Past Civilizations

in Anatolia

TURK 101

ANATOLIA TIMELINE
The Prehistoric period
The Hittite civilization
Urartian
Phrygian
Lydian
Hellenistic
The Roman
Byzantine
Seljuk
Ottoman Empire
Turkish Republic

TURK 101

Anatolia has had settlers by different nations

since the beginning of history, so it is called
the cradle of civilizations.
It is estimated there are 40,000 archaeological
sites in Turkey.
Some of these sites date back to the paleolithic
age, which ended approximately 10,000 years
ago.

Nevali Cori, one such site, revealed that

humans were farming as early as 13,000 years
ago.
TURK 101

Neolithic Age
(10,000- 7500 Before Present)

Anatolia has the most comprehensive sites

for this age.
The neolithic settlers in Anatolia raised
sheep and goat, domesticated dogs, and
their buildings had sometimes two stories.
atalhyk is one of the neolithic
settlements.
TURK 101

A fresco from atalhyk, 7000 B.P.

TURK 101

Detail from another

fresco of a deer
hunt, depicting a
hunter wearing a
leopard skin.
Painted plaster from
atalhyk, 8000
B.P.

TURK 101

The neolithic settlers in

Anatolia had a Mother
Goddess cult.
Figurines of this
goddess, depicted as
woman who has given
birth, is all over
Anatolia.
atalhyk , 7,750 B. P.

TURK 101

Bronze Age
(4000-3200 B.P.)

At the beginning of this period Anatolians

learned how to make tools, ornaments and
ritual figurines from bronze, an alloy of
copper and tin.
They also used gold and electron, an alloy
of gold and silver.
Alacahyk is an important Bronze age site
in central Anatolia.
TURK 101

Troy
The famous epics of Homer, the Iliad and
Odyssea, narrate the siege of the beautiful city
of Troy and its aftermath.
Troy was actually a settlement in Anatolia.
Like many other sites, especially hyks, the
site of Troy was settled many times by different
people.
So the ruins of Troy, which dated to 5000 B.P.
were overlaid by another, which was five
centuries younger.
TURK 101

In 1870, a German businessman, Schliemann,

came to look for the treasures mentioned in the
epics.
He discovered the site, excavated it,and indeed
found a treasure.
Without letting the Ottoman authorities know, he
smuggled the treasure to Greece.
To do this, he melted some of the 4000 year old
golden artifacts.
The rest of the treasure was lost during World
War II.
TURK 101

10

Later, true archaeologists discovered that

Schliemann was mistaken about the age of
the treasure; it was not of Troy, but a
settlement-level 500 years younger.
The ruins of Troy, in anakkale , are still
excavated and are visited by many tourists
every year.

TURK 101

11

Hittites
Hittites were Indo-European people who came to
Anatolia 5000 B.P.
Modern linguists have recently found that their
language was closest to a 9000 year old language
called proto-Indo European, from which all
European languages sprang.
Hittites built a great civilization all over Anatolia.
They had diplomatic and commercial relations with
many other civilizations, especially ancient
Egyptians.
They are mentioned in the Old Testament.
TURK 101

12

Hattua, the Hittite capital

TURK 101

13

Bronze stag statuette,

Hittite artifact.
Alacahyk ,
fifth millennium B. P.

TURK 101

14

Bull statuette, bronze,

Alacahyk, fifth
millennium BP.
There is evidence from
other finds that statuettes
of bulls and stags were
cult objects representing
deities.
It is thought that the cults
associated with these
animals that formed an
important part of later
religious beliefs started in
Early Bronze Age .
This statuette must have
been carried as a standard
in religious processions.

TURK 101

15

Ceremonial
standard, bronze,
Alacahyk, fifth
millennium BP.
Such ritual
objects frequently
depict a sun disk
flanked by bull's
horns, although
they come in many
different designs.
TURK 101

16

TURK 101

17

An Assyrian cuneiform
tablet from 3800 BP.
In hundreds of similar
tablets and also
hieroglyphs, Hittites
left information about
their civilization and
records of their
transactions with other
civilizations.
TURK 101

18

URARTIANS
After the fall of the Hittite empire the new
kingdom was formed in Eastern Anatolia to
survive for 300 years.
Metal craftsmanship was very advanced in
Urartu and perhaps the greatest proof of this
was the fact that Urartian artifacts were
exported to many places.
TURK 101

19

Van region

TURK 101

20

This is how the

magnificent
bull headed
cauldrons of
the Urartu
came to be
found in Italy.

TURK 101

21

Phrygians
(3200-1400 BP)

Phrygians were other Indo-European people

who came to Anatolia 3200 years ago.
They founded, among other cities, Ankara, the
capital of Turkey.
They had been a sea-faring nation, Ancyra,
originally meant anchor- Phrygians named
the city metaphorically, after their wish to drop
anchor there.
TURK 101

22

Another city they founded was Gordion, there

was a sacred knot in a temple in this city.
It was a huge, complicated version of a sailors
knot. Phyrigians believed that the person who
undid the knot would bring disaster on their
city.
Around 300 B.C., Alexander the Great came to
Gordion. He could not undo it, so he simply cut
it. His army also destroyed the city. Hence the
idiom, cutting the knot of Gordion.
TURK 101

23

The burial chamber of Midas

The skeleton of
King Midas was
laid on a large
bench,
surrounded by
other benches full
of gifts for the
afterworld. King
Midas died when
he was around 60
years old and he
was 1.59m tall.

TURK 101

24

Midas who, according

to the legend, turned
everything he touched
to gold and also had
asinine ears, was
actually a Phrygian
king.
This statuette of Midas
was found in Gordion.
TURK 101

25

Phrygian toy in the form

of a lion and a bull,
Gordion, 2800 BP.

Bull relief, Ankara,

2700 BP.
TURK 101

26

The Phrygians also had

the mother goddess cult,
their name for her was
Cybele.
This statue of Cybele
dates to 2600 years ago.

TURK 101

27

Phrygian vessel, Gordion, 2800 BP.

TURK 101

28

The exact likes of this Phrygian bowl have been

produced for millennia by Turkish artisans.
TURK 101

29

Phrygian cauldron,
2800 BP.

Amphora

TURK 101

30

Lydians
The Lydians were the first civilization in the
world to mint coinage in the history of
mankind.
They made Gold, Silver and Electrum (a
mixture of gold and silver) coins at Sardis.

TURK 101

31

TURK 101

32

Greeks and Romans

the Hellenistic Period
Byzantines
The Aegean cost of Turkey was part of the
ancient Greek civilizations of Minos and
Mycene.
Ionia, Lydia, Doria were some of the
Anatolian civilizations of Hellenic origin that
flourished until the Roman conquest.
The ancient Greeks also gave Anatolia its
name, which means sunrise.
TURK 101

33

Side-note
The Turkish word Rum means Greekspeaking.
Rums are descendants of the Hellenic
people and still live in Anatolia, as a small
minority.
Most Rums, however, were exchanged with
the Turkish minority in Greece between
1928-1957.
TURK 101

34

On the other hand, the country that became

modern Greece was for a long time under
Ottoman rule. The present day Greeks do not
cherish the memory of this period.
Due to this and the Greek efforts to revive the
Hellenic dream of making Anatolia Greek
again, Turkey and Greece has had strained
diplomatic relations over the years.

TURK 101

35

The Roman Empire was divided into Greekspeaking and Latin speaking parts in A.D. 285.
In 330 A.D., Emperor Constantine, finalizing
the breech between the parts of the empire,
established a new capital for the Eastern
Roman Empire, or Byzantium.
The capital, named Constantinople after its
founder, was conquered in 1453 by Ottomans
and became also the capital of the Ottoman
Empire for 5 more centuries. Today it is known
as stanbul.
TURK 101

36

Mehmet the Conqueror had the Rumeli Castle

built in 1452 to facilitate the siege of stanbul.

TURK 101

37

Ephesus is one of the many cities in Anatolia which

were founded by Greeks and later became Roman
colonies.

TURK 101

38

It is recorded in the New Testament that St.

Paul came to and preached in Ephesus.
It is also believed that Ephesus is the place
where Virgin Mary spent the last years of
her life.

TURK 101

39

This statue in Ephesus

represents a mixture of
the mother goddess
Cybele and Artemis,
the main deity of the
city.
The temple of Artemis
in Ephesus was one of
the seven wonders of
the world.

TURK 101

40

Ephesus was once a

very lively port city.
It had many
courtesans, servants
of Aphrodite, who
wrote follow me
under their sandals
to attract customers.
This footprint at the
site of the ancient
port is accompanied
by the address of a
brothel.
TURK 101

41

Zeugma was another Greco-Roman city. It had a

twisted fate; after remaining safe for centuries
underground, this city was actually destroyed two
years ago. The mysterious woman in the mosaic is
supposed to represent Gaia, the Earth-goddess.

TURK 101

42

SELJUKS
(1071 to 1275)
The turks of the Oguz first converted to Islam
during 10th century, when they conquered Iran and
defeated the Gaznevidz. Tugrul Beys conquest of
Isfahan and Baghdad between 1050 and 1055
ensured their dominance in the Islamic world.
On his death, the title of Chieftain if the Seljuks
was assumed by his nephew Alpaslan, who was
responsible for defeating the Byzantine army at
the battle of Malazgirt in 1071. This marked the
beginning of the Turkish migration to Anatolia.
TURK 101

43

One of the many examples of beautiful

Seljuk architecture in Konya (right)
home of also the great mystic Sufi
Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi (1207-1273)
>>whirling dervishes

TURK 101

44

OTTOMAN EMPIRE
Transforming their small principality into a
global empire sprawling over three
continents, the Ottomans left an impressive
historical heritage that lasted 600 years.

TURK 101

45

16th century
Ottoman
Miniature

TURK 101

46