-cultural complex is also presented.

This manual represents a unique result of more than two decades of research by the author in the field of Armenian ethnographic sources. For the first time, brief information by Greek and Roman historiographers Herodotus, Xenophon, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Plutarch, Gaius Pliny (the Elder) Secundus, Appian, Dio Cassius, Gaius Cornelius Tacitus about the historical and cultural life of Armenia and the Armenians is provided.

Armenian and foreign materials present demography, economic life, means of production, organization of production; material culture: types of folk housing and apartment complexes, functions, types of food and drinks, costumes, weapons, means of public transport and communications, complexes of socio-normative culture: family, relationships between families, customs and rites of marriage, birth and raising children, death and burial; the essence, forms and significance of the structures of public self-government: ethnocommunity-social relations, folk holidays, belief system, etc.