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.

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.

Art and Iconography

2019 ◽  
pp. 348-369
Author(s):  
Eric Gubel
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Interaction ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Complex Patterns

Rooted in Late Bronze Age Levantine traditions, Phoenician art emerges in the early first millennium bce, spiced with new elements adopted and adapted from contemporary Egyptian models, while also permeable to influence from artistic trends popular with neighboring cultures and overseas recipients of Phoenician luxurious exports. During its acme between the late ninth and early seventh centuries bce, the art shared a common repertoire of motifs among sculptors, metalsmiths, ivory carvers, and seal cutters in a predominantly Egyptianizing style. Mass-produced terracotta plaques, figurines, and the minor arts displayed a more diversified array of autochthonous characteristics. In line with the evolution of sculpture, the Cypriot component was definitely replaced by Greek idioms from the later sixth century bce onward. If Punic art cannot possibly be defined as a mere perpetuation of the Phoenician production, and was impacted by more complex patterns of cultural interaction (e.g. North Africa, Iberia), the latter’s heritage is undeniable in many artistic media.

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.

The ceramics of centralisation and dissolution: a case study from Rough Cilicia

2007 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 141-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.N. Postgate
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Far East ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Control ◽  
The West ◽  
Administrative Practices ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
The Bronze Age

AbstractStarting from Kilise Tepe in the Göksu valley north of Silifke two phenomena in pre-Classical Anatolian ceramics are examined. One is the appearance at the end of the Bronze Age, or beginning of the Iron Age, of hand-made, often crude, wares decorated with red painted patterns. This is also attested in different forms at Boğazköy, and as far east as Tille on the Euphrates. In both cases it has been suggested that it may reflect the re-assertion of earlier traditions, and other instances of re-emergent ceramic styles are found at the end of the Bronze Age, both elsewhere in Anatolia and in Thessaly. The other phenomenon is the occurrence of ceramic repertoires which seem to coincide precisely with the frontiers of a polity. In Anatolia this is best recognised in the case of the later Hittite Empire. The salient characteristics of ‘Hittite’ shapes are standardised, from Boğazköy at the centre to Gordion in the west and Korucu Tepe in the east. This is often tacitly associated with Hittite political control, but how and why some kind of standardisation prevails has not often been addressed explicitly. Yet this is a recurring phenomenon, and in first millennium Anatolia similar standardised wares have been associated with both the Phrygian and the Urartian kingdoms. This paper suggests that we should associate it directly with the administrative practices of the regimes in question.

An Assemblage of Late Bronze Age Metalworking Debris from Dainton, Devon

1980 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 177-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Needham ◽  
R. J. Silvester ◽  
Hilary Howard
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Small Proportion ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Permanent Pasture ◽  
South West ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Agricultural Use ◽  
Field Systems

Excavated sites referable to the earlier first millennium B.C. are rare in the south-west peninsula. Although Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor exhibit well preserved Bronze Age landscapes, most of the upland settlements are attributed to the second millennium and there are few which on present evidence fall within the succeeding centuries (Silvester 1979). Beyond the granite moors, pottery from Kent's Cavern, Torquay and the Mount Batten peninsula, near Plymouth, suggest sporadic occupation, while radiocarbon dates from Killibury in Cornwall imply activity prior to the construction of the hillfort (Miles 1977, 111). Yet such is the imbalance of archaeological activity in the region that even in well worked areas such as west Cornwall, few sites of relevant date can be readily identified. In Devon, other than on Dartmoor and Exmoor, the limestone plateaux around Torbay provide the only surface evidence of open settlements. A small proportion of the modern fields and woods on the limestone preserve groups of clearance cairns and rubble banks of varying complexity; many of these are undoubtedly medieval in date, but in two locations at Dainton, also known as Miltor Mator Common (SX 859668), and Walls Hill, Torquay (SX 935651), there are the unobtrusive remains of rectangular field systems. The former consisted of a minimum of perhaps ten fields, averaging just over 0·4 ha. in area, and randomly spaced cairns, most of which are presumably contemporary (fig. 1). Part of Walls Hill is covered by dense ashwood scrub, a recurring feature of the limestone plateaux, but on the cliff top are the vestiges of nine fields which are generally of smaller size than those at Dainton. That these sites survive is fortuitous but perhaps not surprising; the soil on the plateau is well-drained but normally less than 0·3 m in depth (Clayden, 1971, 122). Loose rock occurs frequently and occasional outcrops add to the problems of agricultural use. Consequently the limestone hills tend to be given over to permanent pasture and are ploughed only rarely.

Late Bronze Age Writing-Boards and their Uses: textual evidence from Anatolia and Syria

1991 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 111-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorit Symington
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
The Subject

It has been known from textual sources for some time that besides clay tablets, the traditional writing material in the Ancient Near East, wooden writing-boards were also used by the scribes.M. San Nicolò first drew attention to the fact that writing-boards were widely employed in temple and palace administration in Mesopotamia in the first millennium B.C. and the textual evidence gathered by him was soon to be confirmed archaeologically by the discovery of several such writing-boards at Nimrud. Equally, the existence of wooden writing material in Hittite context has long been established, but no example has ever been found. It is generally thought that private and economic records which are almost totally lacking in the archives at Boǧazköy must have been written on perishable material.The elusive nature of wooden writing-boards manifests itself not only archaeologically by the unlikelihood of their survival but also by the fact that, as a rule, they deserved little mention in the cuneiform texts. Consequently, the quantity of wooden writing material that may have been in use and did not survive is impossible to gauge. Similarly, it would be unwarranted to deduce that centres whose archives have not contributed to the subject, were unfamiliar with writing on wood.

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