Phrygia And The Peoples Of Anatolia In The Iron Age

*Includes pictures *Includes ancient accounts of the Phrygian kingdom *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading Among all the early Iron Age people from the Near East, the Phrygians are perhaps one of the most misunderstood. They built a powerful and wealthy kingdom, but were overshadowed by their more powerful and wealthier neighbors, the Lydians. Although the Phrygians were literate, most of their surviving texts have been little use to modern historians who desire to reconstruct their chronology, so they are left to use often biased Classical and Assyrian sources. Problems concerning nomenclature have also clouded the modern understanding of Phrygia and the Phrygians; the Greeks would often refer to numerous non-Phrygian peoples as Phrygians, and while the Persians acknowledged the Phrygians as a distinct people, they only considered them so as part of a satrapy or province in the vast Achaemenid Persian Empire. Although there are numerous inherent problems concerning any modern study of ancient Phrygia and the Phrygians, there are still a number of sources that can help illuminate the many aspects of Phrygian culture. The majority of the sources utilized in this study come from the ancient Greek historians, but the Assyrians also wrote about the Phrygians in their annals. The classical and Assyrians sources are augmented with archaeological and numismatic evidence from Phrygia, and finally some of the Phrygian language inscriptions are also considered. The following study reveals that the Phrygians were much more than just their most famous king, Midas; they played an important role in the redevelopment of ancient Anatolia after the Bronze Age collapse and were at times a focal point in the battles between the Greeks and Persians. After the Sea Peoples raids of the late thirteenth and early twelfth centuries BCE ravaged the eastern Mediterranean region and brought down the Hittite Empire, the Phrygians were one of the peoples who picked up the pieces and helped bring civilization back to the region. In the course of the centuries during the early Iron Age, the Phrygians developed an important, wealthy, and vibrant culture that rivaled the Kingdom of Lydia, but eventually fell victim to larger empires to their east and west. Phrygia: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Phrygian Kingdom in Anatolia examines the amazing history and legacy of Phrygia. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Phrygians like never before.

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).

During the Late Bronze Age, from about 1500-1200 BCE, the Near East was a time and place where great kingdoms and empires vied for land and influence, playing high stakes diplomatic games, trading, and occasionally going to war with each other in the process. The Egyptians, Hittites, Babylonians, Assyrians, and several smaller Canaanite kingdoms were all part of this system, which was one of the first true "global" systems in world history and also one of the most materially prosperous eras in antiquity. Thus, the transition from the Bronze to the Iron Age during the late 13th and early 12th centuries BCE arguably changed the structure and course of world history more fundamentally than any period before or since, and at the center of this period of turmoil was a group of people known today as the Sea Peoples, the English translation of the name given to them by the Egyptians. Despite their prominent role in history, however, the Sea Peoples remain as mysterious as they were influential; while the Egyptians documented their presence and the wars against them, it has never been clear exactly where the Sea Peoples originated from, or what compelled them to invade various parts of the region with massive numbers. Whatever the reason, the Sea Peoples posed a threat to the people already living in the region. Among all the early Iron Age people from the Near East, the Phrygians are perhaps one of the most misunderstood. They built a powerful and wealthy kingdom, but were overshadowed by their more powerful and wealthier neighbors, the Lydians. Although the Phrygians were literate, most of their surviving texts have been little use to modern historians who desire to reconstruct their chronology, so they are left to use often biased Classical and Assyrian sources. Problems concerning nomenclature have also clouded the modern understanding of Phrygia and the Phrygians; the Greeks would often refer to numerous non-Phrygian peoples as Phrygians, and while the Persians acknowledged the Phrygians as a distinct people, they only considered them so as part of a satrapy or province in the vast Achaemenid Persian Empire. As the Phyrgians' history suggests, few could compare with the Lydians in terms of wealth and opulence. From the early 7th century BCE until the middle of the 6th century BCE, the Lydians played an important role in the history of the eastern Mediterranean region as they took on the role of middleman between the empires of the Near East and the emerging Hellenic civilization in Greece. From their capital in Sardis, the Lydian kings traded and made alliances and war with numerous kings, tyrants, and generals, which ultimately cemented their role as a brief but historically important people and kingdom in the ancient world. At one point in antiquity, the Achaemenid Persian Empire was the largest empire the world had ever seen, but aside from its role in the Greco-Persian Wars and its collapse at the hands of Alexander the Great, it has been mostly overlooked. When it has been studied, the historical sources have mostly been Greek, the very people the Persians sought to conquer. Needless to say, their versions were biased, and attitudes about the Persians were only exacerbated by Alexander the Great and his biographers, who maintained a fiery hatred toward Xerxes I of Persia due to his burning of Athens. The Macedonians targeted many of his building projects after their capture of Persepolis, and they pushed an even bleaker picture of the king, one of an idle, indolent, cowardly, and corrupt ruler. It was not until excavations in the region during the 20th century that many of the relics, reliefs, and clay tablets that offer so much information about Persian life could be studied for the first time. Through archaeological remains, ancient texts, and work by a new generation of historians, a picture can today be built of this remarkable civilization and their most famous leaders.