Definition: The Anatolia region is one of the cradles of urban civilization, and consists of the peninsula of Asia Minor, including Turkey. Anatolia is part of the Fertile Crescent, and the location of some of the earliest civilizations in the world. Early urban society begins in Anatolia in the 7th millennium BC, with Çatalhöyük, and the Anatolian kingdoms of Lydia, Lycia, Caria, Phrygian grew in importance beginning at the dawn of the first millennium BC.
Chronology and Important Sites of Anatolia
- Neolithic-Chalcolithic 5000-3000 BC (Çatalhöyük, Hacinebe Tepe)
- Bronze Age 3000-1000 (Hisarlik, Boghazkoy, Ephesus)
- Lydian/Phrygian/Lycian/Caria 1000-ca 547 BC (Sardis, Gordion, Kerkenes)
- Persian (Achaemenid) 547-334 BC (Sardis, Hacinebe Tepe, Kerkenes, Tas Kule)
- Seleucid (early Hellenistic) 334-213 BC (Sardis, Antioch on the Orontes)
- Middle-Late Hellenistic and Early Roman 213 BC-AD 17 (Sardis, Constantinople, Antioch on the Orontes)
- Roman Imperial and Late Antique AD 17-616 (Sardis, Constantinople, Ephesus)
- Byzantine AD 616-1300 (Byzantium, Constantinople, Bin Bir Kilisse, Ephesus, Hagia Sophia)
- Turkish AD 1300-present (Edirne, Constantinople)
Source
Hanfmann, George M.A. and William E. Mierse (eds) 1983. Sardis from Prehistoric to Roman Times: Results of the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis 1958-1975. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.
