Khaldi

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For the Urartian god of this name, see Khaldi (god).

The Khaldi were a Bronze Age people inhabiting the south-eastern shore of the Black Sea (now part of Turkey). They were related in proximity and probably also in language to the Hattians, an ancient people of Asia Minor, whose Hattic language is now believed to have been related to the Circassian language group^{[citation needed]}. Another ancient ethnic group possibly associated with the Khaldi are the Kardu.

The Khaldi, and neighboring tribes Khalib/Chalybes, Mossynoikoi, and Tubal/Tabal/Tibarenoi, are counted among the first ironsmith nations by classical authors.

The main sources for the history of the Khaldi are certain well-known works by Homer, Strabo, and Xenophon.

As late as in Roman times, the Chaldaei (i.e. Khaldi, homonymous but unrelated to the Semitic Chaldeans) are mentioned^{[citation needed]} as a tribe immediately neighboring the Chalybes in Pontic Cappadocia, or the Pontus Cappadocicus section of the Roman province of Pontus.

Mehrdad R. Izady, a Kurdish expert on Middle-Eastern affairs, tentatively suggests a connection or even identity of the Khaldi with the Ubaid period culture, and further connects both with the Kurds [1]