Phrygian Archaeology

The Phrygians, especially in the highlands of Phrygia, carved splendid monuments and chamber tombs. The tradition of carving rock-cut tombs in the area continued through Hellenistic, Roman Imperial and Late Antiquity periods. Especially in the Roman Imperial Period, in the highlands of Phrygia, many rock-cut tombs were carved and early engraved ones were renewed.
In this research, the aim is to identify the types of tombs by defining the rock-cut tombs, documentation studies upon them within the mentioned periods in the area. With ascertaination and classification of the tombs comparison to the similar examples especially in Anatolia, the position within the burial traditions and interactions to the similar ones, were studied.
Another fact aimed to stated in this research is that if the rock-cut tombs carry the influence of Phrygians rock monuments and chamber tombs .

The Phrygians, who are believed to have immigrated to Anatolia from Macedonia and Thrace in a few waves beginning at the end of the 2nd millennium BCE, became a Central Anatolian politic power in the 9th century BCE. The area in the Upper Sakarya Valley between Eskisehir, Afyonkarahisar, and Kütahya where the Phrygians held the most political and cultural influence is the Mountainous Phrygia Region known as “Little Phrygia” during the Classical Period. The area known as Mountainous Phrygia is home to rough terrain with a defensive advantage surrounded by large, fertile plains suitable for agriculture. The region’s southern and southeastern areas are home to elevated ridges separated by deep valleys. These valleys are surrounded by plateaus and low mountains comprised of easily-carved, volcanic tufa.
This area was continuous inhabited throughout the ages thanks to its abundance of wetlands and defensively strategic topography. In addition to its political and cultural importance, this is a region, with 24 currently known Phrygian fortress settlements dating to between the 8th century BCE and the first half of the 6th century BCE, in which interpreting the Phrygian’s defense system and strategies is possible.  With its fortress settlements nearly lined up one after another, this place is the Yazılıkaya/Midas Valley located south of Eskisehir within the borders of Mountainous Phrygia. In addition to the information gathered since the 19th century by researchers and travelers to the region, research carried out in the region has shown that this valley in Mountainous Phrygia is home to extensive numbers of Phrygian settlements and stone monuments built in honor of the mother goddess Matar.
The Midas Fortress is located 30 km south of Eskisehir’s Seyitgazi District, 13.5 km northwest of the Han District, and 75 km from Eskisehir itself. Positioned on top of the rockwork southwest of Yazılıkaya Village, the Yazılıkaya/Midas Fortress has been referred to as ‘Midas City’ by some researchers. The Phrygians built numerous cultic monuments consisting of facades, altars, and niches where they would worship the Mother Goddess Matar into the rockwork, hillsides, and anywhere with suitable rock composition. Cisterns, both small and monumental, water collection pools, and vaulted gateways are also present in this settlement. The area is surrounded by rock-cut tombs and residences dating to the Phrygian, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Periods. Adorned with cultic structures, this settlement appears to be a kind of regional sanctuary.
The only fortress settlement in the valley to have been excavated in definite intervals is the Yazılıkaya /Midas Fortress. In 1936, Director of the Istanbul French Archeology Institute, Art Historian and Architect A. Gabriel began the first excavations on behalf of the French Archeology Institute. In addition to a small amount of ceramic sherds dated to the Early Bronze Age, artifacts dating to the 2nd century BCE and the Phrygian, Hellenistic, and Roman Periods were discovered during the short-lived excavations of at the fortress. Whether considering the short-lived excavations carried out at the fortress or the artifacts recovered during newly performed surveys, the structural foundations belonging to the settlement and the stone monuments seen on site indicate that the Midas Fortress was a significant settlement during the Middle Phrygian Period.
Another reason for the high number of fortresses in the Yazılıkaya-Midas Valley is the presence of large scale monuments (façade, altar, and niches) carved into the tufa located in this valley. The Yazılıkaya-Midas Valley was an important settlement area for the Phrygian Civilization, the City at Yazılıkaya-Midas a religious metropolis. For this reason, the Phrygians constructed fortresses using the natural rockwork on the rocky hilltops above transit points in order to strengthen their defensive formation and protect their holy sanctuaries. The fortresses in the Yazılıkaya-Midas Valley are separated by an average distance of 1.5 km. The Kocabaş Fortress is located 2000m east of the Yazılıkaya-Midas Fortress. It’s rocky, tree-covered, makeshift construction gives the impression of a less than defensively strong fortress. However, when viewed from the east, the fortress’s steepening cliff-side reaches a height of 64m and appears quite formidable. This Fortress served as a preliminary patrol to the Pişmiş Fortress. It also constituted the mountainous region’s northern border. Pişmiş Fortress is found 1500m northeast of the Yazılıkaya Fortress. Described as a border patrol station located on the ‘King’s Road’, Pişmiş Fortress was an important fortress settlement thanks to its location. Akpara Fortress is located 1350m northeast, Gökgöz Fortress 470 m south, Kocabaş Fortress 950m southeast, and the Areyastis Monument 1250m west of Pişmiş Fortress.
These fortresses are scattered throughout the valley and not connected by any straight line. They were positioned far from one another due to the vast length and width of the valley, as well as the width of its passes, created by the steeply descending extensions of the Turkmen Mountain’s slopes reaching the valley’s southern side. The fortresses are extensive on the eastern side of the valley; that is to say, to the west of the Yazılıkaya-Midas Valley. Fortresses in Kümbet Valley must have been related to the Yazılıkaya-Midas Fortress because the southwestern entrance to the Yazılıkaya-Midas Valley is the eastern entrance to the Kümbet Valley.
Located on the edge of plateaus or at high, inaccessible points where they can control entrance and exit to the valleys, these fortresses are noteworthy for their proximity to the surrounding agricultural and forested land. Thanks to their strategic locations, they are all quick and easy to defend. Due to their positions overlooking the roads, nearby routes could be easily controlled from these fortresses.
Most of these fortresses sit atop high, independent hills. Additionally, they are positioned near agricultural areas and sources of water, facing in directions from which they can control their surroundings. The monuments found in Yazılıkaya-Midas Valley and Kümbet Valley to its southeast in particular indicate that these valleys were the Phrygians most important holy areas. For this reason, defensive fortresses were built making use of the valley’s topographic make up.
Keywords: Phrygians, Highlands of Phrygia, Phrygian Monuments (façade, altar, and niches), Yazılıkaya/Midas Fortress.

Editors: Taciser Tüfekçi Sivas-Hakan Sivas
Coordinators: Şennur Şentürk-Nihat Tekdemir

A large majority of the present population of Central Anatolian Region lives in rural areas. They live on agriculture and animal husbandry. The destiny of the large part of the population of the region has remained unchanged.  Central Anatolia with its wide agricultural fields is still the grain silo of the country. The geometric motifs particular to Phrygians on the Phrygian kilims called "tapetes" among the popular goods of the Ancient World, still live on Sivrihisar kilims. Today, as in the past, the angora wool of Central Anatolia is still very valuable.  This book brings readers the latest research into the remarkable  civilizaiton of the Phrygians, writen by world authorities in the field. To memory of Prof. Taciser Tüfekçi Sivas.

Several tales exist regarding the Sinaia lead tablets. The first known mention of them was when the 200 lead plates were discovered in the warehouse of the Bucharest Museum of Antiquities, Romania, in the 19th century. Of the 200 pieces originally in the collection of plates, only 35 are known to remain today, but there are some photos of some of the rest. When discovered they were ignored and considered to be forgeries because they appeared new, with no traces of corrosion. They were not considered valuable enough to be evacuated with the rest of the Romanian Treasure to Russia in 1916. However, some renewed interest in the plates among non-scholars has been shown more than a century later, following the publication of a report about them by engineer Dan Romalo in 2003. [citation needed] [Wikipedia.org] According to "an oral tradition, " the lead plates are in fact copies made at the Nail Factory of Sinaia in 1875 from the originals, which were allegedly made of gold, and they were kept for a while at the Sinaia Monastery. Allegedly, the gold was used either in the building of Peleş Castle, or the plates were part of the Romanian Treasure which was never returned by Russia after World War I. An analysis made at the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Bucharest confirmed that the composition of the The Sinaia lead plates – Understanding the lead tablets written in the Dacian / Thracian language.

This book provides an updated view of our knowledge about Phrygian, an Indo-European language attested to have been spoken in Anatolia between the 8th century BC and the Roman Imperial period. Although a linguistic and epigraphic approach is the core of the book, it covers all major topics of research on Phrygian: the historical and archaeological contexts in which the Phrygian texts were found, a comprehensive grammar with diachronic and comparative remarks, an overview of the linguistic contacts attested for Phrygian, a discussion about its position within the Indo-European language family, a complete lexicon and index of the Phrygian inscriptions, a study of the Phrygian glosses and a complete, critical catalogue of the Phrygian inscriptions with new readings and interpretations.

Simpson, E., ed. The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella. Leiden: Brill, 2018.

The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella, edited by Elizabeth Simpson, is a Festschrift celebrating the career of one of the foremost archaeologists of the ancient Near East. Oscar Muscarella is a former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a formidable scholar who has excavated at sites in Turkey, Iran, and the United States. He has published eight books and nearly 200 articles, excavation reports, and reviews on topics ranging from the arts of antiquity and the importance of connoisseurship, to the difficulties of dating and the problems of forgeries, the looting of ancient sites, and the antiquities trade. The forty-seven contributors are experts in the areas of Muscarella's interests and are major scholars in their fields. This volume constitutes an unusual, important, and timely addition to the archaeological and art historical literature.

Bu çalışmamda Hitit Devleti’nin yıkılmasıyla Anadolu’ya gelen Frigler ’in sanatı ve kültürleri hakkında ayrıntılı olarak değindim. Frigler Anadolu’ya gelmeleriyle kendileri ile birlikte kültürlerini de bu topraklara getirmişlerdi. Birçok ilkleri de beraberinde getiren Frigler, Anadolu’ya gelmeleriyle tarım ve hayvancılıkla uğraşmışlardır. Yaşam biçimleri inanışlarını da etkilemişti. Bereket Tanrıçası Kybele Frigler için çok önemliydi.  Frigler, Kimmer saldırı sonucu yıkılana kadar geniş bir yayılım göstermişlerdir. Bu uygarlık kayalardan anıtlar, mezarlar yaparak muazzam yeteneklerinin günümüzde de gözler önüne sermiştir. Frigler aynı zamanda kendinden sonra gelen Yunanlıları da sanatlarında etkilemişlerdir.  Frigler taklitçilikten ziyade yaptıkları eserlere hep kendi yorumlarını katmışlardır. Madeni çok iyi işlemişlerdir. Mobilyacılıkta da birçok ahşap eser meydana getiren Frigler hiç çivi kullanmadan masa ve sehpa yapmışlardır. Frigler şüphesiz ki tarihe adını eserleriyle yazdırmışlardır. İşte bu çalışmam da Friglerin sosyal ve kültürel yaşamamını ve sanatını anlatmaya çalıştım. Umarım faydalı olmuştur.

This study ancient Phrygian civilization, Is subject to ancient jewelry and motif. The subject focuses on the ancient Anatolian civilization Phrygian civilization. However, it affects the culture; West Anatolian, Mediterranean geography, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Hittite and Assyrian as briefly mentioned earlier ancient societies. The archaeological excavations were made as a result of the inspection on the Works of acient jewelry. The result of the review; ancient jewelery, jewelery with the user equipment and civilizations on the result of the review emerges ancient jewelry. These effects can be commercial. Civilizations living conditions vary. These differences are shaped by beliefs are shaped according to the needs. This study, decoration techniques used in ancient jewelry, jewelry motif and compositional characreristics were ecaluated on the various types of ancient anatolian jewelry and ancient civilization of Phrygia jewelry. Content of the motif findings and part of the result; Ancietn Anatolian and ancient Phrygia used in different kinds of jewelry, decorative techniques and motifs used in the jewelry features.

Ancient Phrygia and ancient Anatolian jewelry motifs resemble each other in the resulting outcome. Ancient Anatolian jewelery that term is used quite a lot in geometric, floral, symbolic motifs, Jewelry of Phrygia observed frequently used the geometric motifs and figurative motifs. Ancient Antolian and Phrygia ancietn women in thie geography observed in heavily used jewelry head, neck, wirst, chest decoration.

Creates instances of the research, the catalog is composed of Phrygia for jewelry. Photography of jewelry with type of drawing jewery, decoration techniques, motifs and contains information about the characteristics of the composition.

All the Macedonians are familiar with the ancient folktale of 'Silyan the Stork' (Mkd.Latin: Silyan Štrkot, Mkd.Cyrillic: Сиљан Штркот). It is one of the longest (25 pages) and unique Macedonian folktales. It was recorded in the 19th century, in vicinity of Prilep, Central Macedonia, a territory inhabited by the most direct Macedonian descendents of the ancient Bryges and Paionians. The notion of Bryges appear as from Erodot (Lat. Herodotus), who noted that the Bryges lived originally in Macedonia, and when they moved to Asia Minor they were called 'Phryges' (i.e. Phrygians).
Who was Silyan? The story goes: Silyan was banished to a faraway island and migrates from there like a stork to his homeland. He has a bottle of magic water around his neck that should turn him from a stork into a human, but the first time he breaks it… nevertheless, later he transforms successfully. Silyan’s parents are called 'Božin' and 'Božinitsa' (God's and Goddess's), and so on…

A case is made in recent books by Lascelles and Crowe that Homer’s Trojan War setting was not at Schleimann’s Hisarlik site of King Priam’s Ilium, but at Pergamon. We review their case, the places frequented by Homer as possible clues, and the Iliad’s revision as compiled and promoted by Athens and followed by Alexander the Great and the Romans. We then focus on numismatic evidence in the alternative regions of Northwest Anatolia (NWA) and Central West Anatolia (CWA). NWA includes the regions known as Troas, North Mysia, Hellespontic Thrace with nearby islands, and Bithynia. CWA regions include South Mysia with nearby islands, Aeolis, Ionia, Lydia, and Phrygia, as well as Cilician expatriate lands. We find that NWA coins are rich in early Iliadic mythology, indicating that Ilium was a Trojan War setting. However, we also find indications that the war was more extensive than commonly envisioned. It was led in CWA by King Telephus, who spearheaded an East versus West world war whose campaigns ended at Ilium.

""This book investigates the founding and building of cities in the ancient Near East. The creation of new cities was imagined as an ideological project or a divine intervention in the political narratives and mythologies of Near Eastern cultures, often masking the complex processes behind the social production of urban space. During the Early Iron Age (ca. 1200–850 BCE), Assyrian and Syro-Hittite rulers developed a highly performative official discourse that revolved around constructing cities, cultivating landscapes, building watercourses, erecting monuments, and initiating public festivals. This volume combs through archaeological, epigraphic, visual, architectural, and environmental evidence to tell the story of a region from the perspective of its spatial practices, landscape history, and architectural technologies. It argues that the cultural processes of the making of urban spaces shape collective memory and identity as well as sites of political performance and state spectacle.

Excerpt
http://www.cambridge.org/servlet/file/store6/item7256988/version1/9781107027947_excerpt.pdf""

The excavations carried out lately at Yassıhöyük/Gordion, Boğazköy/Büyükkaya, Kaman-Kalehöyük, Çadırhöyük, Porsuk and Liman Tepe and also the survey at Hydas and Hisarlık Tepesi/Troya VIIb2 and Tel-el Cüdeyde excavations of which findings were evaluated later, reveals clearly that the Hittite Empire vanished approx. in 1190 BC and it was the end of the Late Bronze Age and beginning of the Dark Age, that is the Early Iron Age (1190-850 BC). These settlements located in North-West, West, Central and Southern regions of Anatolia determine how the movements of people who were called Thracean-Phrygian migrations and the Sea People moved towards Anatolia, and brought to an end of the Late Bronze Age. Not fixing any center belonging to the Early Iron Age on the Black Sea coasts indicates that these movements of people were not by means of Northern Anatolia, that is the Black Sea.

Architecture of the Iron Age in the Central Black Sea Region shows different pecularities compared to the Land and Coastal zones. By the help of present data we have, the earliest samples of the Iron Age pottery in the Black Sea Region can be dated to the end of the Early Iron Age. During the Middle Iron Age important settlements in the Kızılırmak/Halys Bend are Boğazköy, Alaca Höyük, Hacı Bektaş Höyük (Suluca Karahöyük), KamanKalehöyük, Eskiyapar, Oluz Höyük, Alişar Höyük, Çadır Höyük and also in the south of the Kızılırmak/Halys, Kültepe, Sultanhanı, Yassıdağ, Topaklı and Porsuk.

The pottery possessed in these settlements, known as Alişar IV, are the painted potteries having composition of figures of deer styled in silhouette technique and a concentric circle motif and sometimes with geometrical motifs. It is observed that the styles of ceramics workshops in the Kızılırmak/Halys Bend and its south that had been producing monotonously since the Middle Iron Age had some changes since the Late Iron Age, especially due to their decorations. Instead of figures of deer in silhoutte, figures with a more natural view, using linear and reserve technique appeared. The figures of bird were more abundant in number and in view, and also figures of bull, donkey, roe, goat, lion, dog, fish and insect were used as the main elements in the compositions. Apart from this, various creatures such as bull with wings and sphinx, and also strange, unusual creatures that can not be identified appeared. The figures of human in a styled form which were few in the Middle Iron Age, started to be the most important thing in the Late Iron Age. Mother Goddess/Kubaba of Phrygians, who had been worshipped since the Neolithic Period, was depicted on the pottery during this period. We observe that the pottery workshops in the Kızılırmak/Halys Bend and also the ones in the south were influenced by the innovations and also the political events that occurred in the Late Iron Age and showed this on their productions. For instance, figures of horse and cavalrymen that appeared suddenly were most probably due to the Eurasian Horse-Riding Nomads. Besides, it is apparent that the figures of sphinx with crown and beard, depicted on the pottery had an influence of Western Iran that is Median-Achaemenid. Apart from the motifs and figures in the Late Iron Age, there were some notable changes in the paint decoration technique. The traditional colors of dark red, brown and black continued to be used in decoration; however, as an innovation, figures and compositions were started to be drawn in the frames with white and beige base. This frame technique was applied, after sometime, without using the white base. We acknowledge that the pottery workshops continued their productions in the Kızılırmak/Halys Bend, not only by keeping their traditional characteristics, but also reflecting the external influences during the period that is from the beginning of 5th Century BC to the middle of 4th Century BC, Hellenistic Period that is the Last Phase of the Late Iron Age.

As a result of archaeological survey carried out up to present, no settlement or camp site belonging to the Eurasian Horse-Riding Nomads in Anatolia, that is the Scythians and Cimmerians were determined. Besides, in the light of present data, it is under debate where the Scythians spread and in which regions they were. It is assumed that some tribes of Eurasian Horse-Riding Nomads who moved in to Anatolia through the Caucasia and destroyed Yassıhöyük/Gordion utterly in the end of the Middle Iron Age, then from Paphlagonia to the Central Black Sea Region and from there to the Eastern Black Sea Region.

Another culture that was effective in the Central Black Sea Region, was Achaemenids. Among the satrapies that were established in Anatolia by Achaemenids, we acknowledge that three satrapies comprise the Black Sea Region of today. The first satrapy to mention is Daskyleion that comprises NorthWest Anatolia, together with Paphlagonia and Mariandyns, land means western part of the Black Sea Region. The second satrapy named Katpatuka (Cappadocia) was ruling today’s Central Anatolia and probably the Central Black Sea Region. The third satrapy in the Eastern Black Sea Region was ruling the lands of Mushki, Tibarens, Macrons, Mossyniks, Marelis; the land between today’s Ordu and Trabzon provinces. The second satrapy named Katpatuka (Cappadocia) comprised the today’s Central Anatolia and the Central Black Sea Region; that is the central part of the coasts of northern Anatolia. As we acknowledge, apart from Phrygia, Paphlagonia and Kilikia were the tax regions (nomos) of Achaemenid King Darius the Great, Cappadocians are mentioned as ‘Syrian’, however Pontus is never mentioned, thus, this northern area was included in Cappadocia in 6th century BC. Cappadocia Satrapy most probably comprised the region of Anatolia from the Taurus Mountains reaching at the Black Sea. Cappadocia Satrapy was divided into two parts. The southern part was named as Major Cappadocia and the northern part as Minor Cappadocia or Pontic Cappadocia. We acknowledge that Gashka people who live seminomadic in the Cental Black Sea Region during the Iron Age, did not settle in permanently and also did not let any alien settle in the region. We observe that despite their powerful dominance, some settlements that appeared to be seen on the terrestrial of the Central Black Sea Region during the end of Early Iron Age and also acquired a character with its ceramics with painted decoration of Central Anatolia Iron Age, were dwelled in by the people whose place of origin was the Central Anatolia. We acknowledge that this policy of dwelling was effective completely in the Land and Coastal regions by degrees. In the light of all these evaluations, we can utter that the culture of the Central Black Sea Region during the Iron Age had the local pecularities of Central Anatolian Culture and was an extension to the north.

Through an analysis of the textual and archaeological material, this article presents a new, up-to-date overview of the history and mechanisms of Iron Age Anatolian overland interaction, a much-neglected subject. Among other points, the overview demonstrates the importance of Phrygia in this context, and that Lydia did not take over its international contacts completely. A case study of the transmission of the alphabet in light of the insights gained concludes the article. A new theory is proposed, according to which the Phrygian and Greek alphabets had a common origin in Cilicia, in the late ninth century BC.

PLEASE NOTE THERE ARE AMENDMENTS IN PUBLISHED VERSION. 

Starting from a reassessment of a monumental tomb, the historical importance of which has been overlooked due to its collapsed state, this paper shows how such monuments, including their artistic and architectural details, form essential data in modelling the history of places, and how attention to them can also expose gaps in research on landscape and economy that could make significant contributions to understanding the impact of the Achaemenid Persian Empire in ways not so far explored.

"In its day the collapsed, massive rock-cut tomb known as the Broken Lion Tomb, or Yılan Taş, located in the Köhnüş Valley north of Afyon, would have been one of the most impressive tomb monuments in Asia Minor.  Now lying in a pile of confused blocks that sheared off the edge of the cliff face into which it was carved, its original form is hard to imagine and its past glory and status not widely appreciated.  The style of its once rich relief sculptures suggests it was erected in the Achaemenid Persian Period, possibly in the first half or middle of the 5th century BC.  Contemporary occupation in the Phrygian Highlands is not well understood, but settlement remains seem modest, and although there may be some elements of continuity, overall the religious status of the area seems to change through the Persian period, the main locus of Matar worship shifting at some point to Pessinus further east.  This paper considers the appearance of the tomb and poses questions about its context, which can contribute to the history of the Phrygian Highlands and Achaemenid Empire more broadly."

The book is the first of two volumes presenting an extraordinary collection of Greek and related metal ware. The present pdf comprises the introduction and only a selection of 11 vases out of the 146 gold, silver and bronze vessels included in the original volume. These luxurious artifacts pertain mostly to the Greek and Achaemenid cultural domains and range from the 8th to the 1st centuries BC. The book has 356 pages lavishly illustrated with 110 drawings, 388 colour pictures and 111 b/w pictures. Besides the rich bibliography (more than 800 entries), it includes three indexes (personal names, place names, and general index), and three folding geographical maps in a pocket, showing more than 500 cities and sites mentioned in the text. More than half of the vases are published here for the first time, including a series of masterfully decorated Attic silverware.

This volume catalogs for the first time more than 600 bronze and iron objects in the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Each is illustrated and described and then discussed in terms of its formal and stylistic aspects, cultural background, function, and chronology. Bibliographic citations present comparative material relevant to each object. The book was awarded the James R. Wiseman Book Award by the Archaeological Institute of America in 1990. http://www.archaeological.org/oscarwhitemuscarella%E2%80%941990jamesrwisemanbookaward

This article discusses the extent and interactions of the Phrygian kingdom in the period of ca. 1000–650 BCE, i.e. from the emergence of monumental architecture in Gordion until the Lydian occupancy of the city. It argues that Phrygia initially just encompassed the wider area around the city of Gordion. By the ninth century, it additionally controlled the entire region of the Sangarios River Bend, and was in close contact with the Syro-Hittite states. Evidence for the presence of Phrygians or Phrygian cultural elements elsewhere starts to be found only in the eighth century. In the west, Phrygian territorial expansion reached the city of Daskyleion by the middle of the century. In the east, the region of the Halys River bend was conquered at the latest in the following decades. Then and afterwards, Phrygia was heavily involved in politics in Tabal and Tyana, while it was also in contact with Urartu. Further, in the late eighth and seventh centuries a certain level of prestige came to be attached to Phrygian culture, causing elites throughout Anatolia to look for ways to be associated with it. Thus, Phrygia developed into a state of supraregional political and cultural importance. By the mid or late seventh century, however, Gordion was conquered by the Lydians, spelling a definitive end to the Phrygian kingdom.

Simpson, E. “The Throne of King Midas.” In The Ancient Throne: The Mediterranean, Near East, and Beyond, from the 3rd Millennium BCE to the 14th Century CE. Edited by Liat Naeh and Dana B. Gilboa, 135-149. Proceedings of the Workshop held at the 10th ICAANE in Vienna, April 2016. Oriental and European Archaeology 14. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences, 2020.

This paper considers the emergence of various military guises in the tomb art of Western Anatolia as responses to the Persian Wars. It includes the convoy in the Tatarli Tomb, taken by others to be a funerary procession, as well other images of battle and warriors. The guises selected offer some insight into the cultural identities of the different communities of Western Anatolia during what is argued to be a formative period for politics, group identities and art.