Cultural contact in Late Bronze Age western Anatolia

2016 ◽  
pp. 331-348
Author(s):  
Mary R. Bachvarova
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Contact

Surface surveys in the northern Troad and the identification of Çiğlitepe as ancient Arisbe

2017 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 129-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurettin Arslan
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Sea Of Marmara ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Ancient City

AbstractThe region known as the Troad in western Anatolia is famed not only as the setting of Homer's Iliad but also for the Hellespont strait (modern Çanakkale Boğazı) linking the Sea of Marmara to the Aegean. In addition to large cities such as Sigeum, Abydus and Lampsacus, ancient writers also mention smaller cities located on the Hellespont. In this article, the location of the ancient city of Arisbe, presumed to have existed between Abydus and Lampsacus, is examined in the light of new archaeological data. Between 2002 and 2010, the author conducted surveys in the northern Troad. These surveys revealed an ancient settlement with archaeological material belonging to the Late Bronze Age, late Geometric, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods. The location of this settlement, the archaeological data and information from ancient literary sources all indicate that this site should be identified as Arisbe.

Tarkasnawa King of Mira ‘Tarkondemos’, Boǧazköy sealings and Karabel

1998 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Historical Geography ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Major Advance ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
South West ◽  
Historical Figure ◽  
Western Border

The historical geography of Anatolia in the period sourced by the Boǧazköy texts (Middle-Late Bronze Age) has proved an on-going problem since they first became available, and nowhere was this more acutely felt than in southern and western Anatolia, generally acknowledged as the site of the Arzawa lands, also probably the Lukka lands. A major advance has been registered since the mid-1980s, with the publication and interpretation of the Hieroglyphic inscription of Tudhaliya IV from Yalburt, and the Cuneiform treaty on the Bronze Tablet of the same king. These two documents have established that the later territory of Rough Cilicia constituted the Late Bronze Age kingdom of Tarhuntassa with its western border at Perge in Pamphylia, and that the Lukka lands did indeed occupy all of (or more than) classical Lycia in the south-west. These recognitions, by establishing the geography of the south and south-west, correspondingly reduced the areas of uncertainty in the west.In 1997 I was fortunately able to establish the reading of the Hieroglyphic inscription attached to the long-known Karabel relief, which lies inland from Izmir in a pass across the Tmolos range between Ephesos and Sardis. This can be shown to give the name of Tarkasnawa, King of Mira, and those of his father and grandfather, also kings of Mira but with names of uncertain reading. This is the same king known from his silver seal (referred to as ‘Tarkondemos' from an early and incorrect identification), and impressions of other seals of his have more recently been found at Boǧazköy. Clearly he was an important historical figure.

The Role of the Lukka People in Late Bronze Age Anatolia

Antichthon ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. R. Bryce
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Clear Picture ◽  
General Character ◽  
The Political ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Population Groups ◽  
Near Eastern

In a number of Near Eastern texts dating to the period of the Hittite New Kingdom, the term Lukka appears as a geographical and/or ethnic designation for one of the Late Bronze Age population groups of western Anatolia. Unfortunately we have no documents which deal primarily or specifically with the Lukka people; what we know of them rests essentially on incidental references in Hittite treaties, letters, prayers and historical records, along with several references in non-Hittite sources. Yet although the evidence is meagre, it still provides a relatively clear picture of the general character of the Lukka people and the role they played in the political and military affairs of Hittite Anatolia.

At the crossroads: prehistoric settlement in the Maeander valley

2007 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 87-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Geographic Context ◽  
Settlement Dynamics ◽  
Permanent Settlement ◽  
Over Time

AbstractThe Maeander river (modern Büyük Menderes Nehri) provides the longest natural route through the mountains of central western Anatolia to link the Aegean basin to inner Anatolia, and research suggests that permanent settlement within the river's catchment had begun at least tentatively by the Late Neolithic period. However, the limited amount of archaeological research in the region has restricted our understanding of the inhabitants' settlement histories and intra- and inter-regional cultural contacts during prehistory. This paper seeks to understand better the nature of settlement dynamics and cultural interactivity from the Neolithic period through to the Late Bronze Age in this region by reviewing the available literature within a broad geographic context encompassing western Anatolia and the Aegean, neighbours whose archaeological evaluations have largely been conducted in isolation from each other. The evidence suggests that these early communities interacted with each other and inter-regionally with fluctuating intensities during prehistory, with the interior remaining more traditionally Anatolian, while the lower, coastal area experienced increasing interaction with and influence from Aegean cultures over time. The lower valley also displays a relatively static number of prehistoric sites in contrast to the middle and upper regions, where more dynamic and largely parallel settlement histories are seen.

Travellers' tales and science-based archaeology: ex oriente lux revisited

Antiquity ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 89 (343) ◽  
pp. 219-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Bernard Knapp
Keyword(s):  
Copper Oxide ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Lead Isotope ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Contact ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
At Will

Ling and Stos-Gale (above, p. 206) end their study on a safe, if rather vague, note: “[w]e could, perhaps, consider the maritime-themed rock art depictions [of ships and copper oxide ingots] as records of travellers’ tales, where representations of reality mingle with myths, magic and sailors' stories”. Yes, perhaps we could, since at least two of the ingot depictions (Kville 156:1 at Torsbo, Norrköping) look strikingly similar—as the authors note—to the ‘pillow ingots’ (Kissenbarren) known from the Mediterranean world. Or, perhaps, we could remain more cautious before even broaching the idea of interconnectedness between Late Bronze Age Scandinavia and the eastern Mediterranean. Such a suggestion requires a lot more faith in the basic arguments of Kristiansen and Larsson (2005)—namely, that Europe and the Mediterranean formed a massive, open network through which warrior elites and others travelled at will—than I am able to muster. For Kristiansen and Larsson, cultural contact and cultural change ultimately still flow ex oriente—thus, they return whence Childe began. Yet whereas their work is an attempt at synthesis, not analysis, Ling and Stos-Gale have a stab at analysis, of the lead isotope variety. The question is how well they succeed.

The Late Bronze Age in the West and the Aegean

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor Bryce
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The West ◽  
Population Groups ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Second Millennium Bce

This article presents data on western Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age, wherein it was the homeland of a wide range of states and population groups. The most important and most powerful of these was a group of kingdoms that are attested in Hittite texts as the Arzawa Lands. Most scholars associate the development of these kingdoms with Luwian-speaking populations who had occupied large parts of Anatolia from (at least) the early second millennium BCE. The most enduring link between Anatolia's Late Bronze Age civilizations and their first-millennium-BCE successors is provided by the Lukka people, one of the Luwian-speaking population groups of southwestern Anatolia. They were almost certainly among the most important agents for the continuity and spread of Luwian culture in southern Anatolia throughout the first millennium BCE.

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