According to Georgian scholars I.A. Djavashvili and Giorgi Melikishvili the Urartuan state of Supani was occupied by the ancient Nakh tribe Tzov, the state of which is called Tsobena in ancient Georgian historiography. Sophene was part of the kingdom of Urartu in the 8th–7th centuries BCE. After uniting the region with his kingdom in the early 8th century BCE, king Argishtis I of Urartu resettled many of its inhabitants to his newly built city of Erebuni. However, Djavashvili's and Melikishvili's theory is not widely accepted.