Turkey Guide On Line
Turkey Guide On Line
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Located in an old Ottoman bazaar, the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations houses one of greatest collections related to various civilizations emerged from Anatolian soil. Museum starts with Stone Age pieces discovered at the various caves and sites of Turkey. Axes, tools, represent Paleolithic or Stone Age, artifacts made of stone, silex and obsidian. This was a hunting and food-collecting period. People lived in the caves and they had no idea about agriculture. The best representative of Stone Age is certainly the great cave of Karain from Antalya Region. The Neolithic Age
People of Anatolia witnessed a real revolution in 7000 BC. First time, they started cultivating their land. They abandoned the caves and build houses with most usual planning. Some of the most striking things about Neolithic Age the start of agriculture, a real revaluation for hunting food collecting communities; the construction of houses which replaced the caves of Stone Age people, the domestication of animals, great use of volcanic glass, obsidian and silex for piercing and cutting tools. Catalhoyuk, best representative of Neolithic Age revealed amazing information about this period and the life of Neolithic men. Among the finds, the wall paintings depicting religious ceremonies; the statues of Mother Goddess of Anatolia, the most respected divinity of Anatolia; seals with designs that emphasize first time the idea of personal possession draw our attention. The pottery of Neolithic Age is simple and hand made. Calcolithic Age Hacilar, a famous site excavated by British archeologist David French, mainly represents this period, which took its name from copper and stone. Hacilar excavations reveled that Calcolithic Age people attained the great skill of making very fine pottery using very abstract patterns that are the proto types of Kim and rugs designs of to day. Early Bronze Age
As we can easily understand from its name, early Bronze Age people not only started using gold and other metals but also invented how to make bronze. In 1930’s, a group of Turkish Archaeologist discovered 13 Royal Tombs at Alacahoyuk, a renowned Hittite site. The artifacts brought to light overshadowed the famous treasury discovered by Schiliman at Troy. These objects in bronze and gold were the religious symbols used during the burial ceremonies and rituals and put into these 13 Royal Tombs. These symbols, depicting various sacred animals and sun discs, represented the divinities of Early Bronze Age. Each showing case represented the finds discovered in one of these Royal Tombs. Assyrian Colonies Period
At the end of Third Millennium Anatolia witnessed the arrival of Assyrian Merchants from Mesopotamia. These merchants brought luxurious items from Mesopotamia and took the gold, precious stones of Anatolia. They established trade centers called " Karum" at different part of Anatolia. Thanks to these merchants coming form Mesopotamia, the people of Anatolia first time witnessed the use of cuneiform writing that was used for trade agreement, marriage contracts, and dept contracts. HITTIES
At the end of Third Millennium, Anatolia witnessed the arrival of warlike tribes who mixed with the local populations and soon established small states. We see one of these states emerging as the first Hittites state under the leadership of Anitta who is considered as the first king of Hittites. After ruling at Kanis/kultepe, Anitta captured Hattusas, which became long lasting capital of Hittites. Hittites soon became one of he greatest powers of ancient world and rivaled with Mesopotamian and Egyptian Empires. Kades war, which took place between Hittites and Egyptians near, Biblical Antioch of Syria, ended with a peace treaty. According to this peace act, both countries would help each other during the time of danger. Hittites, who were mentioned as" a small tribe in the Bible" by the early scholars, are now known as one of the greatest civilizations of the ancient world. The knowledge about Hittites increased enormously thanks to efforts of many scalars who tried to solve the mystery of many rock carvings, open air shrines and temples in Anatolia and the decipher of their language by Check linguist Hrozny who deciphered the Hittite cuneiform using high German just proving that Hittite language was an Endo European Language. After the discovery of thousands of cuneiform tablets at great library at Hattusas, the scholars understood that they were dealing with a great empire. PHRIGIAN
The great Hittite Empire ended 12 century BC due to attacks of warlike tribes known as " sea tribes" who came from east Europe and after crossing the Bosphorus and Dardanelles put Anatolia into a Dark Age for 300 years. After this Dark Age, we see one of these tribes emerging from the darkness of the history and establishing a Kingdom that was known as Frigian Kingdom in the history of Anatolia. The capital city of their kingdom was Gordion, which is universally known because of the "Gordion Knot", tied by King Gordios and cut by Alexander the Great in 334 BC. The Phrygians, who ruled in Anatolia nearly 150 years, put their stamp influence on local civilizations. One of the legendary kings of Frigia was Midas who became so famous because of his Golden Touch. A monumental tomb known as "Midas' Tomb" was excavated by the scholars and revealed great number of burial presents. URARTIAN
The region of mount Ararat witnessed another great kingdom, Urantian Kingdom who ruled the region from 1000 BC to 700 BC. Urantian, indigenous people of Anatolia chose Tusba or present day Van as their capital city. The Assyrians coming from the south permanently menaced Uranrtians, who were masters of horse breeding and metal work. |
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