Anatolian Iron Ages 7

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 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 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)

This book reconsiders the concept of empire and examines the processes of imperial making and undoing in Hittite Anatolia (c. 1600-1180 BCE).

The Socio-economic Organisation of the Urartian Kingdom is an insightful and critical study of the social, economic and administrative structure of the Urartian civilisation of eastern Anatolia, Armenia and north-west Iran in the 9th-6th centuries BC.

This third volume in the Archaeology of Anatolia series offers reports on the most recent discoveries from across the Anatolian peninsula. Periods covered here span the Epipalaeolithic to the Medieval, and sites and regions range from the western Anatolian coast to Van, as well as the southeast. The contributors offer nearly real-time updates on their ongoing excavations and surveys across the Anatolian landscape. A new section in this third volume, “The State of the Field,” presents the latest findings in critical areas of Anatolian archaeology. The Archaeology of Anatolia series represents a forum for scholars to report their most recent data to a global audience, allowing for productive engagement with others working in and near Anatolia. Published every two years, it is an invaluable vehicle through which working archaeologists may carry out their most critical task: the presentation of their fieldwork and laboratory research in a timely fashion.

The city on the Kerkenes Dag in the high plateau of central Turkey was a new Iron Age capital, very probably Pteria. Founded in the later seventh century BC, the city was put to the torch in the mid sixth century and then abandoned. Between 1999 and 2011 what we have called the Cappadocia Gate, one of the seven city gates that pierce the 7 km of strong stone defenses, was excavated in its entirety. This volume documents as fully as possible the results of those excavations. The location of the gate and its architecture are discussed and illustrated, with a chapter devoted to its partial restoration. Cultic installations within the gate structure include a built stepped monument with semi-iconic idol, an aniconic stela, and graffiti representing similar stones. Sculpture set up at the back of the gate comprised many fragments of a life-sized statue supported by a plinth bearing adorsed sphinxes carved in relief. The remains of two human victims of the destruction are examined, as are animal bones that perhaps provide evidence of meals consumed by builders of the gate. Pottery and other finds, including well-preserved iron door bands, are presented, as is an exceptional ornament of gold and electrum. A final chapter attempts to place these remarkable discoveries in a wider context. The gate plan and the cultic installations and sculpture set up inside the gate appear to be entirely Phrygian. Combined with evidence of Paleo-Phrygian inscription and graffiti already published (OIP 135), this volume sheds dramatic new and unexpected evidence for the power, wealth, and sophistication of an eastward expansion of Phrygia. The brief existence, hardly more than 100 years, together with the excellent stratigraphic context of the destruction level, provide an unparalleled window onto the first half of the sixth century BC on the Anatolian Plateau.