Prehistory of Anatolia

The earliest representations of culture in Anatolia can be found in several archaeological sites located in the central and eastern part of the region.

Although the origins of some of the earliest peoples are shrouded in mystery, the remnants of Bronze Age civilizations, such as Troy, the Hattians, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, and the Hittites, provide us with many examples of the daily lives of its citizens and their trade.

[4] Remains of a mesolithic culture in Anatolia can be found along the Mediterranean coast and also in Thrace and the western Black Sea area.

The Anatolian hypothesis, first developed by British archaeologist Colin Renfrew in 1987, proposes that the dispersal of Proto-Indo-Europeans originated in Neolithic Anatolia.

[contradictory] We have a good idea of the town layout at Çayönü, based on a central square with buildings constructed of stone and mud.

[6] Straddling the Neolithic and early Bronze Age, the Chalcolithic era (c. 5500–3000 BC) is defined by the first metal implements made with copper.

This age is represented in Anatolia by sites at Hacilar, Beycesultan, Canhasan, Mersin Yumuktepe, Elazig Tepecik, Malatya Degirmentepe, Norşuntepe, and Istanbul Fikirtepe.

Remnants of the Hattian civilization have been found both under the lower city of Hattusha and in the higher areas of Büyükkaya and Büyükkale,[8] Another settlement was established at Yarikkaya, about 2 km to the northeast.

The discovery of mineral deposits in this part of Anatolia allowed Anatolians to develop metallurgy, producing items such as the implements found in the royal graves at Alaca Höyük, about 25 km from Boğazköy, which it preceded, dating from 2400 to 2200 BC.

[10] The Anatolian middle Bronze Age influenced the early Minoan culture of Crete (3400 to 2200 BC) as evidenced by archaeological findings at Knossos.

[17] The Hattians came into contact with Assyrians traders from Assur in Mesopotamia such as at Kanesh (Nesha) near modern Kültepe who provided them with the tin needed to make bronze.

The Karums, or Assyrian trading colonies, persisted in Anatolia until Hammurabi conquered Assyria and it fell under Babylonian domination in 1756 BC.

Kizzuwatna in southern Anatolia controlled the region separating the Hittite Empire from Syria, thereby greatly affecting trade routes.

It was not until the reign of King Suppiluliumas (c. 1344–1322 BC) that Kizzuwatna was taken over fully, although the Hittites still preserved their cultural accomplishments in Kummanni (now Şar, Turkey) and Lazawantiya, north of Cilicia.

[19] The Mycenaean sphere of influence in Asia Minor is also relatively restricted geographically: Intense Mycenaean settlement is to be found in the archaeological records only for the region between the Peninsula of Halicarnassus in the south and Milet [Miletus] in the north (and in the islands off this coastline, between Rhodes in the south and Kos – possibly also Samos – in the north).

[22][23][24] Aeolis was an area of the north western Aegean coast, between Troad and Ionia, from the Hellespont to the Hermus River (Gediz), west of Mysia and Lydia.

Ionia was part of a group of settlements on the central Aegean coast bounded by Lydia to the east, and Caria to the south, known as the Ionian league.

Gyges waged war against the intruding Greeks, and soon faced by a grave problem as the Cimmerians began to pillage outlying cities within the kingdom.

Progressing deeper into Persia, Croesus was thoroughly defeated in the Battle of Thymbra at the hands of the Persian Cyrus II in 546 BC.

[25] Following Croesus' defeat, Lydia fell under the hegemony of Persia, Greece, Rome and Byzantium until finally being absorbed into the Turkish lands.

Caria managed to maintain a relative degree of independence during successive occupation, and its symbol, the double headed axe is seen as a mark of defiance and can be seen inscribed on many buildings.

Emerging at the end of the Bronze Age as a Neo-Hittite league of city states whose governance model still influences political systems today.

Possibly from the region of Thrace, the Phrygians eventually established their capital at Gordium (now Yassıhüyük) and an important religious center at Yazılıkaya.

Known as the Mushki to the Assyrians, the Phrygian people lacked central control in their style of government, and yet established an extensive network of roads.

The Assyrians thought of Mita as a dangerous foe, for Sargon II, their ruler at the time, was quite happy to negotiate a peace treaty in 709 BC.

This treaty had no effect on the advancing Cimmerians in the East, who streamed into Phrygia and led to the downfall and suicide of King Midas in 696 BC.

[27] After Midas's death, Phrygia lost its independence, becoming respectively a vassal state of its western neighbour, Lydia, Persia, Greece, Rome and Byzantium, disappearing in the Turkish era.

Assyria's Iron Age corresponds to the Middle Period (resurgence) and the Neo-Assyrian Empire in its last 300 years, and its territory centered on what is modern day Iraq.

However Assyria found its resources stretched to maintain the integrity of its vast empire and civil war again erupted following the death of Ashurbanipal.

The weakened Assyrian state was now faced by a new threat, a coalition of Iranian peoples to its east and north, including Medes, Persians, Scythians and the Anatolian Cimmerians, who attacked Assyria in 616 BC.