Mushki were Armenian-speakers or speakers of a closely related language. Pliny in the 1st century AD mentions the Moscheni in southern Armenia ("Armenia" at the time stretching south and west to the Mediterranean, bordering on Cappadocia). In Byzantine historiography, Moschoi was a name equivalent to or considered as the ancestors of "Cappadocians" (Eusebius) with their capital at Mazaca (later Caesarea Mazaca, modern Develi, Kayseri). According to Armenian tradition, the city of Mazaca was founded by and named after Mishak (Misak, Moshok), a cousin and general of the legendary patriarch Aram. Scholars have proposed a connection between the name Mishak and Mushki.Olmstead, A.T. (1929), Two Stone Idols from Asia Minor at the University of Illinois. pp. 313. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/4236961?read-now=1&refreqid=excelsior%3Aeb2f654f8d09b7b6fd30f32d7d1679fa&seq=4#page_scan_tab_contents) The Armenian region of Mokk' and the city of Mush (Muş) may derive their names from the Mushki. pp.140 According to Professor James R. Russell of Harvard University, the Georgian designation for Armenians, "Somekhi", refers to the Mushki. However, the connection between the Mushki and Armenian languages is quite unclear and many modern scholars have rejected a direct linguistic relationship if the Mushki were Phrygian speakers.Kim Ronald I. Greco-Armenian. The persistence of a myth // Indogermanische Forschungen. — 2018. — 123. Band. — S. 247–271. Additionally, genetic research does not support significant admixture into the Armenian nation after 1200 BC, making the Mushki, if they indeed migrated from a Balkan or western Anatolian homeland during or after the Bronze Age Collapse, unlikely candidates for the Proto-Armenians. Mushki and Georgians Some Georgian historians have proposed that the Mushki, together with other ancient tribes of Asia Minor mentioned in Assyrian sources (such as the Tibal and others), were "proto-Georgian" tribes, which contributed to the formation of the eastern Georgian Kingdom of Iberia. According to Donald Rayfield, Mushki, Moschoi, and Meskhi are floating names. He argues the Mushki may have worshiped the Hittite moon god Arma and the Luwian god Santush (Santa/Sandan), comparing these names to the phonetically similar pagan Iberian gods Armazi and Zaden, whose idols were overthrown by Christian missionaries in the 4th century AD in Iberia. Rayfield's theories are speculative, however, and nothing is actually known of the Mushki's religious convictions. Moschoi Hecataeus of Miletus (c. 550 – 476 BC) speaks of the Moschi as "Colchians", situated next to the Matieni. According to Herodotus, the equipment of the Moschoi was similar to that of the Tibareni, Macrones, Mossynoeci and Mardae, with wooden caps