Anatolia - Timeline of Anatolia
[Babylonia][Syria][Medes][Near East Index][Asia Index]Anatolia, the land of the rising sun is now the Asian section of Turkey. It is the peninsula known as Asia Minor and is part of the fertile crescent.
The Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods
From the 9th Millennium B.C.Rectangular timber and mudbrick houses on stone bases. Remnants of domesticated cereals, livestock, and copper artifacts. Ceramic Neolithic (ca. 6500 - 5500 B.C.) Tepecik, Kumartepe, Mersin, Tarsus, Hacilar IX–V, Can Hasan I, Erbaba I–II, and Catal Hüyük are the main sites from the period.
Chalcolithic Period (5500 - 3200 B.C.)
Can Hasan, Beycesultan, Mersin, and Tarsus are the main sites from the period. First fortified settlements. Traces of contact with Uruk.
The Bronze Age (3300 - 1200 B.C.)
Early Bronze Age (3200 - 1900 B.C.)Network of individual city-states. Fortified towns with palaces and temples. Economy based on trade and metal-working, espcially arsenical copper. Bronze and gold artifacts show contact with the Eurasia and Iran.The Middle Bronze Age (ca. 2000 - 1600 B.C.)
Tools made of tinned bronze. Some cuneiform records. Assyrian merchants from Mesopotamia peacefully set up trading colonies in central and eastern Anatolian cities.Late Bronze Age (c. 1600 B.C.)
Hittites unify Anatolia. Old Hittite Kingdom capital at Hattusas/Bogazkale. Hurrian religion grows in importance.c. 1560
Hattusilis I begina to expand Hittite kingdom into northwest Syria. c. 1600 Mursilis I defeats Babylon.c. 1525
Telepinus is kingc. 1460
Tudhaliyas II begins the Hittite Empire.c. 1380 - 1346
Suppiluliumas I reconquers much of central Anatolia and dominates Syria and the state of Mitanni in eastern Anatolia. Rivalry with Egypt for control of Syria and Palestine.
1315 - 1296 B.C.
Hittite king Muwattalis wins a battle between the Hittites and Ramses II at Kadeshon the Orontes River c. 1300 B.C.12th - 13th Centuries B.C.
Crisis and collapse of the Hittite Empire.c. 1289 - 1265
Hattusilis III. Ramses II and Hattusilis III make a peace treaty.c. 1200 B.C. - End of Bronze Age
Destruction of the Hittite power base at Hattusas: Invasion of the Sea Peoples. Fragmentation.
The Iron Age and the Classical Periods (1200 - 30 B.C.)
Neo-Hittite kingdoms set up at Carchemish, Zincirli, Malatya, and Karatepe. Hurrian descendants establish a kingdom of Urartu.9th - 8th Centuries B.C.
Phrygians create Phrygia, with its capital at Gordion; Lycians, Carians, and Mysians in western Anatolia.743 B.C.
Urartu (eastern Anatolia) defeated by Syrians.c. 700 B.C.
Cimmerians destroy Phrygia. Lydia (capital at Sardis) rises to prominence. Greeks re-occupy former Mycenaean settlements at Troy, Ephesos, and Miletos.612 B.C.
Fall of Assyria6th Century B.C.
Lydia becomes dominant.546 B.C.
Persians incorporate Anatolia into their empire.539 B.C.
Fall of Babylon494 B.C.
Persians crush Ionian Greek cities in western Anatolia.Mid-4th Century
Philip II of Macedonia and Alexander the Great destroy the Persian Empire. Following Alexander's death, Anatolia splits into the independent states of Bithynia, Cappadocia, Pergamum, and Pontus.1st Century B.C.
Roman Empire absorbs Anatolia. Out of Pergamum, the Romans form the province of Asia.
Sources:
- Mattanyah Zohar "Anatolia" The Oxford Companion to Archaeology. Brian M. Fagan, ed., Oxford University Press 1996. Oxford University Press.
- Discover Turkey
Other Timelines:
EAWC Chronology: The Near East
Annotated and hypertext linked timeline from 3450 B.C. to A.D. 66.
Hittites
Their empire extended from Mesopotamia to Syria and Palestine, dominating the area from 1600 to 1200 BC. Timeline shows Sumeria, Babylon, Persia, and Assyria.