Anatolia In The Iron Age

The Fifth Anatolian Iron Ages Colloquium, held at Van in 2001, brought together specialists from Turkey, Europe and America to focus on the archaeology of Anatolia in the complex period between the collapse of the Hittite empire and the Persian conquest. The papers gathered in this volume cover the area from Urartu in the east to Phrygia in the west, and range from the discussion of broad problems of chronology and cultural interaction to the presentation of new material from both major and less well known sites. Although most of the papers relate to the area of present-day Turkey, a significant feature of the Fifth Colloquium was the inclusion of papers placing Anatolian archhaeology in its wider context from Thrace, through the Black Sea area, to the Caucasus and beyond.

The twenty-seven papers in this collection come from the Third Anatolian Iron Ages Colloquium held at Van, Turkey, in 1990. Contributors include: M U Anabolu (The meander motif in Iron Age south-western Anatolia); O Belli (Urartian dams in eastern Anatolia); C Burney (Urartu and Iran); D Collon (Urzana of Musasir's seal); A Cilingiroglu (Excavations at the fortress of Ayanis); H Gonnet (The cemetery and rock-cut tombs of Beykoy in Phrgyia); J D Hawkins (The end of the Bronze Age in Anatolia); W Kleiss (The chronology of Urartian defensive architecture); A Ramage (Early Iron Age Sardis and its neighbours); J Reade (Campaigning around Musasir); L E Roller (The Phrygian character of Kybele); K S Rubinson (Eastern Anatolia before the Iron Age); G K Sams (Aspects of early Phrygian architecture at Gordion); V Sevin (Excavations at the Van castle mound); G D Summers (Grey Ware and the eastern limits of Phrygia); M M Voigt (Excavations at Gordion 1988-89); R Yildirim (The Urartian furniture fragments in Elazig Museum); L Zoroglu (Cilicia Tracheia in the Iron Age).

The seventh international colloquium devoted to the Iron Age of Anatolia and surrounding regions was convened at Edirne, Turkey, between the 19th and 24th April 2010. This volume contains the revised versions of some of the papers delivered at Edirne. They range geographically from southeastern Europe through central and eastern Anatolia to the Trans-Caucasus and northwestern Iran. As a survey of critical issues currently shaping critical discourse on Iron Age Anatolia, they provide an invaluable body of new information and ideas.

The Proceedings of the Second Anatolian Iron Ages Colloquium held at Izmir in May 1987. Contents are: tin deposits in Anatolia (O Belli) ; pottery from Köskerbaba Höyuek (Ö Bilgi) ; Early Iron Age at Dilkaya (A Çilingiroglu) ; a Luristan sword with proto-Arabic inscription (H Lassen, V F Buchwald) ; glass in the Iron Age (C S Lightfoot) ; manufacture of a Urartian bronze candelabrum of King Menua (R Merhav, A Ruder) ; southwestward expansion of Urartu (V Sevin) ; close affinity beteen languages of Luvian origin and early Iranian - possible connection between `Tuerk' and `Tarkhun' (lord, ruler) (B Umar) ; architectural origin of Urartian standard temples (D Ussishkin) ; belt fittings from Burmageçit (R Yildirim) ; finds from Kicikisla (L Zoroglu)

One of the most intriguing issues facing archaeologists working in the second millennium BC is the collapse of Late Bronze Age palace economies and the rise of smaller principalities called Iron Age kingdoms. Some of these kingdoms retain vestiges of the previous Hittite Empire while others represent an ethnic diversity of newly emerging centers of power. The decentralized kingdoms stretch from Cilicia to the Tigris River and are situated on both sides of the modern border of Syria and Turkey. Theories about this political transition have varied from environmental causes, internal dynastic squabbles in Hattusha, to marauding bands of mythical "Sea Peoples". Modern political realities across the border between Turkey and Syria have often minimized the flow of scholarly information about this important collapse. This book compares archaeological data from new as well as established excavations dating to the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. Special attention is given to significant new understandings of chronology that will contextualize the structural collapses at the end of the Late Bronze Age and will illuminate the rise of new Iron Age kingdoms and their imperial ambitions.

The sixth international colloquium devoted to the Iron Age of Anatolia was convened at Eskisehir, Turkey, between 16-20 August 2004. As for previous such meetings, the ultimate goal of the Eskisehir gathering was to stimulate academic discussion and pique the curiosity of researchers whose interest lie primarily in the first half of the first millennium BC. The exchange of information and ideas was greatly facilitated by tours to sites that formed the perfect backdrop for many discussions and brought into sharper focus the issues raised by some of the papers. In publishing the revised version of the Eskisehir papers, we hope that this volume will serve as a useful survey on a wide range of critical issues - cultural, historical, chronological and geographical - that are currently shaping archaeological discourse on Iron Age Anatolia.

This large volume publishes the Proceedings of the International Workshop Identifying Changes held in Istanbul in 2002 and includes 25 papers which approach the Bronze to Iron Age transition primarily from an Anatolian perspective. Drawing on archaeological material from Anatolian sites, compared and contrasted with that of neighbouring areas such as Cyprus, Crete, Greece and the Pontic and Caucasus, the contributors assess the nature and chronology of 2nd millennium BC cultural change. The papers reflect the major contribution that the natural sciences can make to this question, the need for more research into regional peculiarities and interactions, the need to track population movements and migrations, to investigate the pace of change and evidence for continuity from one artifically labelled period to another.